This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/gZ.2ADI/267.1 Message Board Post: THE STORY OF FORT MYERS by KarlH. Grismer, p. 194--Before the twentieth century was ten years old Fort Myers began having serious growing pains. It suffered from a lack of houses, store and office buildings and, above all, a modern school. The existing school was admittedly a disgrace to the community. It was merely an enlargement of the two-room wooden structure erected in 1887 immediately after Lee County was created. To this original building a two-story wooden addition was made in 1902 and thereafter the school was dignified by being called the Lee County High School. Regardless of the name, it was still a flimsy, ramshackle makeshif...Children were seen goiong into the barn one day by a winter visitor, Col. Andrew D. Gwynne, a wealthy cotton broker and wholesale grocer of Memphis, Tenn. He told his wife that if a movement was ever started in Fort Myers to get better school facilities, he would gladly make a donation to take care of part of the expense. Colonel Gwy! nne died that summer in Memphis, on July 20, 1909. His widow remembered what he had said about the donation, and so did his son, Capt. W. F. Gwynne. That same summer parents of children attending the overcrowded school appealed to the school board to provide a modern building. The board members admitted that the existing situation ws appalling but they insisted they didn't have enough money to build the type of school Fort Myers needed. They promised, however, to do what they could. At this critical juncture, Mrs. Gwynne and her son came to the rescue. They said they would match any sum raised by the town. With this incentive, the town people headed by Carl F. Roberts waged a whirlwind campaign and within two months raised $8,000. The Gwynnes then pledged an equal amount. An additional $10,000 was obtained from a special bond issue. The school board members kept their promise and provided enough additional funds to pay for a bilding which, with equipment, cost $45,! 00. It was opened for classes Friday, October 20, 1911 and was named the Andrew D. Gwynne Institute.