One of Southwest Florida’s most recognizable historic landmarks is coming back to life. The Naples Depot Museum will reopen this January, ushering in a busy spring season centered on movement, transportation, and working history across Collier County Museums.
The reopening exhibit, Railroads at Work, is adapted from a 1950s educational booklet published by the Association of American Railroads. It explores the people, jobs, and systems that kept America moving by rail. That transportation theme continues throughout the season with a lineup of programs and events, including Train Day celebrations; transportation-themed story times inside the 1947 Budd rail car; Things That Go! preschool programming; History in Motion Homeschool Day; and a special lecture by Vincent Keeys, a retired railroad professional and longtime museum supporter.
The Naples Depot Museum will also host three movie nights featuring the complete Night at the Museum trilogy, offering a relaxed, family-friendly way to experience the historic site after hours.
The reopening of the Naples Depot Museum reflects a shared transportation and settlement story that extends well beyond Naples. Railroads, shipping routes, and early transportation networks were essential to the development of communities throughout Collier County—including Everglades City.
While Everglades City never became a rail hub, the arrival of rail service in Naples helped move people, goods, and industry into the region, supporting fishing, agriculture, trade, and tourism that reached coastal and inland communities alike. Those same forces shaped the stories preserved at the Museum of the Everglades, where waterways, boats, and a working waterfront played a role similar to rail lines elsewhere in the county.
Together, these museums tell a broader story of movement—by rail, road, and water—and how early transportation connected small, remote communities across Southwest Florida. The Depot’s reopening offers another lens into that shared history.
