The Snack House, an icon of Fort Myers, 1950s Americana, springs back to life at museum

The Snack House, an iconic downtown Fort Myers diner from 1949 through 1993, is springing back to life after more than a quarter century of dormancy.

The new Snack House will have items from the original menu, new ownership, a new location and the original, refurbished sign.

IMAG, formerly known as the Imaginarium, is a science and history museum at 2000 Cranford Ave., in Fort Myers. When it reopens under limited capacity Oct. 2, patrons will be able to order from a limited menu at the new Snack House. The plans were to open in March, but the COVID-19 pandemic put those plans on hold, IMAG executive director Matt Johnson said.

Johnson brainstormed with his staff ways to bring back its cafeteria. In recent years, vending machines were the only food options. Then he remembered the Snack House sign.

“We just never really had a place for it as far as to go with an exhibit,” Johnson said. “It’s a big sign. It really came about when we were talking about bringing in a new company to run our café here. With the new company coming in, we realized we had the Snack House brand out there. What if we used that name? That would give us a good opportunity to refurbish the sign and put it on display.”

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When the Hotel Indigo opened in the back of the Collier Arcade building, the new owners were going to trash the sign in 2007, when it was offered to the Fort Myers history museum, which later merged with IMAG. It broke off from city ownership and became a non-profit organization in 2017.

The sign hung at 1520 Broadway Ave., downtown, for more than three decades.

“It was considered a landmark by the locals,” said Joanne Miller, a local historian. “People came from all over, and the bus station was right behind it.”

Ichiban, the Japanese and Chinese restaurant inside the Collier Arcade, used to be part of the Snack House, Miller said, and the Ichiban bathrooms are the original Snack House bathrooms. The News-Press used to publish adjacent to the Snack House.

Miller ate her first Cuban sandwich there.

“Seed & Bean Market was the original bakery of the Snack House,” she said. “In the back, there were these tables, and local men would meet there for coffee. They would talk about just everything.”

Fort Myers native Woody Hanson was one of those young local men who dined and drank coffee on many a morning or afternoon.

“The 1950s was a period of optimism, and the economy was strong,” Hanson recalled. “The Cold War may have affected the mood, but it was Jim Crow Fort Myers that set the tone. By municipal ordinance, at this time, members of the Dunbar community had to be on the other side of the railroad track by sundown. The city and its ordinance justified segregation as 'a matter of culture.' There was an order and pick-up window, 'colored only,' in the alley.”

Hanson often crossed paths with Bill Reynolds, the area’s real estate broker of his day. He owned everything on Broadway from the Snack House to Main Street. He brokered land deals for what became Cape Coral and Lehigh Acres, Hanson said.

“We called him ‘Rainbow’ or ‘Mr. Big,’” Hanson said. “He carried a wad of cash as big as a roll of toilet paper and wore very colorful outfits that he purchased regularly in Siesta Key.”

But the Snack House revolved around Win Ellis, its owner from Cleveland, Tennessee. By the late 1960s, Ellis closed the rear-alley window and opened the doors to Black patrons if they sat in the back of the restaurant. Integration followed in the 1970s.

Jerry Ellis, 79 and the son of Win Ellis, said he was elated to see his father's creation brought back.

"He really deserves it," said Ellis, who lives in Monterrey, California, where he's chairman of the Undersea Warfare Academic Group for the Naval Postgraduate School.  "He was a very, quiet, humble guy. Well-known. People loved him. I'm proud of him."

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Jerry Ellis, a 1959 Fort Myers High graduate, grew up in the Snack House, working his first jobs as a busboy, a cook and eventually a waiter. He went on to command nuclear submarines and retired as an admiral with the U.S. Navy before taking his current job as a civilian.

"Some great memories," Ellis said of the Snack House. "I met a lot of people. I just look back on it and feel so lucky I was brought up in Fort Myers. It was like the old café in Happy Days. It was very memorable to me, and the friends I had and have still. I can’t say enough about it. I think about it a lot. The Snack House sign, you’ve never really seen anything quite like it. I still can see it, hanging on Broadway."

Cuban sandwiches, Bobby Durrance’s carrot cake, Spanish bean soup, milkshakes, cheeseburgers, eggs and bacon and the fresh-brewed coffee were the staples of the menu.

Win Ellis became active in local civic groups and was well-known for his generosity, Hanson said. He oversaw a diner that catered to the city’s “powerbrokers” of the ‘50s through the early ‘90s. When Ellis retired, the Snack House closed.

“In the Snack House, more business deals were done and court cases were settled than anywhere else, including the courthouse,” Hanson said.

Carbon Press, founded by Patrick Wilke three years ago, restored the sign for IMAG. The restoration took about two months. Carbon Press creates signage, marketing products, banners, flags and more for the city, Lee County and area businesses looking to spread their brands and messages.

“It’s kind of what we do every day,” said Wilke, 36 and a Fort Myers native who grew up seeing the sign until it was removed.

The sign was in pretty bad shape, Wilke said. “It was all oxidized. It was very rusted out. We ended up replacing the interior acrylics. We do a lot of historic researching.

“We were able to recreate what it looked like from day one. We are 99% sure we were able to get the original shade of red and the blue. The only thing new, is we put LEDs inside instead of the fluorescent tubes. It has a cleaner look. But the whole sign, the frame and the structure of it, 90% is all original."

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The IMAG has been open to small groups, and Johnson said he’s looking forward to having more guests view the sign, even in a limited capacity. Johnson encouraged the public to check theimag.org for updated hours of operation because of the pandemic.

“Everybody’s excited about it,” Johnson said. “It’s not what we anticipated. There are a lot of people in town who remember the Snack House. Even after it closed, the sign stayed up for so long. People remember the sign, even though the restaurant beneath it became different things. There’s a lot of nostalgia around the idea of it. That’s part of our mission, being a place that provides the history of Southwest Florida.”

Connect with this reporter: David Dorsey (Facebook), @DavidADorsey (Twitter).