Remains Of The Arches/Former Home of Frank and Rebecca Hemelgarn

Frank Hemelgarn was a bit of an go getter. He ran Time Square and the Tip Top. He is the one that put the rock wall in next to what is now the Pierside and the Pier after Hurricane Donna. Some say he was the first to use the phrase "Time Square" in refering to the Fort Myers Beach iconic area.

He ran a construction company out of his home on Rebecca Court and the street was named after his wife. He had a contract to remove the Arch pieces and placed them in his yard where some still remain today.

In early 2019 our group removed the remains from 40 years of undergrowth with heavy equipment,and had what remained of the Arches 3-D imaged by the USF IDEX. We also had them reconstruct the Arches in 3-D modeling using the original materials and FDOT documents for dimensions. The goal is to us the original materials were possible in a new Arch.

Our community loved the Arches and using original stone will make a new Arch feel like the old one. Some of those that stopped in 1979 on the side of the road to pick up pieces of the Arches have donated those stones back to us. Some of them would like to set their original Arch stones into the new Arches.

Although some of these stones are 2,000 and some are 10,000 we can use the magic of 3D imagining to capture and manipulate them as if they were pebbles. We have learn much of the original construction and will us these techniques to build the new ones. Some of these will be in the new Arches. When they destroyed our identity (the Arches) they took a part of our town with it. It was all a big mistake that we are trying to correct.