Sunday Favorites: The Cortez Cultural Center

The Cortez Village Cultural Center, located on FISH preserve just before the Cortez Bridge to Anna Maria Island, doesn’t look like much. It’s a small white house with green shutters, set back from the main road. The interior, in the midst of being redecorated, is filled with dusty relics and history of the small fishing village - the last of its kind along Florida’s Gulf Coast.

A small desk from the old school house (now the Florida Maritime Museum) sits in the corner. A cutting block from the kitchen of the Albion Inn, once located at the site of the U.S. Coast Guard Station, is pushed against the wall. Black and white photos of buildings, people and fish decorate the wooden interior. Outside, the beginnings of a vegetable garden border a cozy screened porch.

It isn’t until you meet and chat with the members of the group that created the center, the Cortez Village Historical Society (CVHS) that you begin to recognize the significance of the place.

Kaye Bell, president of the CVHS, showed me around the property a few weeks ago. Kaye and other members of the society want it to play a critical role in the survival of Cortez culture. While the character of the village is protected by Manatee County with a historic overlay district, the culture of its people is consistently at risk. Developers have had their eye on the surrounding waterfront land for years, which poses a direct threat to the delicate ecosystem of Sarasota Bay. Cortesians, as I call them, rely on the bay to sustain the fishing industry they began more than a century ago.

Cortez was founded in the 1880s by five fisherman from Carteret County, N.C., who each bought a tract of land on Sarasota Bay. They made their living harvesting the fish there. Originally known as ”Fishermen Town“ at Hunter’s Point, the name of the village changed to Cortez in 1891, when residents applied for a post office. By then, there were 20 families living there.

The culture of the village has survived many hardships; the influenza epidemic in 1918, the hurricane of 1921, and WWI, when many villagers went off to fight overseas and women and children were left to carry on the fishing and farming efforts. In 1991, when gill nets were outlawed due to environmental concerns, villagers focused on creating new markets, like stone crab, to ensure the survival of the industry. By working together, the village always seemed to overcome obstacles; seafood production, in Cortez is valued at $14 million annually, according to the CVHS.

Today, CVHS is working to educate a new generation of Manatee County residents about their historic home and rekindle some of the camaraderie among Cortez residents.

The Cortez Village Cultural Center opened in 2016, after a family on Anna Maria donated their ancestral home to the CVHS. The small house was moved to FISH preserve, then completely renovated by volunteers.

Kaye partnered with Manatee School of the Arts students to educate children about the significance the small community. Students learn the history of the Cortez, take a tour the A.P. Bell fishing distribution center, and then express what they learned through art, producing an array of handmade pieces they sell or perform at the center. You can also find locally authored books, paintings and photos there.

Due to COVID-19, touring the Cortez Cultural Center is conducted by appointment only. But, residents can get a personalized experience when they visit. Think you might be related to an original Cortisan? A trained genealogist can help trace lineage to one of the original families! When you have someone like Kaye giving a tour, the relics within the building come to life. That desk once sat in the first brick schoolhouse in the county. Hundreds of fish were filleted and prepared on the butcher’s block from the Albion Inn, just in time for a community fish fry. Those black and white photos all have a fantastic story behind them. Oh, and that little garden outside? That represents the victory gardens during WWI. There is also a walking tour you can take that identifies every building in the village.

I encourage everyone to take a tour of The Cultural Center. It’s a little piece of personalized history, you won’t want to miss!