History of the Rosedale Cottage
The Village Cafe is based at the Rosedale Cottage: a 2,000 sq ft home built in 1913 by Captain Mitch Davis, a retired sea captain and the first ever mayor of Anna Maria. He built the house for George Wilhelm Bean, the son of George Emerson Bean, the first settler on the island who came to Anna Maria in 1892. 
George W Bean set up the Anna Maria Beach Company with Charles Roser (who made his money creating the first ever Fig Newton and selling it to the company that became Nabisco!) and together they began to make the Island what it is today. From 1910 they surveyed, laid out streets and sidewalks and built houses. Colorful brochures pictured deep-flowing wells with a combined capacity of more than two million gallons daily of pure artesian water. They built a dock, the same City Pier, which attracts fishermen and tourists today at the end of Pine Avenue. Large steamers would bring supplies, mail and visitors to the island.
In the early 40's, the J.Hartley Blackburn family lived in the house, which then became lovingly known as Cozy Corner. Betty and Hartley were schoolteachers and active trustees of the church. They taught Sunday school and when classes became too large, they moved the children to the front porch of Cozy Corner.
IN 1951, Norman and Kay Rosedale moved into Cozy Corner, which is when it became known as the Rosedale Cottage. Norman was an island builder and Kay played the piano at Roser Church and for island organizations. They had one son Dick, and this was to be Dick Rosedale's family home for 55 years until 2009. Some of his family photographs are on show in the front room - the original 'breezeway' front porch, where the family would sleep during the long hot summers, when the only air conditioning was a gentle breeze! Dick is now in his 70's and pleased with our renovation of his family home and it's conversion to the Village Cafe. He often comes by when he's in town.
Today the Rosedale Cottage is owned by us, Mike and Lizzie Thrasher and we have developed it is a model cottage to showcase renewable energy. This building joins the three other buildings on the site of the Anna Maria Historic Green Village(the 'HGV') a special place where we are trying to create Zero Net Energy by reducing our energy use and generating the remaining energy that we need from the sun.
They key technologies we use are all easily used in a home. We believe it makes a ton of sense to learn from our successes and our mistakes and to allow our visitors to take some of these learning's home with them. As energy prices rise and energy sources become less secure, the route we are following can reduce your utitily bills and make your family part of the solution rather than part of the ever increasing energy problem.