Before 1903, Naples was merely a mud flat. It was not the sprawling, beautiful water community it is today.
Enter developer Arthur M. Parsons, who came to the area one day in 1903 to shoot ducks. He looked over the site and had an epiphany. He whipped out an envelope and made a rough watercolor drawing of his dream reality—a city mimicking the old-world romantic setting of Italia. This ultimately led to the development of the subdivision known today as Naples. At that time, there were no roads leading to it; thus, all the gravel and cement for the sidewalks had to be transported on barges across Alamitos Bay.
You probably didn’t know that Naples’ famed 2nd Street used to be called Gabriella Canal because it wasn’t a street at all in the early 1900s. In fact, it was a waterway! Eventually, the “2nd Street Waterway” was filled in due to poor water circulation when the development of the Shore began.