CITY OF STUART’S HISTORIC MARKER

Uncategorized, , , , , , ,

Recently the City of Stuart put an historical marker in front of the 1922 bungalow housing Francisca Morgan’s Interior Design Studio. The address is 227 SE Ocean Boulevard and it stands where Florida Avenue meets East Ocean; The Wells Fargo building that is gradually becoming Stuart’s City Hall is on the opposite corner to the east.

Even though the historic marker shows the plat of the East End Subdivision the significance of the developers is not mentioned. Carrie W. Webb and Sarah E. Hower, a widow and a spinster from Chicago, came to Stuart in 1913 and immediately started buying land and developing it. Their first subdivision, the “Webb and Hower,” was in Palm City at the eastern edge of Lighthouse Point where lovely homes look out on the Roosevelt Bridge and Sunset Bay with its docks and restaurants.

At the time, traveling by boat was the way to get around so Carrie Webb’s and Sarah Hower’s subdivision was considered to be part of Stuart. When incorporation was being promoted, articles say the town would extend to the Webb and Hower Subdivision to the west. When Stuart was officially incorporated on May 7, 1914 this was its seal.

The bit of land at the left of the seal contains Webb and Hower’s Subdivision. The Town boundary was the middle of the river so it was not actually in Stuart. However, since the only bridge was the FEC Railway Bridge, it was as easy to go to Palm City by boat to as it was to go anywhere else on the St. Lucie River.

Stuart was surrounded by the St. Lucie River. This made traveling by boat an easy way to get around. There were few roads before a highway bridge over the St. Lucie River was built in 1918.
This 1962 Tax Map shows the area that was the original Town of Stuart, incorporated in 1914. The boundary ran from today’s Palm Beach Road, west to the middle of the St. Lucie River, then around today’s Flagler Park back to its beginning on Palm Beach Road.

When I read the legal description of the Town of Stuart, it took me a while to comprehend. The way the boundary was determined was using the centerline of the channel in the St. Lucie River traveling until it hit the east line of Section 4. Today we can think of it as Palm Beach Road.

Roads in Stuart’s early days were so few this one that had been covered with crushed rock warranted a postcard. When this photograph was taken, the 1908 concrete block school house had yet to be built. Later the road would be 4th Street and in 1961 would be renamed East Ocean Boulevard.
The Stuart School built of concrete blocks manufactured by Frank Frazier, constructed in 1908, was within a few hundred few of Carrie Webb’s and Sarah Hower’s East End Subdivision. The school building became the Martin County Court House in 1925 when the county was created.

The ladies’ second subdivision was East End where Francisca Morgan’s Interiors is located was well within the Town (Stuart became a City in 1925 when Martin County was created.

The part Sarah Hower played in founding our public library is of the utmost significance. “The public library, which is considered the greatest achievement of the Woman’s club was started in 1917 when Miss Sara Hower, of the firm of Webb & Hower, suggested the idea and set it afoot by a donation of books.”

When I found this article, I wanted Sarah Hower to be recongized for her part in the creation of our first public library.
It was from this humble beginning in the former Christian Endeavor Hall that Martin County’s outstanding Library System was born.

Sarah Hower and Carrie Webb’s most impressive development was Yacht Club Beach on one hundred acres of Hutchinson Island. It skipped the Gilbert’s Bar Yacht Club land but contains 82 lots where many beautiful oceanfront homes stand today. When the island is broad enough to accommodate them, homes stand on the Indian River as well.

Gilbert’s Bar Yacht Club stood south on Hutchinson Island south of the house of refuge. This photograph was supplied by Errol Willes who was the last living member of the club.

This image captured from the Martin County Property Appraiser’s site, shows most of the lots of Yacht Club Beach in red. The lots nearest the entrance to Sailfish Point are the location of Bathtub Beach and are now owned by Martin County. Martin County also owns the lots where an inlet was formed during hurricanes early in this century. The two lots with red on either side indicate the location of the Yacht Club that were owned by the club’s last living member and sold privately in the 1980s.

It is remarkable that women were land developers in 1914 the same year the Woman’s Club of Stuart that was founded. As stated, Sarah Hower is even credited with the move to establish our public library.

