 The Charlotte Harbor and Northern
Railroad not only brought phosphate and supplies to
Gasparilla Island; it also brought wealthy people from
the north. By 1910 Boca Grande Pass was already famous
for its unequaled tarpon fishing among fishermen, who
stayed on nearby Useppa
Island. The Agrico Company, having begun to see
the potential of the idea of developing Gasparilla
Island beyond the port, began to develop the village
of Boca Grande.
The railroad station in what would become downtown
was built; roads, sidewalks, streetlights, shops, a
post office, and water and telephone service were not
far behind. The town was landscaped, including the now famous section of Second
Street called Banyan Street. The railroad company built several cottages downtown
and a few wealthy families from "up north" purchased land and built winter residences.
The train stopped at Gasparilla, the fishing village at the north end of the
island, at the railroad depot in downtown Boca Grande, and at the south end phosphate
terminal.
In 1929 the Boca Grande Hotel
was built just south of downtown Boca Grande. It was
a three-story, brick resort hotel where most of the
island weathered the hurricane of 1944. The Boca Grande
Hotel changed hands and was demolished in 1975. It
took six months to raze the building by means of fire
and the wrecking ball, as it had been built to withstand
fire and great storms.
 The railroad continued to bring
the grande visitors from all along the eastern seaboard
until the Boca
Grande Causeway opened in 1958. The depot was restored
in the 1970s and a number of shops, offices and a restaurant
now occupy the old building. The railroad continued
to run work trains to the south end until the phosphate
port closed in 1979. The Gasparilla Island Conservation
and Improvement Association transformed the old bed
of the railroad into a new use, Boca Grande's popular Bike
Path. Boca Grande has become a unique community,
with a large number of wealthy winter residents rubbing
elbows with the fishermen and railroad and port workers
who formed the permanent, year-round working class
of the island.
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