Hurricane Donna and the Day the County Seat Moved
Near Naples, Florida
On September tenth, nineteen sixty, Hurricane Donna came ashore near Naples as a major hurricane, driving winds well over one hundred miles per hour across the Gulf coast and pushing storm surge over the low-lying communities of Collier County. The Naples Pier collapsed. Surge water entered homes and businesses throughout the coastal town.
The damage to Naples, though severe, was ultimately survivable and repairable. Forty miles south, Everglades City, which had served as the Collier County seat since the county's creation in nineteen twenty-three, was not so fortunate. The storm destroyed about half of the town and flooded the courthouse.
Voters had already chosen in nineteen fifty-nine to move the county seat to East Naples, and the flooded courthouse made the case plain. The move took effect in nineteen sixty-two, consolidating the county's civic center near the town that Barron Collier and his successors had built up over decades. Two philanthropists, Lester and Dellora Norris, donated nearly one hundred thirty thousand dollars to fund the rebuilding of the Naples Pier, which was restored to its present form.
The hurricane, paradoxically, accelerated Naples's civic ascent by cementing its role as the dominant community in Collier County and ensuring that the investment and development of future decades would flow through Naples rather than the more exposed communities to the south.
