Editing Cortez, Florida (section)

=== Founding and 19th century ===
[[File:E P Geen family boating at Cortez.jpg|alt=family in a row boat in front of a coastline filled with docks, nets, and fish houses|left|thumb|374x374px|The E. P. Green family is boating on Sarasota Bay in front of the Cortez waterfront in the early 1900s. Photo courtesy of Manatee County Public Library System.]]
Originally called "Hunter's Point", Cortez was settled in the 1880s by families from [[Carteret County, North Carolina]].<ref name=":1" /> When a post office was established in 1888, the village needed a new name to avoid confusion with another Hunter's Point in Florida.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.postalhistory.com/postoffices.asp?task=display&state=FL&county=Manatee |title=Manatee County |publisher=Jim Forte Postal History |access-date=6 June 2015 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150715012047/http://www.postalhistory.com/postoffices.asp?task=display&state=FL&county=Manatee |archive-date=15 July 2015 }}</ref> Although the origins of the name "Cortez" cannot be officially proven, the community may have been named after the Spanish conquistador [[Hernán Cortés]].<ref>{{cite news | url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=4zogAAAAIBAJ&pg=6818%2C4195067 | title=The Legends Behind Manatee Names | work=Sarasota Herald-Tribune | date=Nov 23, 1979 | access-date=6 June 2015 | author=Grimes, David | pages=3B}}</ref> In its early days, Cortez was a fishing village so rural that it was more often reached by water than by land. The mainstay of Cortez was and still is its success in the commercial fishing industry.<ref name=":0" />

==== The 1890 Bratton/Burton Store ====
The first commercial building in Cortez was built by William C. Bratton in the 1890s. This building helped to connect Cortez with the outside world. The Bratton/Burton Store housed the post office, general store, and steamboat wharf. About a decade after its original construction, construction on rooms began in order to expand it into the Albion Inn. The Albion Inn along with the 1912 school house were some of the only buildings on the waterfront to survive the [[1921 Tampa Bay hurricane|hurricane of 1921]]. The Inn eventually closed and was sold to the [[U.S. Coast Guard]]. The Bratton/Burton Store served as [[U.S. Coast Guard Station Cortez]] from 1974 until 1991 - when it was slated for demolition. Cortez residents came together to save the Bratton/Burton Store portion of the building from demolition. In 2006, it was moved to the grounds of the [[Florida Maritime Museum]].<ref>Information on a sign constructed by the Manatee County Historical Commission in conjunction with the Manatee County board of County Commissioners in 2006</ref>