Carrie Webb died in 1924 when she was struck by a car in downtown West Palm Beach. Sarah Hower, who never married, died in a nursing home in West Palm Beach in 1948. The newspaper said she had no known relatives.

Amanda Portwood, of Francesca Morgan Interiors, did a fine job analyzing and reducing the great volume of material provided by Julie Preast our outstanding historical researcher so it could fit on the City of Stuart Historical Marker. However, since we have no photographs of the women who were so active in the community, particularly in regard to our library, I wanted to use the attention brought to Francesca Morgan Interiors to bring attention to Carrie W. Webb and Sarah E. Hower.

Julius Rosenwald and Martin County

Uncategorized, , , , , , , , ,

Julius Rosenwald, a child of Jewish German immigrants, was born in 1862 while Abraham Lincoln was President. His home was only a block from Lincoln’s in Springfield, Illinois.

Julius Rosenwals

With only two years of high school, Rosenwald traveled to New York City and became an apprentice to his uncles who were clothing manufacturers. After learning everything he could from his uncles Julius set up his own company specializing in men’s ready-to-wear suits.

Copies of Sears and Roebuck Co. Catalogs can be found on line. This is the cover was dated 1897.
Richard Warren Sears

Back in Illinois, the Sears and Roebuck and Co. had come to life, expanding like crazy. Entrepreneur, Richard Sears, was an amazing idea-man and promoter but he lacked the necessary organizational skills needed for what he has created. Catalogs were being mailed to hundreds of thousands homes in the United States and orders were flooding in. There was no way to keep up, so the shipping-room was in chaos.

After including more mens’ suits in his catalog than he could supply, Sears enlisted Rosenwald to provide them. He was so impressed with the way the Rosenwald’s company operated he offered him a job.

We can learn much about the early policies of Sears, Roebuck and Co. by surfing the Internet.

This was Rosenwald’s big break and it turned out to be a break for all of the United States.

Julius Rosenwald was soon establishing order out of the chaos. When Sears offered him 25% of the company, he borrowed from his family to swing the deal and before he knew it, he was President of Sears, Roebuck and Co.  

Jeff Bezos

Sears was what Amazon is today. Rosenwald, like Jeff Bezos, had the vision of delivering anything in the marketplace to customers who placed orders. Rather than the Internet, the big Sears, Roebuck Catalog provided almost endless surfing material. When you read the terms in vintage Sears catalogs, you realize that Rosenwald, like Bezos, knew that a good return policy was important.

Since products included everything from diamond rings, to shotguns and complete houses, one wonders how all of this was worked out. Only a organizational genius like Julius Rosenwald could establish the systems. At the time, he had the help of the U. S. Postal Service and the shipping agents of the U. S. Railway System.

With great wealth Rosenwald’s became a generous philanthropist. After reading Up from Slavery, he developed a close friendship with Booker T. Washington. This led to the establishment of  the Rosenwald Fund to build and upgrade sorely underfunded Afro-American schools.

Booker T. Washington
The friendship between Julius Rosenwald and Booker T. Washington led to the establishment of the Rosenwald Fund.

By reading the School Board minutes available on Martin Digital History, one can see where and when the Rosenwald Fund helped out locally.

https://www.martindigitalhistory.org/collections/show/42

This article appeared in the South Florida Developer on January 24, 1926.

My last History Lady blog included photographs of the Rosenwald School built in Stuart.  The above newspaper article explains the ways in which the communities that received Rosenwald Funds were required to contribute.  

It is much like Habitat for Humanity today: Those who obtain homes must help to build them.  

This map gives an idea of the extent of Julius Rosenwald’s philantrophy.

Stuart Training School

Uncategorized, , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

The beloved school for Stuart’s black community has long been of interest to me. When my oldest child started elementary school in 1970, she attended Parker Annex in the former Stuart Training School. The Principal of the Annex was Felix Williams, a community leader, who previously taught at the Stuart Training School.

Felix Williams and his wife, Fredricka, came to Stuart Training School as teachers in 1947 and from that time on Felix was a community leader. Felix A. Williams Elementary School in Jensen Beach is named for him.
This is Stuart Training School on October 31. 1956. Its location was on the property selected so a Rosenwald School could be built in 1919.

