Atlantic Gateway to the Gulf of Mexico

Uncategorized

Early color postcard of the Stuart Welcome Arch

“Stuart, Atlantic Gateway to the Gulf of Mexico.” How is this so? The first water from Lake Okeechobee came into the South Fork of the St. Lucie River on June 13, 1923. The Caloosahatchee, already partially channelized, led to Ft. Myers. Hence there was a cross-state waterway to the Gulf of Mexico. The men who promoted the formation of Martin County thought this gave our region great advantages. Products from the interior of the state could be brought to the coast inexpensively by water. Pleasure yachts could and would use the canal.

Local boosters considered the cross-state canal, our “Atlantic Gateway to the Gulf of Mexico,” would give us the upper hand when we appealed to Congress for federal money to improve the St. Lucie Inlet and establish a deep water port for ocean going vessels.

They say “be careful what you wish for.” Martin County’s greatest blessings are the result of unfulfilled dreams. Luckily, we did not always get what we wished for. We DID NOT get a deep water port. However, we wished for the St. Lucie Canal that connects with the Caloosahatchee and leads to the Gulf of Mexico and we GOT IT. We have had to deal with its consequences. The Stuart Welcome Arch is a monument to the Florida Real Estate Boom that brought Martin County into being. It has been preserved and put on the National Register.

Martin County Commissioner Doug Smith and volunteer Julie Preast pose with the Stuart Welcome Arch historical marker during its installation celebration on August 27, 2004.
Martin County Commissioner Doug Smith and volunteer Julie Preast pose with the Stuart Welcome Arch historical marker during its installation celebration on August 27, 2004.
The restored Stuart Atlantic Gateway to the Gulf of Mexico arch was dedicated on November 21, 2006.
The restored Stuart Atlantic Gateway to the Gulf of Mexico arch was dedicated on November 21, 2006.

The restoration of the arch and getting it placed on the National Register seemed like an impossible undertaking. We should have known not to underestimate the determination of Commissioner Doug Smith and super volunteer Julie Preast.

Stuart Welcome Arch Official State Historic Marker

Here is a link for a Martin County website for the Stuart Welcome Arch.
Click here.

Today is the Birthday of Martin County

Uncategorized

Today, August 5, 2024 is the 99th Birthday of Martin County. It is my birthday too.

I am not quite as old as Martin County. The county was just a young teenager when I was born.

Governor John Martin

Governor Martin was born just a few miles south of Gainesville, my hometown.

My plan is to post tidbits of Martin County history during the year before Martin County’s 100th Birthday.

Serendipity is My Favorite Word

Uncategorized, , , , , ,

Just as Heidi Rich had almost finished designing and assembling A Pictorial History of Palm City Florida, serendipity came into play.

Josh Liller, Historian and Collections Manager of the Jupiter Lighthouse and Museum, is a Martin County boy and Martin County High Schools graduate.
http://Jupiter Lighthouse and Museum

Daughter, Jacqui Thurlow Lippisch, and I attended a meeting of Southeast Florida Archaeological Society at the Hobe Sound Library on January 13, 2024.  Josh Liller, the Historian and Collections Manager of the Jupiter Lighthouse and Museum, sat next to us. We talked about our Palm City book project. The following Monday morning I received an email from Josh alerting me to early photos of Palm City being sold on eBay.http://Southeast Florida Archaeological Society

This is what was posted on eBay.

I was amazed when I checked them out. They were the work of Florida Photographic Concern, the main subject of my previous blog posts.

The photographs were found in a flea market near Detroit, Michigan by John Monaghan. They were in a booth selling records where John noticed a stack of photographs for sale. Some of them were identified as Palm City in 1912 and 1913.

Josh Liller’s computer is set up to notify him when something pertaining to Palm Beach history is for sale on eBay. There was one photograph of the Royal Poinciana Hotel in the batch.  He already had the Royal Poinciana photograph but he knew Jacqui and I would be interested in the Palm City photographs. We certainly were.

Sam Matthew, the builder of many structures in what became Martin County came to Florida to work on this hotel.
The Palm Beach County School was constructed “way out of town” when William Dyer, who left the St. Lucie River Region for West Palm Beach, was Chairman of the School Board.

When I contacted John Monaghan,  he said that he had just picked out what he thought were the most interesting photographs and he would see if the rest of the photographs were still there when the flea market opened again on the following Sunday.

The photographs were still there and he let me purchase them for what he thought was a fair price. There were 35 photographs in all and I was delighted to obtain them.

The Stuart School was built of blocks crafted by pioneer Frank Frazier. In 1925, the former school became the Martin County Courthouse..



I am going to share only one of the Palm City photographs
and take this opportunity to share ones that will not be published in A
Pictorial History of Palm City.  

