Bonita Shores and Little Hickory Shores was developed in 1953 by Forrest Walker. The north Collier County subdivision just south of Bonita Beach Road encompasses 1st Street to 9th Street and from Vanderbilt Drive to Hickory Bay. The developers dug canals and used the fill to make the property higher. It has some of the highest land west of US 41.
Back then, it was considered out in the wilderness, and far away from the then-county seat, Everglades City. While the community is in Collier County, it was given a Bonita Springs address because the closest Collier County post office was down by the zoo and the one in Lee County Bonita Springs was much closer. Bonita Shores did not consider itself part of the original Bonita Springs. What is now Vanderbilt Drive was known as East Avenue, and ended at 9th Street in Bonita Shores. To reach the Shores subdivision, one traveled Old US 41, turned west on Bonita Beach Road at the dog track, and drove the four miles to our location. The causeway to Ft Myers Beach was not built until the mid-1960’s. Because of its remote location at the time, residents formed the association to make sure deed restrictions were enforced and other amenities were provided.
The club, officially named Bonita Shores & Little Hickory Shores Improvement Association, Inc., began in 1956, three years after construction began in the community. It incorporated as a non-profit in April of 1960. The property that the Bonita Shores Club sits on was deeded to the association and the clubhouse construction was completed in the same year, just in time for Hurricane Donna. What is today a storage garage was a fire station back in 1967, with one fire truck. The responsibility for fire control and the property the garage sits on today was transferred to the fire district that same year. The “fire house” was returned to the association by the fire district in 1992.
The clubhouse began as a single room structure. An addition was added to the west side of the building in 1980. In October of 1982, a large 24′ x 24′ addition was added to the north side of the building. In 1983, the three rooms were named Collier, Hickory and Bonita.
In the last fifty years, the Bonita Shores Club has hosted many happy gatherings: Easter egg hunts, wedding receptions, anniversary parties, community pot-luck dinners, art fairs, yard sales, exercise classes, tax seminars, bridge games, and Monday night bingo games. It continues to be a hub of community involvement, and source of pride for our community. In the early days the association focused on community improvement, such as paving the neighborhood’s roads, water and sewer improvements, and creating a neighborhood feeling.
As Bonita Shores passed the half-century mark, life in the neighborhood changed. The shuffle board courts became cracked and unused and were replaced with a garden and patio. As more families moved in, the community added a basketball hoop, pet parade and holiday parties with Santa. Over the years, Bonita Shores has been transformed from a sleepy retirement community to one of the best non-gated residential communities in the Bonita Springs area. The infusion of younger families who get involved in our community assures that the Bonita Shores Club will see a 100th birthday one day.
Fun Facts:
- Forest Walker, the developer of Bonita Shores and Little Hickory Shores, was the first white child born into the pioneer community of Bonita Springs. He was born in a log home on Oak Creek in 1897.
- The Bonita Shores clubhouse used to be a polling place for local, state and national elections.
- The Bonita Shores Association donates annually to multiple Bonita Springs charities, and provides college scholarships for Bonita Shores high school seniors.
- The first house was built in this neighborhood in 1956.
- The original design of the subdivision was to have homes along West Avenue face west with a clear view of Hickory Bay.
- The canals west of West Avenue are man-made, dredged in the 1950’s.
- The long “dog leg” on 3rd Street that extends out into Hickory Bay today was man-made from fill dredged from the canals.
- The Bonita Shores Association Board is composed of all volunteer officers and members.