John Thomas Lowe, Sea Captain and Pinellas Pioneer

By Marilyn Short – December 2019

John Thomas Lowe, a Bahamian by birth in 1830, moved to the Florida Keys as a young boy.   Both he and his father were sea captains and operated schooners carrying mail, lumber, and other provisions between Key West and Cedar Key.

In June of 1859, on one of his stops along the intercoastal waterway in search of fresh water and safe anchorage, Captain Lowe made landfall in what was then the virtually uninhabited Pinellas peninsula.  Accompanying him aboard his schooner “Sea Drift” was his wife, Laura (Meares); their son, Jefferson; John’s parents, William and Mary; other members of the Meares family, and Captain August Archer.

Upon arriving in the area known as “The Narrows” that summer of 1859, John purchased approximately eighty acres of land for $1.25 an acre.  Before long, the area became known as “Lowe’s Landing”, a frontier landmark for early settlers who were dependent on the coastal trade for their supplies. The settlements around Lowe’s Landing expanded in the years following the Civil War.  In 1870, Captain Lowe built a two-story clapboard house of native pine with a cypress shingle roof; its vertical post construction protecting it from strong tropical winds.  In 1882, he donated land across the road from Lowe’s Landing and helped build the Anona Methodist Church and Cemetery.  As the community grew, it needed a name.  In 1883, a post office was added – named “Anona” for the sweet custard apples brought to the settlement from Key West.  Captain Lowe’s son, Jefferson, was its first postmaster.  The Anona community, an area flanking Indian Rocks Road south of West Bay Drive to Walsingham Road, includes some of the earliest tracts settled in the Largo area after the Armed Occupation Act.

Sometime around 1888, Captain Lowe’s son, Wesley, built a home and barn on the family homestead.  The barn survived until about 1912 when a new one was constructed with wood from the old barn.  In 1930, the Lowe property was sold and turned into a tropical garden in which the barn was used for maintenance; in 1948, it was sold once again.  Lowe’s Landing now became known as Randolph Farms, a thriving ranch of over 100 head of cattle and show horses.  Stalls were added and the barn held 50 tons of hay when full.  In 1976, change came once again.

So, what happened to the Captain Lowe’s board-n-batten house and the little barn?  The Lowe’s home and barn, on the verge of being demolished, were in jeopardy once again.  In 1976, the barn was donated to our Historical Society.  The following year, in a joint effort by the Society and the Board of County Commissioners, it was dismantled and   reassembled at Heritage Village.  In 1988, a total restoration project of Captain Lowe’s home was made possible by a grant from the State of Florida. The home was moved (for the third time in 41 years) in May of 1991 to its final resting spot in the Village.  Captain Lowe’s home and barn sit today among the tall pines of the park serving as a vivid reminder of the area’s early history and of Largo’s agricultural heritage.