Retta Esplanade Park

Bayshore Lodge

The Bayshore Lodge is captured in this mural at 1900 N. Tamiami Trail Office Building.  

It once stood on the harbor of Punta Gorda near where the PG Waterfront Hotel & Suites is

today.  The house was built in 1897 and was the largest and finest home in town and occupied what was known as the most beautiful location in all of Punta Gorda.  When staying at the Hotel Punta Gorda, he decided to make this his new home and worked out a deal with the City Council to build a home in Harvey Park (Harvey & Cross Streets) with the agreement that it would revert back to the city upon his death.  The house was completed in 1897, was 2 stories with large verandas and was said to have cost 
$10,000.  He brought his wife, Marion to live there in the winter of 1897.

Perry W. and Marion McAdow lived in a large home in Retta Esplanade.  Perry was a very wealthy gold miner who was confined to a wheelchair and he and his wife, Marian, retired to Punta Gorda.  Perry McAdow's business manager in most of his Florida businesses was Mr. Farrington.  His wife was best friend to Marion McAdow and after Sadie Farrington's husband died, she moved to a home closer to the McAdows to be closer to her friend.  The McAdow house is no longer standing.

Cross Street and Retta Esplanade

 

As one Charlotte Sun-Herald reported in 2000, " The grow up starting with the arrival of the Southern Florida Railway.  The first issue of the Punta Gorda Herald was published February 17, 1893.   The original building on Cross Street and Retta Esplanade located on the lower floor of a cigar factory, burned to the ground in 1895. The offices moved to Marion Avenue and Taylor Street.   In September 1901 The Punta Gorda Herald was purchased by Adrian Pettus Jordan. In 1913 Jordan built a new building on the corner of Taylor and Herald Court where he lived on the first floor and the composing rooms were on the second. The building was used until it was damaged by Hurricane Charley in 2004.  The Herald SUN is currently located on Harborview Road in Port Charlotte.