Carolyn Thompson Reflects on City’s Past at Afternoon Tea

Few today can remember Everglades City’s height as a company town, when it was the county seat and headed by the Barron Collier and his family, but Carolyn Thompson can.

At 92 years old, she’s been able to see much of the community’s history with her own eyes, including its height before many of the buildings were demolished by Hurricane Donna in 1960. For one afternoon, she invited residents to travel back in time with her, during the first in a series of tea talks hosted by the Everglades Society for Historic Preservation.

Thompson is one of the city’s oldest residents who helped establish the long-standing local business Win-Car Inc Gift and Hardware, which she helped rebuild in its current location after the previous one burned down in 1987.

Thompson arrived in Everglades City after World War II, traveling south from North Carolina in a houseboat that took her family down the Atlantic coast and across Lake Okeechobee through the locks. During the trip across the lake, she fell overboard, and though she was rescued without incident, that was the first time they had seen an alligator since they’d arrived in Florida.

When her family finally settled in Everglades City, she described how the area used to be filled with houseboats much like their own. As the county seat, and supported by the patronage of the Collier family, the city also had many amenities that no longer exist today. Some of them included a three-bed hospital, a full bank, a library, a train station, a Greyhound bus stop, a multi-story office complex, and even a movie theater at the Everglades Club.

“Mr. Collier owned most all of the island, and he had a crew that kept everything perfect,” Thompson said. “The Colliers, they hired people, the medians were all just manicured, and everything was just so beautiful.”

She went on to talk about many of the preeminent guests who stayed at the Rod & Gun Club, including presidents Nixon, Eisenhower, and Truman. During that time, many visitors came to Everglades City from Miami Beach, wishing to boat and fish in the local area and experience its luxuries.

Thompson worked multiple jobs before she ran Win-Car, including as an attorney’s assistant and working at the bank building, where she’d interact with Mrs. Collier on occasion.

It was during this period that she said that everyone in the town looked after each other, with all the local mothers coming together to raise the neighborhood kids and help provide for them if their own parents were busy.

“It was just one big family,” Thompson said.

Hurricane Donna destroyed most of the facilities Thompson described, with more than half the city demolished by the hurricane and the resulting water damage. Thompson said she rode out the hurricane in a boat, with the storm surge so high it carried them over the mangroves and the wind threatening to rip the top of the vessel off. When the dust settled, the Collier family left the area in 1962, and the city’s identity shifted as the county seat moved to Naples.

“So between the hurricane and the flooding or the fires, it just never rebuilt,” Thompson said about the city. “Nothing rebuilt. We didn't have the dollars to help us put this back together.”

Many residents at the tea talk got emotional or were rapt with interest as they heard stories and reflected on the city’s storied past, all the while enjoying fruit, champagne, tea, and other snacks.

The ESHP plans to host more afternoon tea talks, with the next one scheduled for November 12 at 4 p.m. at the Rod & Gun Club. Their speaker will be famous conservationist and Gladesman Franklin Adams, who played a significant role in establishing the Big Cypress National Preserve.

Reservations are required and can be secured by calling ESHP at 239-719-0020.