LIVING HISTORY
16
ship with Harry. In 1904, Perry and his wife, Edna, purchased
a quarter acre of Harry Hill’s Edgartown property. No doubt,
Corell helped Harry develop as a professional photographer,
but by September 1907 he had sold his Fort Pierce property
and was living once again in Titusville.
CHANGE IN DIRECTION
Shortly after Perry Corell joined him in Florida, Harry Hill
began calling his photography business “The Florida Photographic
Concern.” A St. Lucie Tribune article published Aug.
25, 1905, announced the installation of the recently patented
“Cirkut” camera. The article ends: “Fort Pierce is doubtless
the first town in Florida to install a Cirkut camera, but the
steadily increasing business of the Florida Photographic Concern
and its determination to lead, and not to follow, in things
photographic, are responsible for this innovation on the East
Coast. This firm has already had orders for panoramic views
of the chain of Florida East Coast hotels which, when finished
in the colors of nature, will surpass by ‘long odds’ anything
heretofore produced in the line of advertising our popular
East Coast resorts.”
ST. LUCIE COUNTY REGIONAL HISTORY CENTER
This photograph shows the Hills and others putting The American Bee Keeper
together at Hill’s office in Fort Pierce. The photo appeared in the February
1907 Bee Keeper with the caption, “Mailing The American Bee Keeper.’’
>>
ST. LUCIE COUNTY REGIONAL HISTORY CENTER
Harry and Kate Hill pose in the Florida Photographic Concern studio that still stands in downtown Fort Pierce. Among the well-known photographs that
can be seen on the walls are Seminole Indians, Polly Parker and Billy Bowlegs III, “Rapid Transit,” and “Dawn of the Century.”