Maloney’s Cashel Endures

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From Cashel there is an unparalleled view of St. Lucie River and Indian River as they flow toward the St. Lucie Inlet.

Alison Azar Beckmeyer who, with her husband, purchased Cashel in 2016, is proud to own the mansion and has lovingly restored it. She recounts how, at the closing, realtor Kim Spears, emotionally expressed the community’s gratefulness that Cashel was being preserved.

When news of the impending purchase got around, one of Alison’s Cleveland colleagues and Martin County history buffs inundated her with the historic background of Cashel and Martin Maloney. Later, Alison visited Moloney-built, St. Catherine’s Catholic Church in Spring Lake, New Jersey.  She was surprised when the church docent did not know Martin Maloney had a winter home in Florida.

Beautiful St. Catherine’s Catholic Church stands near Spring Lake and close to the Atlantic Ocean.

Alison purchased a book about St. Catherine’s Church and, returning to her car, flipped through it. An image of a greeting card that featured, among other buildings, “Cashel in Port Sewall, Florida,” caught her eye. She went back into the church to show it to the docent.

This plaque in on the wall in St. Catherine’s Church.

This got the attention of a priest who was interested to know Alison and Tom Beckmeyer were the proud owners of the Maloney winter home. After learning its name, he pointed a religious mural high above them. One of the figures was Ireland’s “King of Cashel” featuring Martin Maloney’s face!

This 1926 Greeting shows three of buildings funded by Martin Maloney as well as his homes in Spring Lake and Port Sewall.

Alison Beckmeyer snapped this photo of the “King of Cashel” with Martin Maloney’s features.

The wrought iron fence that once surrounded Maloney’s Ballingarry now surrounds a half dozen fine homes. This photograph was taken Allison Beckmeyer when she visited Spring Lake, New Jersey.
Even though Martin Maloney’s daughter, Margaret razed Ballingarry, her parents’ huge Spring Lake mansion in 1953 because no one was willing to buy it, Alison discovered that the estate’s wrought Iron fence still encircles the former Maloney property where several fine homes now stand.

I will conclude my Cashel blogs with photos of scenes of the estate when it was used for television commercials and for Burt Reynolds’ B. L. Stryker, supplied by fellow history buff Brandon Weston but first I want to point out that Cashel continues to be used for charity.

Each year the Beckmeyers host a lavish fundraiser for “Folds of Honor” to provide scholarships from members of injured servicemen. This is a link to the 501c3 organization.

http://Folds of Honor

These scenes of large animals on the Cashel estate are fun to see. Some were taken by Brandon Weston and some are from the Internet. Brandon supplied the link to the actual commercial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7OfD_D5-pY

I am sure you will enjoy watching the commercial. It’s a hoot!

Burt Reynolds stands in Cashel’s entryway.

To finish off, if anyone wants to watch the B.L. Stryker King of Jazz episode that features Cashel. Here is the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MsAzsIKwMU

We will end with this tall Cashel visitor. Brandon said after the giraffe’s arrival the filming of the commercial could not be kept secret and scores of cars stopped because people wanted to know what was going on.

Martin Maloney and his Daughter Margaret :  Catholic Nobility

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Martin Maloney, a “rags to riches” Irish Catholic immigrant, supported the Roman Catholic Church so lavishly that he was named a Papal Marquis by Leo XIII and a Papal Chamberlain by Pius X. He built not only the beautiful St. Catherine’s in Spring Hill, New Jersey, near his mansion Ballingarry, he financed chapels in South Carolina, Georgia and Pennsylvania. He built the Maloney Memorial Home for the Aged in Scranton, Pennsylvania and the elaborate Maloney Chemical Laboratory at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D. C.

After Martin Maloney’s died in 1929. his daughter, Margaret, and her husband, Louis Ritchie, had to deal with his estate that included mortgages on much of downtown Stuart.
This photograph, taken by Arthur Ruhnke, shows some of the property on which Martin Maloney held mortgages, including the Lyric Theatre. Taken the year after a church was moved from Camp Murphy and placed on what was then 4th Street, the “new” St. Joseph Catholic Church can be seen in the middle of this photograph.

