Near Roberts Avenue West 0.1 miles west of North 15th Street (Florida Route 29), on the right when traveling west.
Bunkhouse
This bunkhouse was originally constructed in the 1930s as two separate buildings on another site. They were moved here and connected to each other in 1946 to house the family's hired cowmen. No cooking was done inside the small . . . — — Map (db m282966) HM
On Roberts Avenue West 0.1 miles east of North 15th Street, on the right when traveling west.
Cane Mill
The Roberts, as well as other South Florida pioneer families, pressed and boiled sugar cane to provide syrup for their own use or to trade for other necessities. Cultivated since ancient times, sugarcane was introduced . . . — — Map (db m282894) HM
On Roberts Avenue West at Bravo Lane, on the right when traveling east on Roberts Avenue West.
Cattle Ranching and Immokalee
The open grasslands around Immokalees were an abundant hunting ground for the Caluas Indians and later, for the Seminole and Microsukee peoples. Cattleman Charles W. Hendry is thought to have . . . — — Map (db m284379) HM
Near Roberts Avenue West 0.1 miles east of North 15th Street (Florida Route 29), on the right when traveling west.
Chicken Coop
Keeping chickens for the family's use was, and still is, a common practice on American farms and ranches. An excellent food source, chickens also helped keep insects under control and provided fertilizer for the family garden. . . . — — Map (db m283008) HM
Near Roberts Avenue West 0.1 miles east of North 15th Street (Florida Route 29), on the right when traveling west.
Cook’s House
Cleaning house, cooking for the family and hired hands, canning, smoking meat, carrying water, sewing, washing and mending clothes, gardening, tending to the sick, and minding the children and grandchildren, were just some of . . . — — Map (db m283036) HM
On Roberts Avenue West 0.1 miles east of North 15th Street, on the right when traveling west.
Farm Equipment
Most of the equipment displayed here was tractor drawn and was used to clear land and maintain the orange grove.
1. Bush Hog: Invented in 1950, the Bush Hog is a rotary blade mower used to cut . . . — — Map (db m282857) HM
Near Roberts Avenue West 0.1 miles east of North 15th Street (Florida Route 29), on the right when traveling west.
Fertilizer Spreader
Although primarily a cattle ranching family, the Roberts' also grew oranges as a cash crop. This fertilizer spreader dates from about 1940 and was used to apply chemical fertilizers, minerals or pesticides to . . . — — Map (db m282887) HM
On Roberts Avenue West 0.1 miles east of North 15th Street, on the right when traveling west.
Garage
Southwest Florida's early pioneers traveled on horseback, in canoes, mule wagons, ox cart and on foot. Roads were few and far between and were often nothing more than a deeply-rutted trail in the sand.
Collier . . . — — Map (db m282993) HM
Near Roberts Avenue West 0.1 miles east of North 15th Street (Florida Route 29), on the right when traveling east.
Hide House
This hide house was built around 1950 and replaced an earlier log smokehouse. Here, cowhides were stored before being sent away for tanning.
The hides were salted and stacked together tightly to allow the rock salt to . . . — — Map (db m282963) HM
Near Roberts Avenue West 0.1 miles east of North 15th Street (Florida Route 29), on the right when traveling west.
Cowmen kept their horses in this four-stall barn, along with their riding tack carlier barn that was on the property when the Roberts family arrived.
The cowmen’s horses were descendants of those that were brought to Florida by Spanish . . . — — Map (db m283044) HM
Near Roberts Avenue West 0.1 miles west of North 15th Street (Florida Route 29), on the right when traveling west.
Horse Ramp
Trucking the cowmen and their horses out to the cattle herd saved time and spared the riders many long hours of travel in the saddle. This loading chute or horse ramp was built in the late 1940s and was used to walk horses onto . . . — — Map (db m282968) HM
On Roberts Avenue West 0.1 miles west of North 15th Street, on the right when traveling east.
Horse Stall
This freestanding horse stall was built in the early 1940s. Horses were tied to the stall by lengths of rope that permitted the animals to lie down and get up easily.
