Two Historic Estero Structures Getting Closer to New Home

By Elizabeth Wright
NaplesNews.com
April 13, 2007

For two old buildings, it soon will be time for a two-mile trip from Highlands Avenue to Estero’s new park.

For the past several years — ever since Charles Dauray, the chairman of the College of Life Foundation, donated the old buildings to the Estero Historical Society — the society’s members have been hoping to move the two buildings to the park and open them to the public as a museum.

But until last week, the Estero Historical Society didn’t have enough money to think about moving the buildings any time soon.

The Old Estero Schoolhouse and the Collier House, two buildings that are both about 100 years old, now sit on land at the south end of Highlands Avenue in Estero.

They’ve been through storms and, most recently, a brush with termites, but they can’t stay on their current site at the south end of Highlands Avenue forever.

The College of Life Foundation has sold the land to the D’Jamoos Group, and the land is part of the 85- acres the Naples-based developers are asking to rezone to build a mixed-use development of homes, offices and shops.

At one point, Dauray had told the society he would pay for the cost of moving the buildings. But until last week, when he gave the group a check for $100,000, the society had only a small amount set aside in its building fund from fundraisers such as selling cookbooks and raffle tickets.

The money from Dauray should be enough to move the two structures, said Dave Pryal, the society’s treasurer.

They’ve called a firm that specializes in hauling old structures and are just waiting to hear back on an estimate. The move could happen as soon as this summer, he said.

A site at the Estero Community Park, a Lee County park, has been set aside for the buildings.

Having a place to serve as group’s permanent headquarters would be an improvement, said one of the group’s members, Betty Shandor. The society now gathers in clubhouses, homes and meeting rooms around Estero.

“It will be nice to have everything together in one place,” she said.

The buildings represent Old Estero, a community with a history separate from that of the Koreshans, the religious utopian group that also settled in Estero.

The schoolhouse, for example, was used to teach only Estero’s non-Koreshan children in the early 1900s.

Before the schoolhouse or the Collier House could open as a museum documenting the area’s past, though, both buildings will need extensive renovations. Simply paying for the guidance of an architect who specializes in preserving old homes will cost about $49,000, Pryal said.

As for the renovations, a $30,000 historic preservation grant from Lee County — one the society heard at the end of March they’d likely receive — will help, but the society will still need to come up with about $20,000, at least.

“We’re still going to need donations from the community,” Pryal said.

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The Estero Historical Society’s last formal meeting of the season will be at 2 p.m. today in the meeting room at Estero Community Park, 9200 Corkscrew Palms Boulevard, Estero.

© 2007 Naples Daily News and NDN Productions. Published in Naples, Florida, USA by the E.W. Scripps Co.