Margaret, following in her father’s footsteps, was made a Catholic Marchioness in 1930.

Although I had photographs of Martin Maloney, I could not find a photograph of Margaret Maloney Ritchie. Since I know photographs are needed to draw interest, I kept looking. When I read that 400 people attended Margaret’s wedding at Ballingarry, the family’s palatial estate, I fired off an email to the Spring Lake Historical Society to complain that I could not find a photograph of her.

Nancy Smith, who manages the Spring Lake Historical Society, sent me images on her cell phone of two easily accessible photographs. More digging will be required to find others.

Four hundred guests attended the wedding of Margaret Maloney and Louis Carbery Ritchie at the grand mansion Ballingarry in Spring Lake. New. Jersey.
So for now this is the best photograph we have of Margaret Maloney Ritchie.

Since Martin Maloney was the largest mortgage holder on Stuart property when he died in 1930, Margaret and her husband Louis Carbery Ritchie, as trustees of his estate, had to decide what to do. In addition to the Martin Maloney huge interests, Louis purchased even more property between the St. Lucie River and 4th Street (now East Ocean Boulevard) that went from Florida Avenue to Georgia Avenue. From this, land was given to the Catholic Church for a new St. Joseph Church—really, a hand-me-down church from Camp Murphy, as well as for a rectory overlooking the St. Lucie River.

St Joseph Catholic Church, being moved to Stuart, 1947. The interior of the church was destroyed by fire in 1961 (Elliott Museum Collection)
This served as St. Joseph Church from 1947 until it was damaged by fire in 1961. The Pelican Hotel can be seen in the background.
This photos shows Wilma Glass and Konrad Bobinski leaving the St. Joseph Rectory in 1957, The rectory was built on riverfront land purchased by the Ritchies .

The Ritchies and Margaret’s younger sister, Helen Maloney Osborn and their families enjoyed winters and vacations at Cashel until it was sold in 1952

https://archive.tcpalm.com/yournews/martin-county/historical-vignettes-cashel-martin-maloneys-palatial-estate-ep-382068872-343035652.html

The above link connects to “Cashel, Martin Maloney’s Palatial Estate” a Vignette by Greg and Alice Luckhardt published by Treasure Coast News on September 5, 2012. It includes some of this blog’s information and much more.

February 17, 1992

The outdoor shrine built by Martin Maloney still stands on the grounds of his beautifully preserved mansion, Cashel in Port Sewall.

Cashel—Beyond the Gate

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This photograph and the two below were taken in 1992 to fulfil a request from Nancy M. Parker who was gathering information about the architect, Horace Trumbauer, who designed Cashel.

Martin Maloney’s Cashel completed in 1917 endures.  Its many owners have made modifications through the years but its original design has been maintained.

Through the years Cashel has been the scene for community events and charity fundraisers. The estate has provided the backdrop for Burt Renolds’ B. L. Stryker episodes and high- end television commercials.

In 1992, I was contacting by Nancy M. Parker of Ridgewood, N. J. who was compiling the works of architect Horace Trumbauer who designed Cashel. She requested photographs and Chuck and Joan MacGillvary, who owned the former Maloney estate at the time, gave me permission to take photographs.

This aerial photograph taken by Arthur Ruhnke, shows the Sunrise Inn as well as Cashel to the left of the hotel. Only a few other buildings existed in Port Sewall on January 6, 1949.

In 2010, an elaborate Designer Showcase sponsored by the Children’s Home Society took place at Cashel. Anxious for the significant history of the Maloneys and Cashel to be shared, I did my best to impress the organizers with its importance.

Martin Maloney was incredibly important in Spring Lake , NJ where he built a mansion dwarfing Cashel as well as a splendid Catholic Church. This appeared in the newsletter of the Spring Lake Historical Society. Unfortunately, the Designer Showcase shared practically none of Cashel’s history.


Brandon Weston has become an expert on the history of Cashel ever since he lived on the property and was bitten by the history bug. He has added Martin Maloney and Horace Trumbauer to his area of expertise and is allowing me to use some of his on-sight photos and as well as photographs he has found in his research to illustrate this and future blogs.

