PLANT PROJECT: Mound House landscaping adds natural beauty

A vital part of any historical property lies in the landscaping.

Mound House on Fort Myers Beach is no different as committee members, volunteers and representatives eye a winter opening of a project that has been many years in the works.

Now that Town officials have approved a master contract for cultural resource management firm Search, Inc. to complete a landscape signage design, fabrication and installation program, the overall project to fully open the property for history buffs is beginning to "come up roses."

BOB PETCHER Mound House foreground landscaping features meadow plantings, such as gaillardia and dune sunflowers. Near the home is a jacaranda tree to the left and a strangler fig to the right.

The design portion of landscape signage has been reported to cost just over $55,000, while the fabrication and installation elements is not expected to exceed $117,484.79. Both task orders are funded by a Lee County Tourist Development Council grant for landscape restoration.

"Landscaping is an integral part of the educational experience that a visitor will get when everything is open to the public," said Barbara Anderson Hill, chairperson of the Town Cultural and Environmental Learning Center Advisory Board. "It is value-added. It talks about the history from the Calusas to the Longs, how that property was utilized and how the landscaping provided an important resource for over 2,000 years. The plants and the trees tell a story."

Hill stated William and Florence Long, the last residents of Mound House, were the ones that developed Shell Mound Park back in the 1950s.

"The other mounds were flattened and the shells were used to pave a large part of the beach," she said.

Signage under the Town's action plan is being designed for plant identification, directory/directional signs and interpretive panels. Templates for each sign type is being developed. Once approved, Search, Inc. will begin full design of them. The program is expected to take many months, well after the property should be fully open for visitation.

"That's the unfortunate part," said Hill, who also stated the landscape lighting will probably not be in as well at that time.

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PLANT PROJECT: Mound House landscaping adds natural beauty