THE PAW PAW PATCH

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Naples first Jail, with two cells, was built in the 1940's at a cost of $386.68. It was located off of 8th Street South, in the general area of the Old Cove and the old Naples Hotel. Named the Paw Paw Patch, the inmates shared the facility with the voracious skeeters that were ubiquitous at the time.

Passers-by could often hear the plaintive calls from the Jail, "Please Mr. Cale, let me out, the skeeters are killin' me." Cale Jones was Chief at the time.

Another popular call was to children who passed by. Inmates would give them a quarter and ask them to go to the Beach Store and buy them a pack of cigarettes.

As you can see from the photo, the screen is ripped open. Years later, the window, in that exact condition, was delivered to me at the NPD. "Doc" Johnson, who apparently tore down the old jail, donated it as a piece of memorabilia from a Naples long gone by. We stored it for several years until I was leaving the agency. I called the Museum and asked if they'd like to have it. They said yes, eagerly. A few years later, I asked what they'd done with it. They replied: "We misplaced it.

Many thanks to Ben and Lorene Caruthers and Dave Dampier