The old schoolhouse wasn’t added until
1912. Over time, it grew to accommodate
the developing community. The auditorium
was added during the Great Depression
and eventually became the community
center in 1961. Once owned by renowned
weaver Robert Sailors, it also was a studio
and private residence of the artist. Manatee
County bought it with funds from the Florida
Community Trust after his death in 1995 and
it now serves as the central hub of the Florida
Maritime Museum.
However, the Bratton Store was the first
commercial building erected at Hunter’s
Point. Built by William Bratton in the 1890s.
It came to house the Village’s post office,
general store and steamboat wharf. It served
as the main point of contact with life outside
of the community for those who lived and
worked there.
In the early 1900s, rooms were added to
accommodate travelers in what was named
the Albion Inn, thriving successfully for years.
The wooden cistern in the Village was built
sometime in the 1940s to be used to collect
rain as a source of freshwater. The entire
community otherwise relied on only one
hand-dug well.
Another structure in the Village is the
Pillsbury Boat Shop, constructed in 1907. It
was the first Snead Island Boatworks building
and operated by Edward Pillsbury with his
three sons. It was later sold to a member of
the deeply rooted Bishop family of Bradenton
and the entire building was relocated, like
many other structures on site over time. The
Boatworks building itself was relocated a total
of four times between 1935 and 2007, when in
that year it finally returned to its original home
at Cortez, coming full circle a century later.
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