ENGLEWOOD — The community of Englewood may have had quite a different story if not for a series of unfortunate events in its early days.
Don Bayley, Lemon Bay Historical Society board member and vice president of the Englewood Museum, gave a presentation on all the “what-ifs” of Englewood’s beginnings this week at the Elsie Quirk Library as part of Lemon Bay Fest. The upstairs presentation room was filled with more than 60 attendees interested in the early history of Englewood.
More than 100 years ago, Englewood residents were pretty unhappy with their roads — or the lack thereof.
“Horseless carriages were being replaced by Model Ts, and more and more folks owned cars, but the roads were atrocious,” Bayley said. “The roads were still pretty much muddy ruts.”
Back in the early 1900s a Model T cost around $850, which was a large sum of money for the average worker. It was no wonder why people were frustrated by the lack of proper roads for their automobiles.
“These roads caused a lot of problems for automobiles, like flat tires,” Bayley said.