The corner of U.S. 41 and State Road 29 at Carnestown is a landmark for everybody who lives here or comes to visit. It is where you leave the Trail and head down toward town.

Something is missing from it now.

The Welcome Center that sat at that corner for more than sixty years came down this week, and what is left is a pile of rubble.

The Welcome Center served travelers for more than six decades and became the home of the Everglades Area Chamber of Commerce. Before Hurricane Irma, it was the busiest welcome center in all of Collier County, which says something in a county that also has Naples and Marco Island.

Thousands of people stopped there for maps, directions, fishing reports, a place to stay, and advice from somebody who actually knew where to send them.

Then came September 2017. Hurricane Irma tore through here, and the Welcome Center was one of the buildings that did not survive it. The building was eventually condemned. The Everglades Area Chamber of Commerce was eventually dissolved. The building sat empty ever since.

Earlier this year, the National Park Service awarded a contract to take down the old Chamber building, the substation next door, a gazebo, and an outbuilding. Federal documents described the structures as “no longer functional and beyond economic repair.”

The job of welcoming people did not end when the doors closed. On February 1, 2020, the Everglades Society for Historic Preservation opened a welcome center at 207 West Broadway, across from the Rod and Gun Club. Volunteers have been greeting visitors there ever since. Last July, it took the old name back, and it is once again the Everglades Area Welcome Center.

As word of the demolition spread, longtime residents started trading memories of the place. Several shared stories of family members who helped build, manage, or work at the Welcome Center over the years, while others remembered it as a place where neighbors gathered and visitors received a warm welcome.

Some remembered working the counter and meeting people from all over the world, helicopters landing on the lot, and the pig that liked to hang around out front. One resident parked everything he owned there ahead of Hurricane Ian.

Nothing official has been announced about what happens to the property, though there has been talk that it could someday become a picnic park. I hope so. That corner has been pointing people in the right direction for a long time.

The building is gone. The welcome it stood for isn’t. It simply moved into town, where neighbors still greet visitors with the same pride and hospitality that made the Carnestown Welcome Center so special.

You may also be interested in learning more about the Everglades Society for Historic Preservation and its work preserving Old Florida history, or the ongoing discussion about bringing back an area Chamber of Commerce.

You may also be interested in the Everglades Society for Historic Preservation and its work guarding Old Florida history, or the discussion about bringing back an area Chamber of Commerce.