Although the accepted histories of Stuart Training School had inconsistency I had never taken time to do my own in-depth research but since I had the negatives of photographs taken by Arthur Ruhnke and Earl Dyer Ricou, I continually share important images of students, teachers and activities with anyone with an interest.

Now, because of Georgen Charnes and Martin Digital History, I am, as they say, in a Stuart Training School “rabbit hole.” I knew about Julius Rosenwald, of Sears and Roebuck, who gave generously to build schools for blacks but I thought some of my history-buff colleagues were grasping at straws when they wanted to connect the famous philanthropist to local schools. I was wrong.

This plat is from Martin County School District, courtesy Michael Syrkus who shared it with Georgen Charnes.

Perhaps this is a teacher outside the school built with the help of Rosenwald funds in Stuart when it was still within Palm Beach County.
This shows both entrances to the the school as well as an additional building on the school grounds. The training school is now in Martin County and the new building is called a “shop.”

By reading the School Board Minutes, it is possible to ascertain Robert Murray was teaching school in Jensen before 1925, when Martin County was created. His brother, Charles, a teacher who was also an undertaker, was hired to be teacher/principal in Stuart’s Rosenwald School called the “Martin County Training School.” It was soon to be called the Stuart Training School and this continued to be the name of the WPA Bert Keck- designed school built between 1935 and 1937.

THESE PHOTOGRAPHS SHOWING THE ENTRANCE OF THE WPA STUART TRAINING SCHOOL ARE AVAILABLE BECAUSE OF STUART DIGITAL HISTOERY.
Th

Eventually, Charles Murray’s brother, Robert, became principal of Stuart Training School. Charles and Robert’s sister Ilma James was also a teacher a Stuart Training School, as well as Robert’s second wife Jamima Osborn Murray.

Robert Murray was Principal of Stuart Training School as was his brother Charles before him.

Stuart Training School was phased out in 1965 after the Carver Gardens School was built in Port Salerno. Eventually, Carver Gardens grew into the Murray Junior-Senior High School named for the Murray Family of educators.  As full integration evolved, It became Murray Ninth Grade and is now Murray Middle School.

The Martin County Property Appraiser’s map shows the former Stuart Training School as it is today as the Spectrum Academy, an alternative public school in the Martin County School District.

The former Stuart Training School is now occupied by the Spectrum Academy.  

THE NEXT BLOG WILL BE ABOUT JULIUS ROSENWALD.

An Unlikely Series of Events

Uncategorized, , , , , , , , , , , ,

When Old-Timers gather at the Stuart Heritage Museum, I have been amused when several of the men address Jim Navitsky, former Superintendent of Martin County Schools, “Coach.”

Jim Navitsky, at my request, poses with two of his former Martin County football players, Bruce Stiller and Bruce Wells. They are looking at a 1977 yearbook.
Jim Navitsky listens to Bruce Stiller as he reminisces about a long-ago football play.

In 1964, Jim and Geri Navitsky, a teacher and a nurse with two children, decided to move from the frigid Pennsylvania to Florida. Geri’s parents, Alfred and Elizabeth Kaufman had retired to Rio where they purchased the Seahorse Lodge. This introduced the Navitskys to the wonders and warmth of Martin County. 

Superintendent of Schools, Tom Crook, offered Jim Navitsky a teaching job at Stuart Middle School. Since Jim’s passion was coaching, he accepted the job of physical education teacher which included coaching the middle school football team. He enjoyed working with the middle school principal, Joe McCoy, who had previously coached the Martin County High School basketball team.

After two years at Stuart Middle School, Jim was appointed head coach for Martin County High School. He was in heaven. Under his leadership, Martin County High School was Sun Coast Conference Champion and Jim was selected High School Football Coach of the Year.

Jim Navitsky was head coach of the Martin County Tigers in 1966-1967.

Martin County Schools were still segregated in 1964 with both Martin County High School, on Kanner Highway, and what was first called Carver Gardens Junior-Senior High, opening in the New Monrovia section of Port Salerno.

