Today, I was working in my yard. It is something that I love to do. Our property on Sewall’s Point, very close to the bridges to Hutchinson Island, happens to have once been divided by the county line between first, Dade and Brevard, then Palm Beach and St. Lucie County.
I placed the little statue at the corner of our property where the section lines crosses.
For years I have had a sign on a palm tree at the corner of our property declaring this.
The little concrete statue once belonged to Michelle Coutant.
Eleven years ago, I stopped at a yard sale on Indian Street near Old St. Lucie Boulevard. Norie Neff, the daughter of Dorothy and Clyde Coutant was selling the property that had been her family’s for many years.
I can see this statue from my window over the kitchen sink.
It was Norie’s grandmother, Aura Fike Jones, who secured the statue “Abundance” that now stands in Haney Circle.
This image was in a Stuart Woman’s Club scrapbook that belongs to Norie Neff. Perhaps it was a photo Aura Fike Jones’s son , Larry, who knew about the statue sent to her suggesting it would “add a bit of glamor to Stuart.” The statue “Abundance” did not find its way to Haney Circle where it was originally to be placed in 1950 until Stuart was revitalized in 1991.
A small concrete statue, similar to Abundance, was in the yard sale. It had belonged to Norie’s late sister, Michelle. I bought the statue because of my many connections to the Coutant family in my “world of regional history,” as well of its symbolic connection to the beautiful statue that stands in downtown Stuart. I placed the statue near the former county line and it has remained there.
The Thurlow home since Veteran’s Day 1974 as it looks on Veteran’s Day 2024..
We Thurlows moved into our new house on Banyan Road on Sewall’s Point on Veteran’s Day 1974. It is hard to believe it was 50 years ago.
Dick Granfield designed our house and Paul Siefker of Indiantown’s Martinique Construction, was our contractor.
Years later, when we needed a handicap bath downstairs, Dick’s architect son, Stewart Granfield, designed a pleasing addition.
The three Thurlow children Jenny, Jacqui and Todd stand in front of their home-to-be before the driveway was poured.
Dick Granfield placed our house near the street with a big circular driveway that came close to our front door. Visitors have easy access.
The driveway was great when our kids were little. Other neighborhood children liked to bring their scooters and Big Wheels to our house because of the driveway was not on a busy street and had a gentle slope. Later it was skateboards.
Jenny and Todd, confront each other on our driveway.Across–the-street neighbor, Kimberly Burkey, and Todd enjoy a two-story structure made of lawn chairs.
A noble black man, Charles Lynn, designed and poured our driveway. Ten years later, when Mr. Lynn put in a walkway at the side of our house, I realized he was an artist in his trade who appreciated the beauty of proper proportion and gentle curves.
Old and new friends respond to an open invitation to sit in the Thurlow driveway on Friday evenings.
So now our driveway that was so popular with the youngsters is popular with the oldsters. Friday, driveway gatherings that began during COVID 19, continue.
It is always a highlight when younger family members drop by.
Tom Thurlow, in the orange shirt, is no longer with us but his friends continue to gather in his driveway on Friday evenings. Notice the small ramp that allowed his wheelchair to access the driveway.
Driveway guests become aware of the length of days as the months go by.
Neighbors, like Curt Grimmer’s Sulcata Tortoise sometimes drop by on Fridays. Chuck Schad is amused.
Our cat, Bella, enjoys driveway gatherings. Here she is expecting a treat from Sarah Johnson. She sits in a chair as soon as they are put out and waits for the guests to arrive.
Our most regular guest is Chuck Schad, who was Tom Thurlow’s classmate in Liverpool, New York, and who came to visit him by bus after the Thurlows moved to Stuart in 1952. He and his wife, Audrey, moved to Stuart, in 1963 where Chuck’s local banking career began with First National that is now Seacoast.
Robert Holland photographed our family standing on our driveway in July 2018.
Thank you, Mr. Lynn. Thank you, Dick Granfield. Thank you, Paul Siefker.
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.