Teddy Bear Museum of Naples AKA Frannie's Teddy Bear Museum

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The Teddy Bear Museum of Naples began with a Christmas present: a stuffed M&M'S teddy bear given to Frances Pew Hayes by one of her grandchildren in 1984. Hayes liked the M&M'S Bear so much she began to collect more bears and bearaphernilia (but, unfortunately not, to the sorrow of the M&M Mars Candy Co., more M&M'S branded stuff -- although one supposes it could have gone either way). Between her own considerable purchasing power and gifts from friends and her large family, she was quickly able to amass a large and comprehensive collection of the toys. The next logical step, if you're a wealthy patron of the arts used to getting things built (The Naples Philharmonic Center for the Arts didn't name its main auditorium "Frances Pew Hayes Hall" for nothing) you form a 501(C)(3) non-profit organization and open a museum. Thus, on December 19, 1990, with 1,500 bears from "Frannie" Hayes's collection, The Teddy Bear Museum of Naples (at that time known as "Frannie's Teddy Bear Museum") opened its doors. For a while the museum, which was located at the corner of Pine Ridge and Airport Roads in Naples, attracted a claimed 50,000 visitors a year, and the collection of teddy bears multiplied. Hayes died on May 15th, 2004, at the age of 85. As happens with many museums founded in the passion of a single collector, the Teddy Bear Museum of Naples did not long survive its benefactor; it closed in 2005 and the collection was sold off.

Note: the attractions profiled on this site are no longer in business. Return To Florida's Lost Tourist Attractions Brochure image from the author's collection. Telephone number redacted (no point in calling whoever has it now, Museum is closed). This site Copyright (c) 1997-2011 by Robert H. Brown