Murray Junior-Senior High School was built to serve Martin County’s Black students.
The Murray Junior-Senior High School Faculty pose before the school was integrated; FR: Venus Wallace, Unknown, Ernest Edwards, Cephas Gipson, Emma Washington, Elmira Rawls; MR: Charles Todd, James Robinson, James Wiggin, Kinley Austin, William Delancy, Quilly McHardy, Catherine Howell; BR: Eli Howell, Walter Oden, Ora Dell Turner and Lewis Rice.

When the new school for Blacks was built in Port Salerno in 1964, it was first called Carver Gardens Junior-Senior High School but the name was changed Murray Junior-Senior High, honoring a family of educators including two who had served as principal of the much beloved Stuart Training School.

Murray Junior-Senior High School was running pretty smoothly but the Martin County school system was faced with the nation’s deadline for full integration. The so called “freedom of choice” that made it possible for a few brave students to attend white schools was not fulfilling requirements. When Ernest Edward, principal of Black school resigned because of poor health, Walter Oden became interim principal.

THIS IS WHEN THE “UNLIKELY SERIES OF EVENTS” CAME INTO PLAY.

Rather than Walter Oden, Jim Navitsky was selected to be principal of Murray Junior-Senior High School in the fall of 1967. It was a way to begin full integration but Navitsky was reluctant to give up coaching.

The Murray students were not pleased. To demonstrate their displeasure, they flew the school’s American flag upside down and boycotted classes.

They even made up words to a song to be sung to the tune of “Mercy, Mercy” by Cannonball Adderley:

We want Mr. Oden for our principal!

We want Mr. Oden for our principal!

Not Navitsky, No, No!

Not Navitsky, No, No!

Not Navitsky, No

We want Oden.

For there is no man like Oden

Who will treat us like he should.

We want Oden!

A youngers was singing the ditty as he bagged groceries when Jim and his wife, Geri, were checking out of the local A & P. 

Jim asked Geri, “Do you suppose he knew who we were?

UNANTICIPATED VACANCY

Then, seemingly out of the blue, Tom Crook, Superintendent of Schools, resigned to take a Federal job and Jim Navitsky became his replacement.

THIS IS THE BACK STORY:

Although he had never attended a school board meeting, the few local Republicans, two of whom were on the school board, recommended Republican Governor Claude Kirk appoint Jim Navitsky Martin County Superintendent of School.s

Jim Navitsky had experience teaching in a large predominately Black high school in Philadelphia and was so new in town that he had no ties to the local Democrats who had ruled politics ever since the founding of Martin County. Things were changing. The Republicans thought Jim was savvy enough and had charisma that who make him a good candidate in future elections.

Jim Navitsky was appointed Superintendent of Martin County Schools in 1968 Florida Governor Claude Kirk.

The Republicans  were right. Jim Navitsky served as Superintendent of Schools for 21 years.

Jim Navitsky was an excellent superintendent who led the school system through integration and a teachers’ strike without serious disruptions. It was an important job but he smiles and says “Coaching the Martin County Tigers football team was the most fun.”  

The photographs of Coach Navitsky and Superintendent of Schools Navitsky were taken from the 1977 and 1978 Martin County Highschool yearbooks available at the Stuart Heritage Museum Stuart Heritage Museum

The photographs of the Murray Junior-Senior High School building and faculty are available on http://Martin Digital History

Insensitive

Uncategorized, , , , , ,

I was recently going through my Black Heritage files and came across a program for the Annual Kiwanis Club Minstrel Show. To my chagrin, my father-in-law, Tom Thurlow, Sr., was the Interlocutor. This meant he was the straight man for four Kiwanians in blackface performing as dim-witted buffoons. Most of the men listed in the program were well known men in the community. My father-in-law had high standards of behavior but he, like the other Kiwanians, seemed to be blind to the insensitivity of black-face performances.

An early form of theater, Minstrel Shows, began in New York with white performers who blacken their faces and mimicked enslaved Africans on Southern Plantations.

I was familiar with the term Jim Crow of “Jim Crow Laws” but today it is easier to go deeper with the Internet.

After the years of Reconstruction following the Civil War ended in 1877, it did not take southerners long to figure out how to create a caste system by keeping the races separate. The laws to enforce the separation were called “Jim Crow.”

 I was not aware Jim Crow was a Minstrel Show character created by Thomas Dartmouth Rice.