Going to Press

Uncategorized, , , ,

Yesterday, July 30, 2024, the Southeastern Printing proof of A Pictorial History of Palm City. Florida was signed and submitted for print. What a feat.

We think those who open the cover will pleased with what they discover.

Unlike when our other books were printed and we saw the big presses running and watched as book designer, Heidi Rich, approved each press sheet, the new book is out of our hands.

Twenty years ago Sandra Thurlow and Heidi Rich check print sheets at Southeastern Printing in
Golden Gate.

Southeastern Printing is no longer in their plant in Golden Gate on A1A, near the Yacht and Country Club of Stuart. The 100 year old company founded by Edwin Menninger has relocated to Hialeah, Florida, adjacent to downtown Miami.

https://www.seprint.com/

This shows a press operator in the Golden Gate plant.

Printing has changed dramatically since 1992 when my first book was printed. The quality diminished so slightly when the presses changed to digital, it was hardly noticeable

A metal printing plate for one side of a sixteen page signature for Stuart on the St. Lucie.

No longer are large metal sheets required. The process was so interesting to me that I kept one of the metal printing plates and a number press sheets.

The blank side of the metal plate looks like shiny aluminum. The antique Bill Greene Chevrolet yardstick shows the plate’s size.

When I pulled the big metal sheet out of the back of a closet so I could photograph it, a sound like thunder erupted. (Something like this must have been used to produce thunder in the era of radio dramas.)

Rolls of stored press sheets from books printed long ago.

Someday, I will throw out the paper and metal trail of book production but some copies of our books will endure long after I have to say “goodbye.”

Since this ad says “85 years,” this ad must have been published 15 years ago.

Southeastern Printing Company

Uncategorized, , , , , ,

My latest book, A Pictorial History of Palm City, Florida authored with my daughter, Jacqui Thurlow Lippisch, has been submitted to Southeastern Printing.

Don Mader, owner and CEO of Southeastern Printing Company,

It is such a blessing that the best printing that money can buy is available through a printing company established in Stuart by Edwin Menninger. I say “Stuart,” rather than Martin County, because I learned yesterday from Southeastern’s owner and CEO, Don Mader, that the printing company is celebrating its centennial this year.  It was established before Martin County was created. I am so happy our Palm City pictorial is being printed by the company.

The employees of the Stuart News and Southeastern Printing Company pose in downtown Stuart in December 1955. Edwin Menninger is standing second from the left.

I am so happy our Palm City pictorial is being printed by the company that printed my other pictorial history books. The books are exquisite. When my first book Sewall’s Point— The History of a Peninsular Community on Florida’s Treasure Coast was first printed in 1992, Southeastern’s printing process was quite different. The world had turn to digital by the time my other books were printed.

My customer service representative , Bill Kuhn, and my book designer, Heidi Rich, look on as my book is being printed in the Southeastern plant in Golden Gate.

As I study Edwin Menninger’s contribution to the establishment, survival, and beautification of Martin County in preparation for the county’s centennial in 2025, I am truly amazed.

This is an early ad for what became Southeastern Printing.

As soon as Edwin Menninger set up the South Florida Developer, formerly published in West Palm Beach, in Stuart, he founded the printing business that became Southeastern Printing Company, Inc.

Edwin Menninger Made Martin County

Uncategorized, , , , , ,

Edwin Menninger actually DID make Martin County. Without his newspaperman’s knowhow, Martin County could not have been created. He was a very smart man from a very smart family. His physiatrists father and brothers founded the world famous Menninger Clinic in Topeka, Kansas.

Edwin Menninger was only 18 years old in this family photograph.

Rather than psychiatry, Edwin chose journalism. After graduation from Washburn University he studied and taught journalism at Columbia, University in New York City. He came to Florida to recover from the aftereffects of flu and bought the languishing South Florida Developer in West Palm Beach and brought it to Stuart. His arrival coincided with the movement for county division.

Ed Menninger knew how to stoke the fires. He knew what was going on behind the scenes because his host when he came to Florida, Henry Newton Gaines, whose daughter was married to his brother Karl, was a Palm Beach County Commissioner who became chairman of the first Martin County Board of County Commissioners.

Fifty Beautifully Preserved Photographs More Than a Century Old

Uncategorized, , , , , ,

My husband and I were thrilled when he succeeded in purchasing an album filled with Harry Hill’s photography in an eBay auction in 2006.

The album was sold by Robi & Aundra-Antique Doctors in Chagrin Falls, Ohio, I called Aundra to see where they got the album but she could not remember.

Perry Corell photographed Indian River Drive when it was little more than a trail.

  I was surprised that some of the photographs in the album had “Corell” imbedded in them rather than Hill.

