Ben's Tribute To
The Kapok Tree Restaurant
Presents...
Show and Tell Gallery

Kapok Tree items and images donated by visitors to this website.

A complete Souvenir Brochure from 1966.
It was scanned and emailed to me by Kurt White.
This brochure pre-dates the building of
the Florida Room and Grand Ballroom, which would be built behind the background plants in this cover shot.

Thanks for sharing, Kurt!

From Phyllis Oyler, scans of three vintage postcards featuring the Florida Room, the Velvet Lounge, and an interesting early version
of the Grape Bar.

Thanks for sharing, Phyllis!

     

This is a newspaper advertisement from summer of 1987.
It was contributed by "Ocean Alexander", whose father
managed the Clearwater and other Kapok Tree restaurants
in the 1980's. During this final phase, the chain abandoned
its "country dinners" theme in favor of more typical
restaurant fare.

Thanks for sharing, Ocean!

Four early Kapok Tree placemats were donated
by Rita Mathias of Cygnet, Ohio. This vintage
placemat dates back to the 1960's, and features
the original restaurant logo and some interesting history about the restaurant.

Thanks for sharing, Rita!

Actual recent photos of the Daytona Beach Kapok Tree, captured and donated by Jeff Engelking. Jeff did considerable research and located the former restaurant about a half mile north of the Daytona speedway.

Thanks for sharing, Jeff!

An interesting album of 36 recent photos
taken and donated by Bill Evans in February 2008.
They provide an off-season look
around the gardens maintained by the
present-day Kapok Special Events business.

Thanks for sharing, Bill!

   
    		A nice set of postcard scans contributed by Joseph L. The yellow room is the Sunflower Room at the Ft. Lauderdale Kapok Tree Inn.

Thanks for sharing, Joseph!

These interesting scans of the restaurant's menu were contributed by Mary Jane Bowman. This menu was used by the Kapok Tree Inn starting in the mid-1980's. The restaurant was then under new management, and had abandoned the original "Country Dinners" theme of ham, chicken, steak, or shrimp.

Thanks for sharing, Mary Jane!

     

Two wonderful Kapok items donated by Nancy S. Lynch - an original Kapok Tree punch glass (with box), and an original 1971 souvenir booklet. I plan to scan the complete booklet and post the images here on the website.

Thanks for sharing, Nancy!

Bill Hogan sent scans of three newspaper articles from Frederick Maryland. They provided interesting information about Kapok founder Richard Baumgardner's mother (Grace) and wife (Ethel).

Thank you Bill!

Bob Jeffers sent this scan of his father, Walter Jeffers, who was head chef at Baumgardner's (across the street from the Kapok Tree Inn in Clearwater). This photo is from 1968, shortly after Baumgardner's opened.

Thank you Bob!

         
From David Witt, who runs the great Quasi-interesting Paraphernalia blog, comes this tri-fold mid-1970's Kapok brochure. By this time all but the Daytona Beach Kapok Tree was up and running.

Thanks for sharing, David!

These vintage images of the Ft. Lauderdale (Davie) Kapok Tree were sent in by Jim Cunningham.
     
Jim also sent improved versions of many of the images on this website.

Thank you Jim!

These vintage black & white shots were provided by Matt Hankel. They show the fountain wall in the North Garden and the reflecting pool fountain in the South Garden, both "in action".

Thanks for sharing, Matt!

If you have any Kapok Tree items you would
like to donate or share, please let me know.
(I can even scan items and return them to you.)

I will post them here
and credit you as the contributor.


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© Copyright 2005, 2008, 2010 by Ben Mancine