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Description

Early Panama City Promotional Birdseye View

Rare birdseye view of St. Andrew's Bay (Panama City) and Vicinity, published in conjunction with the early promotion and development of the town in the early 1880s.

The view shows the newly platted town plan, along with the neighboring towns of Chipley, Vernon and Andersons, along with the newly arrived railroad. It was likely part of one of several promotional pamphlet's published by the St. Andrews Railroad Land and Mining Company, which were published in the mid 1880s (all of which are very rare), although our review of the extent pamphets listed on OCLC does not specifically list this map.

The modern history of St. Andrews Bay dates to 1827, when retired Georgia Governor John Clark arrived in 1827. By 1845, there as a post office and over 1,000 summer residents. Lambert Ware visited St. Andrew's Bay in 1877, and then returned in 1879. His brother Francis joined him in 1882, and they operated Ware Mercantile and Ware's Wharf, on the present Ramada Inn and St. Andrews Marina sites. The town flourished, with salt, fishing, boat building and shipping along the gulf coast. About this time, the St. Andrews Bay Railroad, Land, and Mining Co., locally known as the Cincinnati Company because they were based in the town in Ohio, advertised mail-order real estate with this descriptive:

"The loveliest location in all Florida. In a land where the genial climate of a winterless round of years will reward your every effort with the most bountiful harvests; where the summers are joyous seasons of refreshing breezes and invigorating nights of cool and healthful slumber; and where the winters are but bewitching contrasts to the summers in heightening and intensifying the delicious pleasure of a life in the fairest land the sun ever blessed with it's genial kiss. There is but one Florida, and St. Andrews Bay is it's brightest jewel."

In the beginning, lots approximately 25 ft x 82 ft were sold for $1.25, then later the price escalated to $8.00 for a lot in "St. Andrews by the sea". The scheme finally busted, but not before some of the buyers decided they really liked the area and stayed.

In 1908, St. Andrews incorporated for the first time. It continued to grow in the early 1900's and became a popular port on the coast. The Tarpon traveled between Mobile and Appalachicola, stopping like clock work in St. Andrews, delivering beer, flour, and other supplies. One could "set your watch" by the arrival and departure of the Tarpon, and it was this persistence of her captain, and the fact she was overloaded, that led to her demise. He pushed her on through a storm to be on time, but she sank off Panama City Beach in 1937. The site is now an underwater archaeological preserve.

Other towns had grown up in the area, one of those being Panama City, which annexed St. Andrews, and 3 other small towns in 1927.

One of the earliest extent promotional illustrations of the Panama City, Florida area.