The city of Naples was founded in 1886 by former Confederate general and Kentucky U.S. Senator John Stuart Williams and his partner, Louisville businessman Walter N. Haldeman, the publisher of the Louisville Courier-Journal.
Throughout the 1870s and 1880s, magazines and newspapers ran stories about the area’s mild climate and abundant fish, and likened it to the sunny Italian peninsula. The name Naples caught on when promoters described the bay as “surpassing the bay in Naples, Italy”.
1860 – 1880
Once, the only people to stroll Naples' seven miles of white, sandy beaches were the Caloosa Indians. The first settlers, Roger Gordon and Joe Wiggins, arrived in Naples in the late 1860s. A river and two inlets still bear their names.
1880 – 1900
During U.S. surveys of Southwest Florida, a senator from Louisville, General John S. Williams, recruited Walter Haldeman, the owner of the Louisville Courier-Journal newspaper. Together they founded the Naples Town Improvement Company in the autumn of 1886 to establish a town named Naples, reminiscent of the Italian peninsula, and develop it as a winter retreat. The company purchased 3,712 acres between the Gulf of Mexico and what is now known as Naples Bay for $11,136.
1900 – 1920
Ed Crayton, a successful land developer from St. Petersburg, came to town in the early 1900s. There he met Walter Haldeman's son's secretary and they were shortly married. At the same time, Mr. Crayton bought all of Haldeman's property except for his home. Thus a new chapter in Naples history began. Mr. Crayton developed Naples until his death in 1938.
1920 – 1940
Collier County's creation in 1923 and its early economic growth were closely tied to Memphis-born millionaire Barron Gift Collier. With his fortune from streetcar advertising, Collier introduced paved roads, electric power, telegraphs and countless new businesses and homeowners to Florida's last frontier. The completion of the Tamiami Trail in 1928 also unlocked the region's enormous agricultural and resort potential.
1940 – 1960
World War II introduced hundreds of aircraft servicemen to Naples and Collier County when the U.S. Army Air Field, now Naples Airport, was activated in 1943 to train combat pilots. At one point several hundred men and 53 aircraft were assigned to the Naples base. Many veterans returned after the war as prospective home buyers and businessmen. A direct hit by Hurricane Donna in 1960 stimulated Naples' growth with an infusion of insurance money.