Courtesy Brandon Weston
Courtesy Brandon Weston
Courtesy Brandon Weston

Future blogs will feature Martin Maloney’s connection to the Sunrise Inn, Maloney’s ownership of much of Stuart, Maloney’s prominence as a Catholic and his estate’s generosity to local Catholics. Other subjects will be the architect of Cashel, Horace Trumbauer’s importance. and photographs of an elephant, giraffe and a tigers at Cashel as well and Burt Renolds at Cashel as B. L. Stryker.

Martin Maloney, a Winter Resident We Must Know

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THE NEXT SEVERAL BLOGS WILL BE RELATED TO HIS IMPACT ON MARTIN COUNTY

The Lyric Theatre, in the center of Historic Downtown Stuart, is our community’s pride and joy. Next year will mark its centennial. Kia LaFontaine, the Lyric’s CEO, asked me to serve on a committee to flesh out more of its history.

Stuart’s third Lyric Theatre, built with funds supplied by multi-millionaire Martin Maloney, opened its doors on
March 15, 1926.

Since, in my mind, the Hancock family was always responsible for building what is actually Stuart’s third Lyric Theatre, imagine my surprise to find newspaper articles referring to the 1926 theater as Maloney’s.

Martin Maloney. 1848-1929

I have discovered that Martin Maloney, who built the lovely Cashel in in Port Sewall, financed a good deal of Stuart’s boom time construction. Money from his deep pockets not only paid for the “new” Lyric, it financed the 55-acre EDG-RIVA subdivision that stretched from what is now East Ocean Boulevard to the St. Lucie River from the vicinity of the Stuart School almost to Palm Beach Road. This area would later include St. Mary’s Church, the Martin County Library, the Woman’s Club and Martin Memorial Hospital.

Maloney’s story is really one of rags to riches. He became one of our country’s early multi-millionaires when there were only a few.

Born in Ireland in 1848, Martin came to America in 1854, as a six-year- old when his family fled the Irish potato famine and settled in Scranton, PA. As a hardscrabble youth, Martin worked in coal mines and then learned to smith tin and copper, becoming a plumber and gas fitter. By 1974 his owned the Hyde Park Gas Plant and the Maloney Oil, Gas and Manufacturing Co. His fortune ballooned from his patented naphtha gas lighting system for street lamps. Practically every city that installed street lights paid a fee for his patent. Soon he invested in American Light, Standard Oil and the Pennsylvania Railroad.

Even though Warner Tilton, George Browning and John Taylor are listed, the money behind the development was Martin Maloney’s.
Martin Maloney’s grand mansion Ballingarry in Spring Lake NJ was designed by renowned architect, Horace Trumbauer, who also designed Cashel. Ballingarry was demolished but Cashel still stands.

Martin Maloney and his wife Margaret had seven children but only three daughters survived infancy. Catherine, the middle daughter, died of tuberculosis in in 1900, shortly after the Maloney mansion “Ballingarry” was constructed in Spring Lake, NJ. Martin Maloney built a magnificent church in her memory.

After their young daughter, Catherine, died of tuberculosis in 1901, the Maloneys, built this beautiful Romanesque style Catholic Church. Daughter, Catherine, as well Martin and his wife Margaret Maloney are interred in the family crypt within St. Catherine’s Church.

The mansion Cashel Martin Maloney built in Port Sewall was designed by famed architect Horace Trumbauer, who also designed Ballingamy, was completed in 1917.

This ca. 1925 photograph shows Cashel with its garage apartment The original Sunrise Inn is in the center with the boathouses of Sewall’s Point in view across the St. Lucie River.
Everyone who heads to U. S. one via SE St. Lucie Boulevard has to stop when it intersects with SE Old St. Lucie Boulevard. The entrance gate to Cashel, built by Martin Maloney in 1917, is in view to the right.

We see the entrance to the mansion every time we stop where SE St. Lucie Boulevard intersects with SE Old St. Lucie Boulevard. Maloney, his daughter and son-in-law, Margaret and L. C. Ritchie and the mansion Cashel will require several future blogs.