In 1962 the Stuart High School was located on East Ocean Boulevard and in later years was the location of School Board meetings.
This particular Kiwanis Minstrel Show took place in 1962, the year Tom Thurlow. Jr/ and I were married.

Since I grew up in Gainesville, Florida, during the era of segregation and Jim Crow, I never had Black friends. It was not until I started writing books that I developed friendships with members of the Christie family, the family of Retha Rae Meues, and Harvey Poole of Belle Glade.  I still did not have a close personal friend.

Charlene Thompson, who grew up in Jensen’s “Tick Ridge,” contacted me because she knew my book, Jensen and Eden, included this neighborhood. She visited and we became close friends.

Charlene came for a visit almost every Sunday afternoon for about three years.

Charlene is a history buff like I am. She is an excellent researcher and genealogist. She knows me better than almost anyone else and having her as a friend has been wonderful.

When I asked her if she thought publishing a blog on the Kiwanis Club’s Minstrel Shows and the insensitivity of community leaders to the feelings of the Black community, she agreed the story would be an important reminder.

The Kiwanis Club of Stuart soon became aware of their insensitivity. My father-in-law received a letter of complaint from a white woman who said the club should be “ashamed.” Soon they realized the truth of the accusation.

The “Travels” of the Statue “Abundance”

Uncategorized, , , , , , , ,

As reported in an earlier blog the Woman’s Club of Stuart changed its plans to put the statue Abundance in Haney Circle. Instead it was placed on the east lawn of the Martin County Courthouse.

After languishing in a New York City warehouse for years, Abundance arrived in Stuart on a moving truck in 1949,
Rather than offend those who protested, Abundance was placed on the east lawn of the Martin County Courthouse.




When the East Wing of the Martin County Courthouse was added in 1960, Abundance had to relinquish her spot.
On July 21, 1961, Ed Gluckler photographed Abundance neglected and lying on her back in a sand lot behind the city garage on South Flagler.

When the east wing of the courthouse was constructed in 1960 the statue abundance had to be removed.

In 1961, Abundance was placed in Memorial Park by the new Park Superintendent , Englishman Bill Ambler. The Woman’s Club once again chipped in on the cost of installation and landscaping. Although Abundance was beautiful and worth thousands of dollars, our community was not quite ready to give her the proper respect she deserved. The statue was a major focus for teenage pranks. The lesser ones — dressing her in brassieres and bathing suit tops. When Bill Ambler retired he lamented her being sprayed “every color” through the years.

Abundance stood in Memorial Park from October 18, 1961 until April 28, 1991.

Perhaps Abundance was hard to appreciate in her setting in Memorial Park where she stood for 20 years. The location, perhaps to her misfortune, was very close to the Stuart High School.

A postcard issued in the 1960 shows the beautiful flowers planted by Bill Ambler. Although he knew nothing about Florida horticulture when he was hired, the Woman’s Club of Stuart help pay for him to attend seminars and short courses on tropical landscaping.

This postcard showing Abundance was available in the 1960s.

During the revitalization of downtown Stuart, the City of Stuart voted to relocate Abundance to Haney Circle where the Woman’s Club originally planned to place her. Peter Jefferson designed the necessary concrete work with a sidewalk encircling the fountain. Its installation was celebrated in 1991

This snapshot shows the moment Abundance was unveiled in Haney Circle.
Tenants in buildings come and go, but Abundance remains in Haney Circle.
Today, anyone who walks down Osceola Street in Historic Downtown Stuart will encounter our Lady Abundance.

For a number of years a drawing of Abundance graced the “Art is Everywhere” tour folder created by the Martin County Council for the Arts.

Woman’s Club Scrapbook Reveals Unsung Heroes of Stuart’s Black Community

Uncategorized, , , , , , , , , , ,
The Woman’s Club of Stuart was working with Fredericka and Felix Williams and Lizzie Mae Allen, not only in securing the statue “Abundance” but also in improving parks and other facilities in East Stuart.

This photograph of Fredericka and Felix Williams with Lizzie Mae Allen was in Aura Fike Jones’ Woman’s Club scrapbook book. It is important to have a quality photograph of these civic leaders of Stuart’s Black community. I submitted it, along with many other photographs when we were gathering material for theMartin County Centennial Magazine published by Indian River Media.