During my Hill research I contacted the Benson Memorial Library in Titusville, Pennsylvania where the Hills had lived before they moved to Florida. I asked the librarian if she could supply information on Corell. She shared clipping from a September 1, 1904 Titusville Herald, that told of Perry Corell an experienced photographer who selling his shop and moving to Ft. Pierce Florida, to join Harry Hill.  Both were “Titusville boys.”

Example of photographs in the album purchase in an eBay action.

The photograph on the left is the Planters Security Bank founded in Jensen in 1904. Today it is the location of Lure’s Bar and Grill. Some of the bricks from the old bank were used in the construction of the building that became Lure’s.

The photograph at right is pioneer home of George A. Saeger on Indian River Drive. He was a director of the Planters Security Bank so maybe that is why the photographs are beside each others. The home still stands at 4511 S. Indian River Drive.

The photograph at left was used for on a postcard.
One of the photographs in the album showed the desk in the Hill Studio.

The Hill Studio has been reconstructed in the St. Lucie County Regional History Center.

Regional History Center

Billy Bowlegs’ Family Portrait taken in Hill Studio

Uncategorized, , , , , , ,

One of the most important postcards in my collection is of Billy Bowlegs with his sister, Lucy Pearce and her daughters, Ada and Annie. I knew the portrait was the work of Harry Hill because his name is on another version of the postcard. The group portrait also appears on page 100 in A Portrait of St. Lucie County, Florida by Lucille Rieley Rights.

This full color postcard was published by H. & W.B. Drew Co. of Jacksonville, Florida.

Imagine my delight when among the images in a photo album my husband, Tom Thurlow, purchase on eBay in 2006 is one showing the Indians walking down a road after their photo session.

The Indian River can be seen in the distance.

I will write more about the album that contained the photograph of the Seminole Indians in Ft. Pierce in my next blog.

Another Hill Photograph Dust Jacket

Uncategorized, , , , , , , ,

I used this antique postcard for the dust jacket of my third pictorial history book. Just as was true of Stuart on the St. Lucie, I did not realize the image was the product of the Florida Photographic Concern.

At the time I published my books I did not understand that postcard publishers, like Hugh C. Leighton, secured their images from the Hill family’s Florida Photographic Concern in Fort Pierce.

For this blog, I found the postcard I used and was shocked to see that the postcard had been cropped for the dust jacket. Below is the complete postcard. The Alfresco Hotel that appears at right was cropped off when the dust jacket was designed.

The Alfresco Hotel that appears at right was cropped off when the dust jacket was designed.

This Hugh C. Leighton Co. postcard shows the fine quality of printing done in Germany during the “Golden Age of Postcards.”

The Al Fresco Hotel, designed by Louis F. Kwiatkowski for John Jensen in 1893, burned in 1911 after being purchased by R. R. Ricou.

Amazing Appearance of 75 Hundred-Year-Old Florida Photographic Concern Prints

Uncategorized, , , , ,

I was blown away when Tootsie Kindberg started posting very old photos on Facebook. I knew they were the product of the Florida Photographic Concern. Strangely, most of them had strips of paper with captions typed on them glued at the bottom.

Why were they suddenly appearing? Where had they been? Why were there so many of them?

As it turned out Tootsie’s being a member of the Hillier family with connections to many other Florida Photographic Concern photographs was just a coincidence.

Tootsie had been a commercial photographer with access to a dark room. The photographs were put aside after an acquaintance gave them to her. Years passed and Tootsie not only forgot the photographs she forgot who had given them to her. When Tootsie came across the photograph recently she scanned them and shared them on Facebook.

In addition to the 75 photographs Tootsie posted an almost illegible, cellophane tape patched document that included a date.

THE HARD TO READ WORDS ARE TYPED BELOW

PHOTOGRAPHS

Made and secured especially for the consideration of the

United States Government Engineers

at the

PUBLIC HEARING IN STUART, FLA. JANUARY 16th, 1923

And present to them as part of the

facts, figures, data and reports

answering the questions they asked

to arrive at an opinion regarding

the recommendations of

GOVERNMENT AID FOR A DEEP WATER HARBOR HERE

Photographs were carefully limited to views in and near Stuart, Fla, and in the territory directly

Tributaries to the prospective Harbor here the North and

South Forks of the St. Lucie River, the Indian River close

to Stuart, the St. Lucie Control Canal, Salerno, Hobe Sound, Port Sewall and the Inlet.

The aim of the pictures is to back up the reports

A VERY LONG ARTICLE ABOUT A MEETING IN STUART OF DIGNITARIES AND US. ENGINEERS APPEARED INTHE STUART MESSENGER ON JANUARY 18, 1923.THIS IS WHERE THE PHOTOGRAPHS WERE SHOWN TO PROVE THE NEED FOR A PORT