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HISTORY July/August 2017 GASPARILLA ISLAND 69 included requests such as not wearing shorts in the downtown area. Margaret began teaching the high school children, from seventh through 12th grades, and she taught a diverse group of courses – everything from English to Spanish, science and physical education. Margaret and Emily immediately moved into the Sprott Hotel on Palm Avenue. In their spare time, they played tennis at the Sharp estate and The Gasparilla Inn. On their second day in town the girls caught the attention of a young man who had come back from New York to run his father’s drug store. His name was Delmar Fugate. It was a time when Fugate’s was the hub of the community. The store was being run by Delmar and his brother, Jerome Jr. The first tarpon tournaments in Boca Grande were sponsored by the Fugate family, and they brought many, many people to the island by advertising Boca Grande as one of the finest fishing spots in the world. “He (Delmar) saw our tennis rackets out on the front porch and asked my roommate to play tennis,” Margaret recalled. “We all started playing tennis together and pretty soon he and I started dating.” Before long Margaret and Emily moved into an apartment owned by the McAdows on Park. Avenue while several of the other teachers lived in half of The Teacherage building. In January of 1930 the School Board voted to raze the old school near the corner of Gilchrist Avenue and First Street and construct a duplex Teacherage on the northwest corner of the school property (Park Avenue and Banyan Street). Some of the materials used in constructing the Teacherage may have come from the old school. One apartment in the frame Teacherage was provided free of charge to the school’s principal and his family, while the other was usually occupied by one or more teachers. Renovated in 2005 by Lee County, today the Historic Teacherage houses Boca Bargains, a thrift store run by the Boca Grande Woman’s Club and The Boca Grande Historical Society Museum. On only $108 a month, plus an additional $10 for having to supply their own housing, Margaret and her roommate hired a cook. “Every two weeks we would go out and buy groceries and plan the meals,” she said. “We didn’t have to cook for we spent our spare time playing in the sun.” Margaret remembers that life on an island took some getting used to, compared to her youth in St. Petersburg. “I recall we went to see ‘Gone with the Wind’ in Tampa because it was the closest place showing the movie,” she said. “We were able to take the ferry over to the mainland, but when we got back we had to have the speedboat bring us back to the island.” For movies in town there was the San Marco


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