I was thrilled when Michelle Moore-Burney, the designer, chose to feature the photograph predominantly on the front of the magazine. However, no names went with the people on the cover. The other unnamed people were, John W. Martin, Governor of Florida and Fingy Conners, who built a highway from West Palm Beach to Okeechobee City.

Now our Black leaders, the Williamses and Lizzie Mae Allen can be given their due.

Aura Fike Jones had her son-in-law, Clyde Coutant, photograph the Williamses and Lizzie Mae Allen because they were instrumental in collecting donations toward acquiring “Abundance” from their community. The itemized list of donations was included in her scrapbook.   

These pages list many people who have disappeared for local history because of Jim Crow laws. It is important to have their names and participation in community improvement documented.

Lizzie Mae Allen was a leader who served on a number of boards and was active in her community and church. The home where the Allens lived and raised their children was the first residence in Stuart to receive an historic marker but the emphasis is on Lizzie’s husband, Tom Allen, and the white man who constructed the house. https://www.stuartfl.gov/660/7491/Thomas-J-Allen-Home-in-East-Stuart?activeLiveTab=widgets

Fredericka Williams was an outstanding woman who supported her husband in every way, was active in her community and church and taught six graders for 34 years. Felix Williams had a distinguished career and was more in the public eye. Felix A. Williams Elementary School is named in his honor. https://www.stuartfl.gov/664/Felix-A-Williams

Abundance, the statue for which Stuart’s Black community contributed hard earned cash, now stands in Haney Circle. .

It was the Woman’s Club 2025 tour of homes decorated for the holidays that caused me to revisit Aura Fike Jones’ scrapbook about acquiring the beautiful statue.

MORE ABOUT ABUNDANCE WILL FOLLOW.

Aura Fike Jones and the Woman’s Club of Stuart

Uncategorized, , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Here I am with my two daughters, Jacqui Thurlow-Lippisch and Jenny Flaugh, picking up our tickets to attend the 16th Annual Holiday Home Tour for which I was “Honorary Chairman.” (Entailing zero responsibilities.) This photo was taken by club member Julia Sansevere.

The Woman’s Club of Stuart asked me to be the Honorary Chairman of their 16th Annual Holiday Home Tour that took place on December 7, 2025. This caused me to turn my attention to something I have in my files that few people have viewed. It is a scrapbook compiled by Aura Fike Jones who was responsible for acquiring the statue “Abundance” during her 1948-1950 term as President of the Woman’s Club.

Aura Fike Joes accepted the presidency of the Woman’s Club reluctantly but took on one of the most ambitious projects the club ever tackled.

Aura Jones was the widow of a Washington D. C. lawyer, Franklin Jones, who had homes in Washington D.C. as well as a lovely old home in Port Sewall. (The home was passed to her daughter and son-in-law, Dorothy and Clyde Coutant, then to her granddaughter Norie and her husband, Glenn Neff.)

It was during Aura Jones’ term as president that through of a series of unlikely coincidences the statue Abundance was acquired for the City of Stuart.

Aura Jones’ son, Larry, knew of the statue with a fountain languishing in a warehouse in New York. He also knew it could be acquired by paying its storage bill.

Maya Konolei was the artistic name of Mary Connally who sculpted Abundance.
Created by Manya Konolei in the Paris foundry that produced the Statue of Liberty, “Abundance” once held a place of honor at the Salon of Paris. After it was shown in the U.S. and received high praise, it was purchased by a collector who had grand plans for it. When the collector died, even Konolei lost track of the statue’s whereabouts.

In the late 1940s, the Woman’s Club of Stuart was at a low point and the City of Stuart was too. Everyone seemed depress and angry and people were suing each other for this and that. Aura thought acquiring the statue would be uplifting and would bring people together. A beautiful work of art would be a source of pride and bring attention to Martin County.  

Although the statue was available at a bargain price, the City and County coffers were low and the Woman’s Club had very limited funds. In addition to paying the $2,000 storage bill, there was the cost of transporting and installing the statue that weighed several tons. Few thought Aura would be successful but, perhaps to humor her, the club agreed to pay the last $500 if the rest of the money could be raised.

