There aren’t many buildings left in Florida like the Smallwood Store. One hundred years ago, Ted Smallwood raised it on stilts above the waters of Chokoloskee Bay — and it has stood there ever since, surviving storms, saltwater, and decades of change. That alone is something worth recognizing.

Reaching 100 years here means something different. Most of what once stood along these shores is gone. Hurricanes, isolation, and time erased it. This building didn’t disappear, and because of that, the story didn’t either. What remains isn’t just a structure, it’s a direct connection to how people lived on the edge of the Everglades when this place was far more remote than most people today can imagine.

Ted Smallwood arrived in Chokoloskee in 1897 and became postmaster in 1906, running the post office from his home before building a separate general store on the waterfront in 1917. Before roads connected the area, everything came by boat. People came here for supplies, to pick up mail, to trade goods, and to hear news from the outside world. It wasn’t just part of the community, it was the community. In 1924, a hurricane pushed four feet of water into the store. Ted spent the next two years raising the entire building roughly seven feet above ground level on stilts — finishing in January 1926. At least seven hurricanes have tested that decision since. The building is still standing.

When the store closed in 1982, it wasn’t cleared out or redesigned. It was left as it was. Shelves, goods, tools, and everyday items remained in place, and over time that turned the building into something rare. What visitors see today isn’t a recreation. It’s the real store, preserved with the same details that were part of life here decades ago. In 1974, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places.

The back room is still there — the iron bed, a wicker cradle, clothes hung on a line — a glimpse of the life that played out behind the counter during the trading seasons. The shelves are still stocked with the same goods that were there when the doors closed. Patent medicines, soda bottles, dry goods, tools. A Skunk Ape clipping pinned to a shelf like it never stopped being news. It isn’t curated or reconstructed. It’s just preserved, and walking through it feels exactly like that.
Today, the store operates as a museum, still owned and preserved by the Smallwood family, and that matters more than it might seem at first. That they have kept this place alive and in the community across generations is something Chokoloskee can genuinely be proud of. You can find visiting hours, admission, and directions on the Smallwood Store & Museum listing.

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