A cowman would tether his horse in these . . . — — Map (db m282836) HM
On Roberts Avenue West east of North 15th Street (Florida Route 29), on the right when traveling east.
The Roberts family was one of four families that made up Immokalee's first Baptist congregation. The church was organized as a mission in the fall of 1916 by Reverend A.M. Bennett and Reverend Peelman with seven charter members, including . . . — — Map (db m282824) HM
On Roberts Avenue West 0.1 miles east of North 15th Street, on the right when traveling west.
Kitchen
This kitchen was built soon after the Roberts family arrived in Immokalee in 1914 and is the oldest building on the homestead. It was originally placed on an east-west axis and was connected to the Roberts' log pen home . . . — — Map (db m282862) HM
On Roberts Avenue West 0.1 miles west of North 15th Street, on the right when traveling west.
Log Pen
Many of Immokalee's early white settlers built their first homes from pine or cypress logs that were notched at the ends and stacked to form the walls of a single-room cabin or pen. These logs are all that remain of the . . . — — Map (db m282898) HM
Near Roberts Avenue West 0.1 miles east of North 15th Street (Florida Route 29), on the right when traveling west.
Outhouse
This outhouse or privy is typical of those built by the Works Progress Administration during the 1930s to improve health and living conditions in rural areas of the United States. Between 1933 and 1945, the WPA built 2,309,239 . . . — — Map (db m283034) HM
On Roberts Avenue West 0.1 miles west of North 15th Street, on the right when traveling west.
Pole Barn
This pole barn was built in 1943 to store and protect farm machinery. The roof is original and now shelters equipment that was once used to maintain the Roberts' orange grove. A small grove had already been planted . . . — — Map (db m282843) HM
On Roberts Avenue West at Bravo Lane, on the right when traveling east on Roberts Avenue West.
Roberts Family Home
Robert Roberts (1884-1963) and his wife, Sarah Jane Cordell Roberts (1882-1966) came to Immokalee from Ona, Florida, in 1914 with their seven children. Two more children were later born in Immokalee. . . . — — Map (db m284381) HM
Near Roberts Avenue West 0.1 miles east of North 15th Street (Florida Route 29), on the right when traveling west.
Smokehouse
In the days before electricity and refrigeration, meat was cured with salt and smoked over a fire to keep it from spoiling. The women of the Roberts household were responsible for salting the meat, hanging it to dry, building a . . . — — Map (db m283038) HM
On Roberts Avenue West 1 mile east of North 15th Street, on the right when traveling west.
Sugarcane - Boiler
This brick sugarcane boiler was built in 1921 and strengthened with an old buggy spring. It was repaired in 1944 and has a chimney, firebox, and cast iron cane vat or kettle.
Boiling raw sugarcane juice . . . — — Map (db m282858) HM
Near Roberts Avenue West 0.1 miles east of North 15th Street (Florida Route 29), on the right when traveling west.
Truck & Tractor Shed
Trucks, tractors and other equipment saved the rancher precious time in a chore-filled day. The Roberts built this shed in the 1940s to shelter their tractor and horse truck.
The tractor was used to cultivate and . . . — — Map (db m282977) HM
Near Roberts Avenue West 0.1 miles east of North 15th Street (Local Route 29), on the right when traveling west.
Wash Shed
The family moved their laundry from the old log pen to this site when their new home was completed in 1926. Water to do the washing was pumped by hand from a nearby well.
Clothes had to be boiled to remove the dirt, scrubbed . . . — — Map (db m283040) HM
On Roberts Avenue West 0.1 miles east of North 15th Street, on the right when traveling west.
Water Tower
The main house was originally built without running water or modern indoor plumbing. Later, the Roberts family supplied their home with water that was pumped from a well and stored on top of a water tower. A windmill . . . — — Map (db m283006) HM
On Roberts Avenue West 1 mile west of North 15th Street, on the right when traveling west.
Well
Every permanent homestead on the Florida frontier needed a readily available source of fresh water, such as this well near the Roberts' original home site. Before the days of modern plumbing and running water, drawing . . . — — Map (db m282859) HM
