The King of Kelly Road (copy)

Before his retirement, Del Ackerman was often cruising along the Naples city limits in his red and white Chevy pickup truck. When he arrived at Del’s, on the corner of what is now Bayshore and Thomasson, he was home. He was also very much at home when Bayshore was Kelly Road, and when anyone walked into Del’s 24-hour Groceries, Beer, and Bait, even an alien from outer space would feel welcome.

Del was a giant of a man that knew no strangers. He was happy with everyone. He was as comfortable with the Port Royal millionaires from across the water on Naples Bay to the homeless struggling for dignity in a fledgling art district that gave them hope. Del was also wise. He knew that the folks that have everything money can buy are quite often looking for something else. The mad money millionaires from across the water might have been shopping for beer or bait or perhaps a little misplaced adventure, but at the end of Kelly Road, where the artisans began to gather, the possibilities were endless.

Del arrived in Naples after a bad accident. A bus hit him while he was working in the booming citrus industry, and after having 13 surgeries to repair his broken body, Del was informed by his employers: “We can’t use you anymore; we need someone who can stand up and walk around.” 

When Del Ackerman arrived in Naples and settled on Kelly Road, the year was 1964, and Del was ready for a fresh frontier and a new start. When anyone first saw Del, there was not a clue that his body had once been broken. He appeared to have perpetual youth. He was always animated and moving, even when he was standing still and making new friends. He also stood out because Del stood well over six feet tall and looked like he might have just stepped off a sailing ship from Norway. When Del was at work, he was indeed a head and shoulders taller than most of his customers, but the real reason Del stood out is because he was so dynamic in his conquest of making friends and leveling the playing field of humanity.

In 1964, Naples year-round-residents numbered about 5,000 South Florida pilgrims, and there were cabins on Naples Bay. It was only four years after Hurricane Donna made a devastating landfall, swept the beachside streets with sand and saltwater, and flooded the ground floors of the Naples Beach Hotel. Naples in 1964 was an open canvas. It was indeed a time of rebirth and renaissance for a budding city on a bay, and as with any recovery and newfound beginnings inspiration was on the rise. 

After searching along the beaches and the bay and taking an earnest assessment of the Naples community, Del decided to try something completely different. His vision was to have a wholesale grocery store that blended with an old-time general store and to apply a form of customer service that came to him naturally. Years before arriving in Naples, Del had a paper route, and he not only delivered newspapers but he often stayed to chat with his customers - especially the unfortunate who were receiving their newspapers in hospital. This, perhaps, was where the caring and open-minded approach to fundamental service began because this was a special man who could never forget being helpless in the hospital.

When Del first stocked his shelves and opened the doors to his store on Kelly Road, he knew at once he had chosen the right location. Kelly Road needed an anchor. This was a waterfront community where not only traffic from other roads and avenues led to his store but also an island in the stream of humanity where pilgrims and pirates of all kinds would touch the shore and add many spices to the recipes of life.

The rough riders of Kelly Road were drawn to a growing community that was indeed growing, but there could not be growth without growing pains. Because Del knew no strangers, and reserved judgment for a much higher authority than his own, Del Ackerman, from the first day he opened his store, knew he was a man on a mission, and his mission of hospitality was more diverse than anyone could imagine. 

The giant grocer with the big heart and the general store offered welcome to the ladies of the night that walked Kelly Road. Del knew they needed a break from the road and a sanctuary free from disparaging judgment. After all, even those that worked the oldest profession needed a friendly face along with their supply of daily sundries. The ladies needed a place to sit, perhaps at a picnic table beside the mullet fisher folk with the mullet haircuts that sometimes came in for a pickled egg, a pack of smokes, or a hotdog to ward off the heat or the cold that only fisher-folk can feel. There might even be a struggling musician or artist wandering in for a six-pack of beer to calm their nerves after wrangling a stray bale of marijuana the saltwater cowboys had dumped when they believed the sheriff was hot on their trail.

This was the beginning before Kelly Road was Bayshore. This was when a flamboyant cast of characters began to color the canvases of Naples, Marco, and Everglades City with their very own versions of a Wild West story during the birth of a new frontier. This was a time when struggling but talented musicians, gifted artists, and even culinary creators would bloom into fruition and become Celebration Park and the Bayshore Art District.   

For every Beach Boy and Girl that ever wandered and felt the ebb and flood of emotion that is the soul of any art form, perhaps there can be an understanding of the canvas that was once Kelly Road and the giant of a man that was Del Ackerman.