Note: The following comes from an August 30, 2014, article in the News-Press headlined “People of influence: Harvie Heitman” and an Oct. 17, 2021, article, “Fort Myers’ historic district” by Cynthia A. Williams.
A measure of Harvie Heitman’s life was reaction to his death.
News of his passing in 1922 at 49 was announced across the top of the front page of The Fort Myers Press. Thomas Edison was an honorary pallbearer. Business ceased in town the day of his funeral to pay homage to the man who did so much in a short time.
Heitman built the town’s first brick building; its first sidewalk. He was known as the “the man who built First Street.” He opened a bank, bakery, livery stable, Bradford Hotel and The Arcade Theatre. He also constructed the Earnhardt Building.
Heitman arrived from North Carolina in 1888 to work as clerk in a store owned by his great-uncle, Howell A. Parker. Between then and his death, his endeavors were herculean.
The most significant may have been the first brick building, at the corner of First and Jackson streets.
Millionaire Ambrose McGregor took a liking to the young businessman and bankrolled the building, which became home of Heitman’s Grocery Store. Many of his buildings still stand.
In 1901 …
Harvie Heitman built a brick bank with a plate glass front. He installed a vault lined with Bessemer steel and secured with automatic locking devices. The interior of the bank (a branch of the Citizens Bank & Trust Company of Tampa) was finished in black cypress and, in keeping with the technological advances of the new 20th century, furnished with running water, electric lights and telephones.”
In 1904 …
Heitman and Ambrose McGregor’s widow, Tootie, made plans to build a hotel. “It would be the first brick hotel and the first three-story brick building in Fort Myers. Heitman cleared the lot on the northeast corner of First and Hendry for it, tearing down a wood-frame building then housing a small cigar factory and Fort Myers’ first public reading room and, to the dismay of many, cutting down an aged and prolific pecan tree and half a dozen heavily laden orange trees.
The construction of the 43-room Bradford Hotel required 100,000 Chattanooga pressed bricks. Its rounded corner entrance, arched window and door frames and ten-foot-wide, second-level veranda, along with the plate glass windows across the retail spaces on the ground level made the hotel very grand and modern in appearance; its steam heat, electric lights, private baths, and carpeted hallways and sitting rooms made it world class.
In 1910 …
By adding a seamless annex, Heitman doubled the size of the hotel. In the process, he demolished the second oldest structure in Fort Myers, a house that had been original to the fort.
In 1911 …
Heitman built the 3-story, brick Bank of Fort Myers, opposite its former location on the north side of First Street next to his superstore. The Press described it as an “ornament” to the city, and indeed it was with its stylish hip roof, decorative, white-brick designs and thick white pillars supporting great arched entryways.
This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: From the Archives: Harvie Heitman’s Fort Myers legacy
Reporting by Fort Myers News-Press / Fort Myers News-Press
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