A Brief History of the Bradenton Trailer Park and Bradenton Tropical Palms
In 1936, when the Kiwanis Club of Bradenton was 14 years, they initiated a project to build the first trailer park in the country. The Kiwanis Club leased 40 acres from the City of Bradenton on a rental basis of 25% of the net profits. The Club raised money from merchants and businessmen on a promise to pay from earnings when possible. A sum of $13000.00 was raised and a loan of $4000.00 was made to the Club by a member. Construction began on he "World's Largest Trailer Park" as it was known for thirty years. This land was soon divided into trailer spaces with electrical and water outlets and sewers added for the lots. Toilets, showers and laundry spaces were housed in a building called a Unit.
An additional $2500.00 was raised and a 60 x 60 foot auditorium was built. Later and additional 40 feet was added to the auditorium and was built entirely by park residents who had been carpenters, thus the only expense incurred was the cost of the building materials. In addition the auditorium, which was used for all Park activities, it housed a ladies card room and a mans card room, the Park Office, a general store, the Post Office where each resident had a post office box and living quarter for the manager.
The Park grew fast and soon attained its capacity of 1188 trailers. In 1953, A and B street in the overflow section were removed and the Kiwanis Hall erected there. In the early years there were many school children among the winter residents, and a play ground was maintained for them. A small private bus took them to school until the time a regular school bus stopped at 26th Street.
The profits from the trailer park were used to set up a Youth Fund for the purpose of furnishing scholarships for worthy students, to provide for operating the Bradenton Branch Boys' Club and special funds for crippled children, dental clinic, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, youth centers, contributions to the United Fund and many other projects. The finances were administrated by selected committees of membership and directors. In addition, the Club built a Boy's Club complex, a child's clinic in the hospital, donated to the Negro Youth Center and donated money to buy the grounds for a Girl Scout house.
Mobile Homes have a way of growing and they soon outgrew their small trailer spaces. In 1964, it was determined that it was necessary to improve and modernize the Park. In 1966 the first part of the master plan began and 55 new trailer lots were created out of 110 old lots. These new lots included modern underground facilities for plumbing, electrical fixtures, television to each lot, streets, curbing, and street lighting. In addition, the Kiwanis Club planted palm trees and sodded the new areas with grass.
A new set of rules and regulations were developed which included requirements for setbacks, maintenance of landscaping by the park and residents and all mobile homes in the new section must be a minimum of 35 feet in length and ten feet in width and not more than five years old. This meant that some of the previous residents had to be moved to another section of the park where there were available spaces.
In 1965 a new shuffleboard court together with bleachers was constructed at a cost of approximately $30000.00. These same shuffleboard courts still stand today, looking as fine as they did in 1965. In 1966 an additional 5.5 acres was purchased to accommodate an 80 mobile homes. This phase two, was completed by 1967 and in the same year plans were also under way for a third, fourth and fifth phase of the new modernized mobile home park. During the spring of 1968, work began on extending the work to the south boundary of the park at 26th Avenue and was completed during that year.
All of the major improvements cost over one million dollars, including the new auditorium, management facilities, recreations areas, landscaping and other ground work and provision for close to 400 trailers. Modernization of the section of the park west of Wares Creek began in 1972 and provided for and additional 200 mobile home sites. This brought the total to 600 mobile home lots of 40 feet x 50 feet in comparison with the previous lots of 28 feet x 30 feet. The previous rental rates of $3.50, $4.00 and $5.00 per week increased to $30 and $35.00 per month. These rates included garbage pick up, sewer, and water..
In 1996 the Kiwanis decided to sell the park and it was purchased by a cooperative formed by the residents. The name was changed from Bradenton Trailer Park to Bradenton Tropical Palms. The name was decided upon by ballot and the residents had several names to choose from; those names were also submitted by the residents. Improvements since becoming a cooperative include a modernized kitchen, swimming pool and hot tub, handicapped accessible restrooms.