Henry B Watkins, Sr and Henry B. Watkins,Jr
| Henry B. Watkins, Sr. was born in 1889 and moved to Naples with
his family in 1946. He was founder and president of the Naples Company,
a real estate concern involved in the early development of Naples. The company
purchased the original Naples Hotel, dating to the 1880s, and leased the
land today occupied by the Naples Beach Hotel and Country Club. The company
developed most of the land in the city of Naples. In 1949 Watkins donated
ten acres of downtown land for a public park. This multi-purpose community
park today houses a tennis facility, a community recreation building, veteran’s
memorial, band shell and the Naples Art Association building. Henry B. Watkins
died in 1981. His Great Floridian plaque is located at Cambier Park, 755
Eight Avenue South, Naples.
Henry B. Watkins, Jr. was born in 1924 and moved to Naples in 1949, shortly after marrying. In the 1950s and again in the 1960s he created a partnership to build the first low income and federally subsidized housing in Naples. He convinced Collier County Board of Commissioners to re-locate the county seat from Everglades City to East Naples in the early 1960s and served for over a decade as a member of the board of trustees of Edison Community College. Watkims helped found and develop the David Lawrence Center, a facility for the mentally ill, the YMCA of Collier County, and Youth Haven, a shelter for abused, neglected and abandoned children. He led several advisory boards on land planning and zoning in the 1960s and 1970s Henry B. Watkins Jr. died in 1989. His Great Floridian plaque is located at the Naples Beach Hotel & Golf Country Club, 851 Gulf Shore Boulevard, Naples. submitted by Norita Moss
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