L. I. Smith owned the Gulfview Hotel in Camp Walton (now Ft. Walton Beach, Florida). He sold to the Staffs and Gerlachs who he had hired to come cook and work for him. The Gulfview Hotel is being moved today, April 17, 2018, to another location in Ft. Walton Beach. Here are some early pictures from my personal family files of Smith family at Gulfview Hotel. Pictures. L. I. Smith portrait in South Dakota before moving permanently to Walton County in 1903. He had visited Florida Chautauqua at least as early as 1899 looking for a warmer climate. Great nephew Kenneth "Tuff" Smith at his uncle's hotel in 1913 with Flounder (later written up as great pompano fisherman in sporting magazine). Camp Walton 1912 postcard from step-grandmother's collection, Anna Smith Hollingsworth Reardon. L. I. Smith had also hired Mr. Buck to pilot his boat the Anna built in 1910. Smith had home on historic Circle Drive in DeFuniak Springs and family had Smith Dairy on Freeport Road (now 331). The used Anna to transport themselves and guests to Camp Walton. Anna and her sister Billie Smith Masters with their great uncle L. I., owner of Gulfview Hotel, banker and developer. L. I. Smith's great great nephews attended my Shaping Florida presentation at 2015 100th event for Okaloosa County. Thornber Smith lives in Ft. Walton and E. L. "Sonny" Hollingsworth, my stepdad and Anna's son, lives in DeFuniak Springs. Maybe I'll take him to see hotel moved. The Anna Reardon, writer and historian, collection of papers is at UWF Pace Library Archives. I still have most of original photographs. (c) Brenda Rees | Shaping Florida
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