A Matter of Public Record: How Deeds and Development Shaped Boca Grande

In 1996, Michael Ingram, a Tampa lawyer and the son of Dr. James Ingram who had purchased the historic Journey’s End property in 1963, wrote a book, “A Title Examiner’s History of Boca Grande: Where Nothing Unimportant Happens, and It’s All a Matter of Public Record.”

He reports that when his father died in 1989, he found among his papers the abstract of title for the property. He records that he “opened the brittle cover and, by habit, began to run the chain from the earliest public records in the 1880s. The Journey’s End abstract read like a history book. Significant events – the arrival of the railroad in 1905, the Florida land boom and bust of the 1920s and the 1945 sale to Sunset Realty Corporation – were all reflected by original, raw historical documents in the chain of title.”

Ingram also explains that “prior to the emergence of title insurance policies as a substitute for attorneys’ title opinions, abstracts of title were an integral part of real estate closings. A buyer received from his predecessor in title not only a deed, but also a written history of the ownership chain from earliest public records. In this way, the history of the property was passed through the hands of successive owners, each of whom participated in the writing of the chapter by signature of documents and exchange of funds at the closing table.”

Among the development Ingram details is the building that happened south of First Street. This area had been designated by Congress as a military reserve in 1849. Interestingly, a member of the Corps of Engineers making the recommendation to Congress was Robert E. Lee. It took 33 years before the military reserve became a reality. It included the island south of First Street plus the northernmost land of Cayo Costa. In the early 1900s, the government leased the northern parts of the reserve to the Boca Grande Land Company, who owned the property north of First Street. It later leased part of the property to the Gasparilla Inn, which built a golf course.

But other than the sale of property to Joseph Spadero for the Boca Grande Hotel and a golf course in 1926, the area remained undeveloped until 1969 when the Boca Grande Beach Club Condominium was built by Hugo Lindgren. Lindgren was known for his extensive holdings in Sanibel. He changed the face of Sanibel when he pushed for the opening of the Sanibel Causeway, copied after the Boca Grande Causeway.

In the 1970s, George Arehart began to develop the area. According to Ingram, “After acquiring 3,200 feet of beachfront out of Joe Spadero’s Golden Beach subdivision, Arehart pursued a concept that combined the economy of multi-family with the benefits of private ownership of the entire unit and underlying land.” He first built Seagrape Colony in 1976. Then Turtleback, Gulf Dunes and Sundown Colony were built. “Arehart’s design was eventually known and included in many zoning codes as a ‘zero lot line’ development.”

Arehart refined his concept further after the passage of the Gasparilla Island Conservation Act in 1980, when he built Boca Grande Shores and Woodwind Beach, developments where units are completely detached, single-family homes. Later, Brad Baldwin added the cluster homes of the Island House and Dunes of Boca.

The area has continued to be developed, with homes built on Gulf Boulevard and on the streets that are east of it and the CSX development of Boca Bay. Ingram concludes his book with a reference to the early real estate efforts of the American Agricultural Chemical Company and its successors, the Seaboard Coast Line railroad and CSX. “The cycle had now come full circle, and the railroad company was back in the residential development business. With the Boca Bay project, CSX would do what its predecessor failed to do: design, build and sell a successful residential development.”