Alyce Edgell and Mosquito Switches

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After I began actively collecting and sharing local history in 1987, my husband, Tom, and I attended a function of the St. Lucie History Museum located on the causeway to Ft. Pierce’s South Beach. When we walked in, one of the ladies say “Well, hello Ms. Thurlow.”

I wondered how she knew me but soon learned that she had been the school secretary for Lawnwood Elementary when I taught there shortly after Tom and I were married in 1962. I was amazed she remembered me because I only taught at Lawnwood for a short time before joining Tom at Travis Air Force Base in California. The lady’s name was Alyce Edgell.

Alyce Edgell. a devoted member of the St. Lucie Historical Society, was the editor of its Historical Quarterly for many years. She prided herself on its content and often including early pioneer accounts that otherwise might be lost. The fact that copies of the Historical Quarterly were preserved in the P. K. Yonge Library at the University of Florida gave her much pleasure.

When I noticed a mosquito switch on display at the St. Lucie History Museum, I remarked that I wondered how they were made. Alyce told me how this was done. She said to clip off a new shoot from the center of a sabal palm (also known as a cabbage palm). While it is still green, shred it with a pin or needle, then make a handle with twine, leaving a loop to use for hanging it up or wearing it on a wrist.

Find a small palm with a new frond that can be cut. If you are unable to get its base you will have to tie it.
Chessy Ricca, former curator at the Elliott Museum, demonstrates How to shred the palm frond.

It is amazing how quickly you can shred the palm. It is actually fun. In no time at all you have something that looks like a horse’s tail.

This is a newly made mosquito switch. It looks very much like a horses tail and will last for a hundred years if kept out of the elements.
Boo Lowery a member of a prominent Stuart family whose father rode a pony at the front of the 1926 Martin County Birthday Parade, bound the handle of this switch and added a loop for hanging or carrying it.

One of the reasons I wanted to feature mosquito switches was to honor Alyce Edgell who taught us how to make them. She died tragically.

ALYCE EDGELL AND HER HUSBAND, ROBERT, WERE KILLED AT THE FLORIDA EAST COAST RAILWAY CROSSING ON SEAWAY DRIVE IN FORT PIERCE ON DECEMBER 14, 1994. ALYCE WAS PRESIDENT OF THE ST. LUCIE COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY AT THE TIME AND SHE AND HER HUSBAND WERE CROSSING THE TRACKS AFTER ATTENDING A HISTORICAL SOCIIETY MEETING.

Mosquito switches of note

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This authentic pioneer mosquito switch appears on page 24 of Sewall’s Point The History of a Peninsular Community on Florida’s Treasure Coast published in 1992. It was barrowed from Garnett Rushing Early to be photographed.

Towns in southeast Florida could not grow because of pesky mosquitoes. Talking about and demonstrating the use of mosquito switches is an effective way of sharing regional history.

When Garnett Early was selling her antiques in 1992 I purchased the same mosquito switch I had photographed for my Sewall’s Point book. The mosquito switch had hung by the door in Garnett’s grandmother, ‘s house on Detroit Street in Stuart near the Martin County Courthouse for as long as Garnett could remember. It has been made by her grandmother’s husband, Fred Kummer. Since Garnett was 69 at time, the mosquito switch was many years old.

The girl with the bow is Garnett’s mother, Clara White. Her grandmother, who later became Elizabeth Kummer, stands in the middle. This photograph was obtained from a glass negative supplied by Stephen Dutcher who was Garnett’s realtor when her house was sold.

http://Historical Society of Martin County

Garnett’s mosquito was donated to the Elliott Museum on Hutchinson Island.

This photograph shows the interior of the Capt. Henry Sewall House in Indian RiverSide Park. One of my replica mosquito switches has been hanging by the door since I gave history talks on Wednesdays. Bruce and Barbara Osborn have been hosting visitors on certain Wednesdays since I “retired.”.

Pioneers not only walked around swinging mosquito switches, switches were hung outside doors so the pests could be swished off as a person quickly entered a screen door and closed it. After photographing the mosquito switch in the Capt. Henry Sewall House I went to the Stuart Heritage Museum on Flagler Avenue in Historic Downtown Stuart to photograph their mosquito switches.

