Southwest Florida Info - Alva

Alva today is a charming, rural, unincorporated area of Lee County, Florida. A drive through Alva reveals extensive citrus groves, pastures dotted with cattle and horses, houses, some grand, most modest, nestled beneath majestic live oaks, dripping with strands of Spanish moss, and a small village perched upon the banks of the Caloosahatchee River. Alva has a long and rich history, being one of the first settlements in Southwest Florida.

Alva was founded in 1887 and located along the Caloosahatchee River on State Road 80 about 11 miles west of LaBelle. Alva received its name from the first settler, Captain Peter Nelson. He named it after a delicate flower that grows in his native land, Denmark. From the magnificent sunsets over the Caloosahatchee River to the majestic oaks draping their moss-laden limbs over the center of the village near the banks of the river, it has a unique country flavor that is rapidly becoming hard to find in Florida.  Alva is the oldest settlement in Lee County. Alva boasts the oldest church in Lee County, a Methodist Church built in 1926, which is still being used as a house of worship. The town also had the first library in Southwest Florida, which today serves as the Alva Historical Museum.

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Links of Interest (3rd party links will open in a new window):
Alva History - a pictorial look back at the early years of Alva