After our children were more or less grown in the 1980s, my husband, Tom Thurlow, Jr., and I became collectors of all things connected to the history of Martin County. Our joint recreation involved going to museums, antique stores, lectures and collecting postcards, books, and various ephemera. Because we had a keen interest in copper enameling (to be explained in the next blog) we also collected Nekrassoff pieces when we found them in antique shops.
We knew Boris and Lois Nekrassoff because Lois founded Stuart’s first privately owned pharmacy, “The Prescription Shop,” and the two were well known in the community.
After the death of Boris’s parents he and Lois had the responsibility of disposing of their possessions. I called them to see if there were some enameled items for sale. They said, “yes” and invited me to their home to see what they had. It was a bright cold January morning and I will always remember what I saw in the sky as I passed the Martin County Golf Course. The day of the Challenger tragedy is etched in memories.
The rest of the morning is a blur but I do remember I purchased all of the two dozen or so enameled copper pieces the Nekrassoffs wanted to sell and this ultimately led to us also buying Boris’s parents two-acre property on Willoughby Creek. It was where Serge Nekrassoff built a concrete block house in 1951.
The Nekrassoff property was a jungle. A pond, near St. Lucie Boulevard, that seemed to be spring-fed, had been enlarged by the Nekrassoffs. One of two enormous ficus trees on the property was taking over the pond. We loved the many fruit trees: lychee nuts, rose-apples, and several varieties of mango. Coconut trees abounded and so did decades of fallen nuts. Although there were many native pine trees, there were also invasive Melaleuca and Australian pines. The elderly Nekrassoffs probably enjoyed watching their property return to nature. They fed the birds and hosted a population of about 40 raccoons.
The house had been neglected and wasn’t in a condition to rent it. What were we going to do with such a property? We slaved on it and communed with nature and the spirits of the Nekrassoffs.
In those days you could get permits to burn trash. We did this and learned that lighter pine fires grow so hot you can burn milk-filled coconuts.
We had a lot of work to do if we wanted our investment to pay for itself. The kitchen wall had an underwater scene made with enameled fish and plants embedded in the plaster. There were enameled copper coverings on window sills.
Serge Nekrassoff had built a curving concrete wall for a terraced garden. Copper enameled fish were pressed into the concrete. There was a enameled copper covering on a grave marker for their beloved boxer.
Todd and his teenage friends cleared the pond of paper reed plants (papyrus) that choked it. They also had a lot of fun.
After we had a dock built, receiving an education doing so, and upgraded the kitchen, we had two different renters who liked features of the property. One had a small Whiticar boat he could keep at the dock.
Realizing that we were too interested in other things to hold on to the property, we sold it in 1989.