The mosquito switches hanging the the Stuart Heritage Museum are both authentic pioneer examples and replicas made by members of Stuart Heritage in the 1990s.

Lauri Bradfield was President of Stuart Heritage, Inc. in 1992. She became an enthusiastic supporter of using mosquito switches to tell about pioneer days. She learned to make them and even made tiny switches to sell for Christmas tree ornaments.http://Stuart Heritage Museum

Mosquito Switches (in three installments)

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This worker is using not only a mosquito switch, but also a smudge and protective clothing. Courtesy Florida Memory

An Ernest F. Lyons Column published in the Last Cracker Barrel entitled “The ‘Good Old Days’ in our Small Town” tells us:

“The salt marsh mosquitos and sandflies were a plague all summer long. Inhabitants kept mosquito switches handy (made from shredded palm fronds) to slap at ankles, wrists and face as they walked abroad.

“When the townfolk went down to meet the mail train in the evening, the passengers were amazed to see them doing a sort of St. Vitas Dance in the street alongside the tracks. It was the famous East Coast of Florida Mosquito Dance, accompanied by slaps of the palm switches.

(“St. Vitus’ dance” is an old fashion name for rheumatic chorea a disorder characterized by rapid, uncoordinated jerking movements.)

Ernest Lyons, beloved longtime editor of The Stuart News wrote weekly columns using prose that bordered on the poetic. Two books of selected columns were published in the 1970s.

The late Val Martin of Florida Classics Libraries, obtained rights to the Lyons books and republished them.

This edition of The Last Cracker Barrel is still available.

When 90 year old Eden pioneer Reginald Waters was interviewed by Debi Witaschek in 1977, he related: “The settlers employed many different methods to ward off the pests, including buring a ‘mosquito power’ in their homes which had a fairly strong odor. It was better than the mosquitos

“The main vehicle used to thwart the bugs was a switch made from the heart of a palmetto tree frond. Waters said it was almost impossible to describe how they were made. Part of the technique involved shredding the frond until it was about the same texture as hair. The switch, one of which everyone owned, was carried everywhere and in constant use swinging back and forth to keep the mosquitos off the owner.”

Of course, I wanted to learn how to make a mosquito switch. I did learn, about thirty years ago. I made several and used them to talk about  what it was like in pioneer times before mosquito control.

Recently, I realized I was not sure I remembered how I had made mosquito switches. I tried to recall and was successful.  

Dr. Anna Darrow

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Anna Darrow and her husband , Roy, graduated from the Kirksville School of Osteopathy in Kirksville, Missouri in 1905.

Anna Darrow, the second female physician to be licensed in Florida and who incidentally received the highest score ever theretofore recorded, once lived in Stuart. Her story is amazing. Anna and her husband, also a doctor, left a background of big cities to move to Okeechobee City in the summer of 1912. Just getting there from Ft. Pierce was an ordeal.

This photograph was used by Greg and Alice Luckhardt who inserted the text.

She treated pioneer settlers, Seminole Indians, and outlaws, setting broken bones and delivering babies including four sets of twins, in the crudest of circumstances. She traveled by horse and wagon, Model T Ford, by boat and ox cart as well as on foot along primitive trails . She often had to wade.

The Darrows had two children, Richard, born in 1897 and Dorothy, born in 1903. Richard, after developing tuberculosis, practiced law in Arizona. Dorothy was a teacher and librarian at Horace Mann High School in Miami for many years. Both children attended Rollins College.

This photograph was used by Greg and Alice Luckhardt who inserted the text.

The Darrow building adjoined the Raulerson Department Store overlooking the broad park, that is a predominant feature of Okeechobee City to this day.

I recently reread Lawrence Will’s Cracker History of Okeechobee. It includes a long chapter on” “Doc Anner.” Lawrence Will was the historian of the Glades who published six books. His text is in “cracker dialect” and is a far from being politically correct. However, his books contain an amazing record of a pioneer era that is long gone. His books impart an understanding of the transformation of Lake Okeechobee and the Everglades during its so called reclamation.

Here is a link to the Museum of the Glades.

