Dive Shop Building Likely Pre-Great Depression

One of the oldest structures in Old Marco, the Dive Shop building, as it’s been known since 1998, will likely soon meet the wrecking ball. In its place? Parking - the desperately needed commodity on the island and particularly in Old Marco.

On the heels of the recent demolition of the waterfront Port Marco manufactured home community (formerly the Doxsee Trailer Park), Old Marco will suddenly not look so old with the Dive Shop building gone.

The news of the demise of the historic cottage cannot be described as surprising. Indeed, the historic cottage - and most importantly the land it sits on - were purchased with plans to add parking for the landmark Snook Inn restaurant in 1998 by the Passini family. Current Snook Inn owners, the Carvelli Restaurant Group, notified Dive Shop owners Jeff and Jessi Dawson of their plans when they purchased the Snook Inn in 2017. Jessi Dawson told the Costal Breeze News (CBN) that the Carvelli Group have been “great landlords" (A New Beginning Awaits, March 27-April 2, 2025).

Parking issues in Old Marco date back to the early 1980s when the Snook Inn’s celebrity on the island was skyrocketing. Patrons parked on the side of the road and utilized the nearby Port of Marco Shopping Village. Parking in Old Marco has been a hot button issue ever since.

Old Marco was one of two townsites on Marco Island during the pioneer era, simply referred to as Marco. The other townsite, located on the south end of the island, was named Caxambas. Both townsites had thriving clam factories as early as 1911: the Doxsee Clam Factory in Old Marco and the Burnham Clam Factory in Caxambas.

The age of the Dive Shop building is a mystery. Faye Brown, who grew up in the Marco townsite in the 1940s and early 1950s, provided CBN with two vintage black-and-white photos taken at the site. Brown knows the photos are older than she is, but she’s not sure just how old.

“The pictures are from the Mickey Doxsee collection,” Brown said from her home in Georgia, “with permission from Nancy Naftal (Doxsee’s cousin).”  Brown also provided CBN with a copy of a 1929 deed for two lots purchased just a couple of lots down from the Dive Shop building. Brown has vivid memories of the building and the neighboring buildings.

"The deed was of the place a few doors down from the Dive Shop place,” Brown said. "My grandpa, Dave Weeks, bought two lots and a house on the corner of Palm St. and Lee St. in 1929. Lee St. was changed to Bald Eagle Dr. when the state made a paved road right through the old Indian mound that, at the time, had been bought by individual owners from the San Marco Corporation. Those houses were built on the east side of the road's right-of-way. When I was growing up at Marco in the 40s and early 50s, I can remember six houses along that strip. Caroline and Dewey Robinson's house was also there before I was born. Robert and Gwendolyn Howard Bowers had their house moved from the corner, next door to her mother, Annie Howard. There was a narrow shell road between the Howard house and the Dive Shop house that Dottie Doxsee and Earl Cameron lived in. They had bought it from Dottie's brother, Harvey Doxsee, and his wife Winnie Eubanks Doxsee.”

Brown has some rather gruesome memories from when Bald Eagle Drive was built.

"When the hill was being cut through to make the state road,” Brown said, "I can remember standing in front of those houses and watching adult men running down into the hole and picking human leg and jaw bones out of the sides of the shell and black dirt mound. I was told several years later that some of the guests from the Doxsee Trailer Park had gathered bones and beads from that hole.”

The age of the Dive Shop building and its five neighboring buildings is uncertain, but Brown feels they were likely built a few years before the Great Depression, which lasted from 1929 to 1939.

"W. D. Collier gave Harvey ‘Stud’ Doxsee that five acres to build the clam factory,” Brown said. "That row of houses were all occupied by members of the Doxsee family. The old man, Harvey ‘Stud’ Doxsee, may have had San Marco Corporation build those houses for his family."

 The Old Collier House was across the street from the Dive Shop building. A significant event in Brown’s future occurred in that house.

"My mom was born in the Collier's house that was across the road from the Dive Shop house,” Brown said. “Mama always called it the Old Collier House. She knew that her parents paid rent to Capt. Jack Collier, brother of W.D. ‘Capt. Bill’ Collier. Harvey Doxsee was living there when my mom was born in 1921. It was Capt. Jack’s mother-in-law who delivered my mom. Jack Collier was married to my grandpa's niece. My mom, Virgie Weeks (Dickerson), was eight years old when her parents purchased the house across the street. Grandpa Dave's first cousin, John Weeks, also known as ‘Shorty,’ had been renting the house while he ran the mail boat before moving to Naples. My grandparents sold their house on the corner in 1944 to Ralph and Louella Doxsee. It was later owned by their daughter, Nancy, and Teddy Naftal. The Doxsee house was next door. Grits and Elva Griffis bought it and had it moved to where the Riverside condos are now located. It would take a week or more to describe all of the moving at Marco,” Brown said with a laugh.

Brown has fond childhood memories of the Dive Shop building and the area surrounding it.

“I walked the road in front of the house barefoot many a time to visit my dad while he was working at Kelly's fish house,” Brown said. “I also visited ‘Miz’ Caroline Robinson and the Little Church (now the Church of God, located at the cemetery)."

Both photos Brown provided CBN show a large sea turtle. The photo of the local children shows a dirt road in the background.

"These kids are standing in front of where Tampa Place is today,” Brown said. "It wasn't there when this picture was made. Yes, it is a sea turtle. This was before my time, so I don't know the story. The turtle was most likely brought home from the beach for food. A favorite way of cooking turtle was to salt, pepper, and dip it in flour before deep frying in oil, like a round steak, or cutting it up into small chunks like a beef stew. We did occasionally eat turtle meat."

Brown cherishes her childhood memories of the Island.

"I wish that I could paint a picture of our little village,” Brown said wistfully, "so people could see how quaint and beautiful our Marco used to be."