In 1911, businessmen from Anna Maria Island and St. Petersburg founded the Anna Maria Beach Company to develop the island into a resort community. The company cleared land, laid out streets and sidewalks, dug wells and laid water pipes, and built stores and rental cottages, many of which stood along Pine Avenue. As was customary, the cottages were given names such as “Idlease,” “Seawaves,” “Coyne Cottage,” and “Marquette.” These mostly wood cottages were built with wide shady porches, deep eaves, and tall shaded windows that drafted out hot air at the top and pulled cooler air at the bottom, making the homes tolerable in Florida heat. Four artesian wells on the island provided water, which the company’s brochure claimed had medicinal properties. Islanders lived on fresh seafood from the surrounding waters and on fruits and vegetables from their gardens, and homesteader George Emerson Bean supported his family by selling crops to soldiers at Egmont Key during the Spanish-American War in 1898.