Below please find the chapter of Doctor Anna Darrow.

Lawrence Will's chapter on Amma Darrpw om Cracker History of Okeechobee

Although it was Lawrence Will’s information packed chapter of Dr. Anna Darrow that made me want to share her story in a blog, I found that since I had learned about her years ago, she has gained acclaim.

In 2011 she was featured an article n the National Endowment for the Humanities, magazine entitled “Swamp Doctor. ” Actress, Carrie Sue Ayvar, portrayed Anna Darrow as a Florida Humanities Council presenter throughout the state.https://www.neh.gov/humanities/2011/mayjune/statement/the-swamp-doctor

In 2016, Greg and Alice Luckhardt published a lengthy and information packed Vignette in the Stuart News with Dr. Anna Darrow and her family as subjects.https://www.tcpalm.com/story/specialty-publications/your-news/martin-county/reader-submitted/2016/12/20/historical-vignettes-anna-darrow-stuarts-first-female-doctor/95651344/

It makes me proud that this amazing woman came to Stuart for a time, as can be proved from the page of the Stuart directory when the town was still within Palm Beach County.

Anna Darrow was an artist whenever she had a time for art. When she retired, she took up painting again. She even won a prize for a painting of herself doctoring in Okeechobee. Her painting is humorous. It shows Florida Wood Storks delivering one of the four sets of twins she delivered while she was in the Glades.

Dr. Anna Darrow with her prize winning painting.

Caesar Dean

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The name of the much admired Bahamian, Caesar Dean, came up as I researched George W. Perkins.

Years go by and gradually things begin to fit together. I discovered that pioneer, Ike Craig, was the caretaker of the Perkins estate. One of the precious few photographs of an identified black man is one of Caesar Dean near a pineapple cart with Ike Craig. It has been published many times.

Caesar Dean stands at far right. This photograph was probably taken at Ike Craig’s “Old Dominion Pinery.” It was located where Leisure Village is today. The “Ike Craig’s Pond” where Stuart News editor, Ernie Lyons, was allowed to fish as a boy can still be seen on the south side of Monterey Road .

When Chessy Rica was curator at the Elliott Museum, she put together an exhibit on pineapple culture. After all, our region was the “Pineapple Capital of the World.” Chessy used the photograph of Caesar Dean and Ike Craig and went a step further, designing a storyboard with dated newspaper articles about Caesar Dean. She follow up with a blog and published an article ”Who was Caesar Dean?” in Martin County’s Hometown News.

Very few obituaries of black people were published in Florida newspapers but Caesar Dean was so outstanding, his was published in the Stuart News. Ernest F. Lyons, Editor of the Stuart News who comprehensive historical editions, knew the importance of Caesar Dean and probably wrote this obituary.
Caesar Dean’s chiseled features makes it possible to recognize him standing at left on this rare postcard.

I came across a detailed article about Caesar Dean saving the Perkinses on their yacht “Emily Swan” published in the Stuart Times on March 12, 1915. It augments Chessy Ricca’s research.

George W. Perkins was aboard his motor yacht, “Emily Swan” with his daughter, Dorothy, and her friends.  The young man who was piloting the yacht said they should be able to go outside the St. Lucie Inlet even though seas were rough.

Going outside was ill advised. A wave broke the cabin’s windows and flooded the boat which began to broach. As the boat was beginning to capsize, Caesar Dean who was the boat as a deckhand, sprang to action and gripped the wheel. With his great strength and knowledge of the sea, he brought the yacht safely around and back into calm waters.

This photograph of George Perkins’ daughter, who was saved by Caesar Dean, appeared in the Boston Globe on September 18, 1916.

It is amazing what can be found on http://newspapers,com. Although this trivia may not be of great interest, I want to take this opportunity to record it. The yacht Caesar Dean saved was named the “Emily Swan.” The father of the George W. Perkins connected to Stuart and his wife, Sarah, named their only daughter, “Emily Swan” after a much admired friend. Two years after Sarah died in childbirth, George Sr. married Emily Swan. That made two Emily Swam Perkins, one the stepmother of the other.