The enthusiasm of Woman’s Club led the Martin County Commission to agree to pay for the cost of transporting the statue to Stuart. Money for the fountain trickled in from all segments of the community and the last $500 came from the club’s treasury.

Cynthia Burnette Haney was revered locally. Years earlier, Ethel Porter had dedicated a small portion of her land as “Haney Circle” in the middle of Seminole Street.

The original plan was to put the fountain in Haney Circle, a tiny park given to the City of Stuart to honor Cynthia Burnett Haney, an admired newspaperwoman, suffragist, and leader in the Women’s Christian Temperance Union. This caused an uproar. People did not think a voluptuous goddess of wine was an appropriate way to honor Cynthia Haney.

The amused admiration of the truck driver is enough to explain everyone’s reaction to placing the fountain in Haney Circle..

The women changed their plans and got permission to put the fountain on the east side of the Martin County Courthouse.

This is the original location of Abundance.
A. Feit, the art dealer from New York who facilitated getting the statue, spoke to the 300 people who attended its dedication as did, Mary Hartman and Elizabeth Conrad.

At the dedication of Abundance on July 10 1949, Mary Hartman, Vice-President of the Woman’s Club, read a message from Aura Fike Jones who was at her home in Washington D.C. : “May this fountain become the symbol of the abundance of wisdom, talent and generosity which we claim in the building of our better community is my heartfelt wish.”

We have the photographs contained in the scrapbook compiled by Aura Fike Jones because Alice and Greg Luckhardt scanned them when there was an opportunity. The photographs were taken by Aura’s son-in-law, Clyde Coutant who was a commercial photographer at the time.

TWO MORE BLOGS RELATED TO THE STATUE ABUNDANCE WILL FOLLOW.

Helen Engebretsen wants her friend to be remembered

Uncategorized, , , , , , , , , ,

I recently visited the basement of the Stuart Heritage Museum that is entered from the back of the building. It was a beautiful day and when I looked toward the St. Lucie River, I admired the Seminole Chickee-like picnic pavilion.

So many years have passed since the chickee honoring Juanita Geary was built, some of the present leaders of Stuart Heritage are unaware of its significance and all planning and work involved in making it a reality.

Juanita DeBerry Geary 1934-2003
Helen Jean Fleming Gilliard Engebretsen

Helen Engebretsen, with her quiet ladylike manner may not seem like a globe trotting business woman but that is exactly what she became. She first worked for then bought the an early travel agency from Stanley Smith. She was the registered agent of Stuart Travel Service in 1965 and her offshoot “Jensen Breach Travel Service” did not close its doors until 2015. https://archive.tcpalm.com/yournews/martin-county/martin-county-world-traveler-retires-ep-1018362440-340783311.html?page=1

After a house fire resulted in Juanita Geary’s death in 2003, Helen Engebretsen spearheaded the fundraising, planning and construction of Seminole chickee picnic pavilion dedicated to Juanita’s memory.

After Juanita Geary’s unexpected death resulting from space heater fire, her grieving friends wanted something to be done in her memory. Juanita was an early and active member of Stuart Heritage whose family tree includes a number of pioneer families—Stuart, Greene, Wells and DeBerry. At the time of her death Juanita had assumed the responsibility of the Stuart Heritage Museum gift shop. It included items made by the Seminole Indians in Ft. Pierce and the Brighton Reservation north of Lake Okeechobee. Juanita was especially interested in these, because the Seminole Indians often visited the south Florida towns where her family lived during her formative years.   

Juanita Geary’s memorial chickee had to be placed far away from the 1901 building housing the Stuart Heritage Museum for safety reasons.

Helen Engebretsen spearheaded the effort to build the chickee as a memorial to Juanita. It was not easy. The City of Stuart required permitting and said that the Chickee had to be built near the St. Lucie River,  a distance from the 1901 historic commercial building that houses the Stuart Heritage Museum. Donations were collected and contractors hired to pour a slab and build the wooden part of the pavilion. Finding Seminole Indians who specialized in authentic Sabal Palm thatching was a challenge.  It is becoming a lost art.

A muralist from Okeechobee painted the fence that screens the trash dumpsters.

Juanita’s friends were saddened when garbage dumpsters were placed beside the chickee. More fund raising followed and a muralist was hired to paint an Everglades scene to improve the setting of the Seminole chickee pavilion.

