Did you know the Calusa Nature Center and Planetarium is a private, not for profit, environmental education organization located in Fort Myers, Florida. The 105 acre site has a museum, three nature trails, a Planetarium, butterfly and bird aviaries, a gift shop and meeting and picnic areas?

Iona House (DASF: A sometime meeting place…)
Iona House has an interesting history and DASF has supported the gift shop with our painted creations in exchange for a place to meet. If you have never visited, it is certainly worth your time to have a look around.

This structure was originally built in 1909, and served as the first one-room schoolhouse to teach the children of early Fort Myers pioneers. The small farming community from which it came was named Iona in honor of the Ionian Islands off the coast of Scotland, as some of the early residents emigrated from that area. According to a News Press article dated 1991:

In 1907 there were about 13 children attending the school. All of the Iona farmers’ children walked to school and classes lasted from 9 am to 4 pm. Students in grades 1 through 12 sat in the same room — ventilated with open windows and fans — listening to the same teacher.”

In the mid-1950s, the pine schoolhouse was moved from Iona to just west of the corner of Cleveland and Colonial Avenues, where it was used as a drive-in, non-denominational church led by a retired Presbyterian minister, Dr. Thomas C. Smart. It was equipped with parking spaces and speakers much like the drive-in movie theatres of the day.

In early 1977, Dr. Alfred “Lee” Kennan and his wife, Virginia, purchased the building and offered it to the Nature Center, provided they would pay to move it. With Junior League funding, the building was cut into three pieces and moved to the fill area southwest of the museum. The Junior League undertook the renovation of the Iona House. A small room on the side became the first Junior League office, and general membership meetings were held in the main room with its beautiful full-length windows that bring the outside in. The office and adjacent small room were later fitted as an efficiency apartment, which today is used to house interns. The Iona House has been landscaped with native plants with funds from the South Florida Water Management District.