So far, we’ve covered the history of The News-Press and the formation of Lee County in this space. This week, the storied history of the Lee County Courthouse, courtesy of excerpts from an article by Cynthia A. Williams in the November 2015 The News-Press celebrating the 100-year anniversary:
In 1915, the citizens of Fort Myers must have taken a large measure of pride in the modernization of Fort Myers with the completion, in that year alone, of McGregor Boulevard and the stately Lee County Courthouse.
But beneath the veneer of modernization and civic pride smoldered old animosities.
Lee County was created by act of the state legislature in 1887. Early in 1888, a general election gave the county seat to Fort Myers. And that’s when the trouble began.
Exhilarated by visions of a glorious future for Fort Myers and Lee County, the new county commissioners — in particular, William (Bill) H. Towles — immediately began working up support for construction of a very grand, three-story, concrete courthouse. Only the permanency of concrete would do justice, so to speak, to the seat of a county that covered very nearly the whole of Southwest Florida.