The Historic Sanibel Island Cooper House

The historic Sanibel Island Cooper House belonged to George Madison Cooper, a Sanibel resident who changed the course of island history.

The Historic Sanibel Island Cooper House

The historic Sanibel Cooper House was built in 1891 by George Madison Cooper, also known as Captain Cooper. At 16, Cooper had joined the confederate army as a drummer boy and when Abraham Lincoln passed the Homestead Act of 1862, Cooper came to Sanibel and purchased land to set up his homestead. In his lifetime, Cooper had worn many hats including owning a lumber mill, a store in Honduras and he was also a farmer. Once he had set up his homestead on Sanibel, he planted a tomato field. To transport his produce he built a shipping dock on Tarpon Bay and a road for transportation. That road is now Tarpon Bay Road. The tomato fields that Cooper created are now the vast wildlife sanctuaries throughout the island.

Cooper was also the Island’s mailman and would collect mail as far as Pine Island. Residents would collect their packages from the Cooper home. A new post office was built next door to the Cooper home. It remained until 1967, and it is now a free-standing building next door to the Olde Sanibel Shoppes. The Cooper’s also had a well in the second home they built next to the Cooper House. Though the well is not visible, you can still see where the floor dips where it once was. There is also rumored to be a ghost who lives on the property. The building is now a retail store called Amy’s Something Special and apparently, the ghost likes to move around the merchandise!

Directions

The historic Sanibel Cooper House is located at the corner of Periwinkle Way and Tarpon Bay Road in a complex now called Olde Sanibel Shoppes. When you cross the causeway, take a left at the four-way-stop onto Periwinkle Way and continue all the way down to the end, you will see the Olde Sanibel Shoppes in front of you where the house is located.

The Cooper House
Olde Sanibel Shoppes
630 Tarpon Bay Rd, Sanibel, FL 33957

Learn More About Sanibel History
Guide To Shopping on Sanibel & Captiva