The Original 1962 Cape Coral Yacht Club – gone but not easily forgotten

Then on September 28th 2022, Hurricane Ian, one of Florida’s most powerful hurricanes and the costliest to ever impact our state- changed its future for good.

Hurricane Ian’s destructive force was felt far beyond just the Cape Coral Yacht Club. In order to put its fate into the proper perspective we have to keep in mind that Southwest Florida was hit extremely hard. If fact, just in Lee County alone over 50,000 buildings were damaged with over 5,000 destroyed. The barrier Islands were decimated with the financial and emotional losses still felt to this day. And even more profoundly, the loss of life was second only to the 1935 Labor Day Hurricane.

But through all of that pain and destruction, the calls to preserve the yacht club to its original state began almost immediately. Back in 2018, a 60-million-dollar expansion of the city’s parks and recreations was approved by voters, with a portion of those funds earmarked for the update and remodeling of the yacht club. Then after Ian, that project was delayed and city officials moved strongly in the direction of replacement, even though it did appear that the buildings had survived the storm and could still be saved.

But it was not meant to be.

Despite the passionate opposition voices from longtime residents and past city officials, they were unable to change the city’s direction. And in May of this year, Cape Coral’s original waterfront landmark that opened to the public in 1962 was demolished.

All that remains today is the empty field where the new Key West style two-story building and resort size swimming pool will be built, and the closed off entry to the pier where you can look out and view what’s left of it thanks to the power of the storm.

The remainder of this article is written in recognition of so many others – two of which are our parents, Mary Ann & Rocco Yapello. It is also dedicated to all of the local residents and community leaders who fought so passionately to preserve the yacht club, and finally for all of the residents and visitors who have passed through the original buildings and have enjoyed all of its amenities and community gatherings over the past 60 years.

Our parents were married on February 23rd of 1963 in their hometowns of Erie, Pa. They planned their honeymoon in Fort Myers, Cape Coral, and Miami. They stayed at the old Nautilus inn. At the time, the population of Cape Coral was about 2,800 and the city had yet to be incorporated. The Cape Coral Bridge was being constructed and would not open until the following year.

The Gulf American Land Corporation flew them over the Cape, and they ended up purchasing two lots. It had been reported that over 40,000 others did the very same thing in 1963 alone.

Dad took several photos of mom at the yacht club – in front of the entrance to the pier, in front of the fountain, and on a huge rock near the entrance. They were both photographed sitting on the stonework fireplace inside the ballroom by another visitor eager to take the newlyweds photo of them together.

It would be nearly 25 years later that they would finally make the permanent move to Cape Coral.

“There’s going to be a new day. The sun’s going to shine again down at the Cape Coral Yacht Club.”

They made their home in the Cape for the next 27 years – frequently visiting and enjoying those special places at the yacht club. They loved their time together in Cape Coral spent with family, and the fond memories of the yacht club where it all began. They both were amazed of how Cape Coral had grown and transformed. After mom passed away in 2015, dad made the hard decision to move back to Erie, Pa. All that’s left now from their yacht club memories of the past are the preserved photos that they shared together in that special place so many years ago.

That’s all we have left of the original yacht club to remember it by as well. Since the demolition, in some ways it has become more historic than before.

Several months after Hurricane Ian devastated our area, dad came down for a visit and we spent some time at the yacht club. It was a bitter-sweet time for him to see it in that condition, made even harder without his cherished wife Mary Ann by his side. But he made the most of it, remaining positive and looking forward to the next chapter for the area. I took a few photos of him sitting on one of the rocks he remembered that my mom sat on. He sat in the huge wooden chair blocking the entrance to the destroyed pier where he photographed mom standing. We both peered into the ballroom and could see the stonework from the huge fireplace in the entrance where they had once both sat.

In May of this year I went down and watched as they razed the Tony Rotino center and main ballroom. Others were looking on as well. And even though the buildings themselves did have historical significance for the city, it felt as though the demolition was akin to taking a wrecking ball to your memory bank. That seemed to hurt even more. Our children learned to swim there, we attended weddings and parties over the years in those spaces, we fished off the pier and even launched our boat into the river. We spent more time with more people at the yacht club then we ever realized. I just kept reminding myself that it’s not gone forever, and that something new and something more spectacular is just replacing it.

After watching for a while, I had enough. I went back to the car and reflected on what was yet to come. I thought about what it would feel like to walk around the newly constructed yacht club, more interested in seeing how the developers plan on incorporating some of the features of the old ballroom into the new construction. How they will manage to take those famous wooden beams that resembled the inside of a yacht, and some of the old stone work, and make it fit. How they will honor its past is yet to be seen, but for so many of us, it has become the most important aspect of the new construction.

Surely it will be spectacular, and we will all marvel at its beauty and architecture. Some of us will like it, some may not. For those of us with a strong connection to the past, our thoughts and emotions will automatically be transported back in time to the people and events that made those memories special. For others, they will just go forward as though nothing had happened at all. That’s ok too, as we’re all depending on them to create new memories and keep the history of Cape Coral alive.

I am already thinking about what I will do when it opens, and what the new yacht club will mean to me.

When that day comes, I’m going to walk out onto the farthest end of the new & improved pier on a clear beautiful day. Raise my head up toward the bright shining sun, close my eyes– and think about my parents who were here as a newly married young couple some 64 years ago – thanking God for the fact that I wouldn’t be standing in this place without them. Wouldn’t have the family I have today, wouldn’t have the memories made over all of these years.

It will also be satisfying to know that the new yacht club will once again be a positive force for those choosing the Cape to buy or build their new home, to start a new business, or start a family.

And with it a new generation of Cape Coral residents and visitors that will hopefully feel the same pride in our city –with the same hopes and dreams for the future – as my parents did back in 1963, and as countless others have done ever since.

There’s going to be a new day. The sun’s going to shine again down at the Cape Coral Yacht Club. It’s going to be different. In a different way, and in a different time, it will once again be that special gem situated on the Southernmost tip of what used to be called Red Fish Point.

I can envision it now. A newly married couple who just celebrated their wedding reception there in the new ballroom, will have photos taken of their special day outside on the second- story balcony with family and close friends gathered together. Their view overlooking the massive resort style pool, stretching out past the newly constructed pier, out into the Caloosahatchee and beyond.

Just like all of those who came before them that shared those same spaces, their plans for the future will be even bigger and more spectacular than the view in front of them.

And that’s how we’ll ultimately preserve the memory and history of the Cape Coral Yacht Club.

–

By Joe Yapello – Sun Publisher

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