The Estero Island Historic Society was started in 1991 by a group of island residents who recognized the value of preserving the history of their island community.  It only took three years before this group managed to secure a home for their island museum.  In 1994,  The Estero Island Historic Society acquired the Davison Cottage to serve as their museum.  This was very appropriate as the cottage was originally built in 1921 by Harry K. Davison.  It survived countless storms and several major hurricanes, serving five generations of the Davison family.  For many years, this beach front cottage housed the Sand Castle Kindergarten which was first opened in 1949 by Sue Davison.  Once the Historic Society acquired the cottage, they raised the monies necessary to move it from its beachfront location to its present home on Bay Road.   A few years later, we acquired one of the original Laughing Gull Cottages which was also moved to our Bay Road location and is now known as the “annex” housing our video library and serving as a conference and study room.