Toley Alfred Engebretsen
1928-2023

Helen’s husband, Toley Engebretsen, was a longtime volunteer at the Stuart Heritage Museum serving on the board of directors of Stuart Heritage, Inc. beginning in 1996 and as president from 2012 until shortly before his death in 2023. http://Stuart Heritage Museum.com

The Copper Enameling of a House Wife

Uncategorized, , , , , , , , ,

This is a follow-up blog explaining why I, Sandra Thurlow, have been so interested in Serge Nekrassoff and his metal craft.

After returning from Travis Air Force Base in California in 1965, we built a house on Edgewood Drive in Stuart.

These jars of the powdered glass used for copper enameling were purchased from an estate. I am holding a little sifter used for dusting the power onto copper that has sprayed with a solution of gum arabic.

Knowing that I did not think caring for one little girl was enough to occupy my days, Tom purchased a kiln and many enameling supplies that were in a Rio estate liquidation.

This shows an upturn piece being counter enameled, meaning that the underside is ready to be fired. Without counter enameling the enamel on the face of a bowl will pop off.

Although, I knew nothing about copper enameling I thought I could learn. I bought “how-to” books and purchased additional supplies from art supply catalogues.

This stylized mosaic was make in 1967.

My earliest creation was prompted by a call of the Episcopal Church Women of St. Mary’s Church for “religious art.” I enlisted my friend Robby Robinson to cut a piece of Masonite in the shape of a stained glass window. I painted it black and glued enameled copper pieces on it.

Another mosaic was done to enter the Arts and Crafts exhibit at the Martin County Fair.
The mosaic, although a bit garish, sits above eye-level on our family room book shelves. It is a reminder of what I did before I appointed myself “History Lady.”

After cleaning the copper, it is sprayed with gum arabic and dusted with enamel (that is really powered glass.)  To fire your item, you open a roaring hot kiln and place your piece or in the case of mosaics—pieces inside. You wear an asbestos glove and use a special long forked instrument with a heat shield on its handle. You close the kiln door and use your judgement about the time you leave your piece or pieces in side. It is a dangerous balancing act. It is easy to over-fire and lose your work. You have to have fire-proof ceramic slabs where you can place your red hot items when you remove them from the kiln.

I longed to learn enameling from Serge Nekrassoff. One day when I ran into Serge and Mary Nekrassoff in a grocery store, I blurted out something about wanting to “apprentice.”  I think that was the wrong word to use. Serge seemed horrified.

I was on my own with copper enameling. I experimented and played around. I used a mallet to shape shallow bowls but flat pieces were much easier. Bowls had to be “counter enameled” meaning that the bottom as well as the top had to be enameled. This was very tricky.

Through the years I made dozens of bridge prizes and gifts of copper enamel, I made Christmas tree ornaments for my Sunday school children .

Presented to Carol Newman as a thank you for teaching gymnastics.
Given to Bryna Potsdam for her 40th Birthday.
A typical bridge prize.
After Tom’s parents died we reclaimed the dish we had given them for their 40th Anniversary and the little trays enameled with their prize winning sailboats from their Liverpool, N. Y. days.

On a trip abroad we met a man who owned a manufacturing plant in Findlay Ohio. After we got home he sent me a packet of large copper sheets. It was right after the Earth had been photographed from Apollo 17. I had one of the big sheets cut into pieces that would fit into my kiln and made a large plaque and called it “Earth Colors From Space.” It hung in our living room for a few years.

When I was checking on daughter, Jacqui, and Ed Lippisch’s home I discovered it hanging on their large screened porch.

Recently, I was in the home of Chuck Schad who was Tom Thurlow’s friend from Liverpool, NY. He and his wife, Audrey, moved to Stuart, after he was an usher in our wedding and met Tom’s brother-in-law, Dale Hudson, who asked if he wanted to work for what is now Seacoast Bank. I happened to look on the wall and saw a plate I gave when they repeated their wedding vows on their 25th Anniversary.

Chuck Schad poses next to the copper enameled plate given 41 years ago.

SO THIS EXPLAINS THE THURLOW INTEREST IN COPPER ENAMELING.