Historic Englewood Florida
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Page 18 Historic Englewood Guide 2022 By DIANA HARRIS HISTORIC ENGLEWOOD In January 1955, the Cape Haze Marine Laboratory opened on the shore of Lemon Bay. It wasn't the first lab in the area, as John Foster Bass Jr. opened his Bass Biological Laboratory and Zoological Research Supply Co. on New Point Comfort in 1931. The Bass Lab was the first marine biology lab on the mainland of Florida. It closed in 1944. The new Cape Haze Lab was the idea of wealthy half-broth- ers, William and Alfred Vanderbilt, great-grandsons of the legendary Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt. The brothers bought an enormous chunk of the Cape Haze peninsula in 1951, naming it the Two V Ranch. Inspired by the earlier Bass Lab, the Vanderbilts formed a nonprofit organization and set up the lab between Englewood and Placida. It was affiliated with the New England Institute for Medical Research in Ridgefield, Connecticut. Dr. Eugenie Clark, a Hunter College graduate with a doctorate from New York University, was their choice to direct the lab. Clark was an ichthyologist, who at only 32 years of age had already made quite a name for herself. She had been a Fulbright Scholar doing research work in Egypt, and wrote a book about her experiences called "Lady With a Spear." She had worked on projects sponsored by the Office of Naval Research and the Atomic Energy Commission. She had been a research associate in the Department of Animal Behavior at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. In other words, she was quite a catch for the new lab and would be credited with the lab's great success. Just like the Bass Lab, the new lab was described as a research station to identify, catalog Florida marine life and encourage the study of marine biological sciences. And, like the Bass Lab, it would provide lab space and equipment for visiting scien- tists. The charge was $1 a day. There was an additional fee for gas if you borrowed one of the boats. Alfred Vanderbilt's 21-foot Chris Craft boat, "Dancer" — named after Native Dancer, the famous racehorse he owned — was available if you wanted to go out in the Gulf. A 16-foot boat was also available for bay work. Visitors could rent a cottage at the lab for $2 a day, or accommodations could be found in Englewood for about $3.50 a day in summer, around $7 in the winter. When Dr. Eugenie Clark directed the Cape Haze Marine Lab Englewood area's facility would one day become the Mote Marine Lab PHOTO COURTESY OF MOTE MARINE LABORATORY Dr. Eugenie Clark on the dock at Cape Haze Marine Laboratory, 1955.