This photograph of Emily Swan, the sister of George W. Perkins, Jr., who owned the estate on Frazier Creek, can be found on the Internet.

Emily Swan Perkins was a composer of hymn tunes and founder of what is now The Hymn Society of the United States. She was born in Chicago in 1866 and died in Riverdale, N. Y. in 1941. https://hymnology.hymnsam.co.uk/e/emily-swan-perkins

You can find videos of Emily Swan Perkins Pienary Addresses on You Tube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-kIJXNmcgU. Who would believe such things can be found when researching the name of a boat?

When the 1933 Hurricane destroyed Caesar Dean’s home in Stuart, members of the still grateful Perkins family paid to have ta new house built. An article telling of this was on Chessy Ricca’s storyboard. It was an article published in the Stuart Daily News on September 7, 1933. Ceasar Dean’s house was located at 545 Pinewood Street. Pinewood Street, later to be 7th Street, is today’s Martin Luther King Jr Boulevard.

George Perkins would not have been able to participate in the Port Sewall Regatta held on March 11, 1917, if the Emily Swan had capsized in the St. Lucie Inlet.( Note number 10.)
Although this postcard was taken after the Shepards purchased the former Perkins Estate it shows the boathouse that once housed the Emily Swan. The Shepards’ boat the Gadabout is at right.
This is a scene is from Robinson Crusoe filmed locally in 1916 by Henry Savage in which Caesar Dean played “Friday.”

George W. Perkins, Associate of J. P. Morgan, Once Owned Today’s Shepard Park

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Before the Shepards owned the house in what is now Shepard Park it was owned by George W. Perkins and his wife, Dorothy. Perkins was an associate of J. P. Morgan and was a powerful insurance executive and industrialist.

This photo of Dorothy and George Perkins, from Wikipedia, was taken shortly before his death on June 18, 1920. The Internet lists him as a victim the flu pandemic.

It is so much fun to research subjects that have been on my radar for years but now I can go back and use the Internet to find photographs, newspaper articles, and fascinating details.

This early postcard shows houses along the St. Lucie River around 1910. (Today they are on Atlantic Avenue.) The house on the left, the residence of Emma and Walter Kitching, still stands as does the Judge and Mamie Hancock house in the center. The George W. Perkins house can be seen at the extreme right.

The Perkins house was built by Hubert Bessey, considered to be Stuart’s founding pioneer. After the house with four acres bordering Frazier Creek and the South Fork of the St. Lucie River was sold to Perkins, Fred Schultz, a German landscaper with a long history on Jupiter Island, supervised constructing seawalls and filling low places by bringing in muck obtained from the other side of the river in lighters. Trees of many varieties were then planted. According to newspaper articles the Perkins Estate was the most beautiful on Florida’s East Coast. Pioneer, Ike Craig was the caretaker.

Unfortunately, the best photograph of the Perkins/Shepard house was taken when it burned on March 4, 1947. (Photograph taken by Clyde Coutant , courtesy of Norie Neff.)

It was the photographs I acquired from photographer, Clyde Coutant’s daughter, Norie Neff, that made me want to create blogs about Shepard Park in the first place.

According to newspaper articles the fire fighters did their best but could not save the building. However, they removed the furniture so it was salvaged.
(Coutant photograph)
William H. Shepard was said to have planted coconuts whenever he could, both on his estate and along the railway tracks through Stuart. (Coutant photograph)
The fire occurred on March 4, 1947.

One of the earliest aerials taken by Arthur Ruhnke shows the Perkin/Shepard residence. Since it is dated August 1948, and articles found using http://newspapers.com, reveal the fire occurred on March 4, 1947, we know the house was already damaged. When the photograph is enlarged it looks like the southwest wing has no roof.

The elder Shepards had died by the time of the fire but their daughters had opened the house for the season. Mrs. Shepard’s sister and her grandson were fishing in the Gulf Stream with Capt. Walter Johns when the fire broke out.

The family offered to sell the estate to the City of Stuart for a park. Thank heaven officials took them up on the offer.

This sunset image of the moth of Frazier Creek with Shepard Park at right was downloaded from the Internet. HDR photography image processed in Photomatix Pro.