Tag Archives: Stanley Kitching

Such a Crowd!

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Governor Martin and other dignitaries spoke from a platform on what was referred to as the “Yacht Club Grounds.” This would be today’s Flagler Park. The number of people clustered around the platform is quite remarkable considering the small population of in the new County of Martin. (The 1930 US Census Report listed 5111 total population.)

Governor John W. Martin, top hat in hand, addresses the multitudes.

They yacht club referred to was the St. Lucie River Yacht Club, the subject of an earlier blog. Stanley Kitching, the Commodore, hosted a luncheon honoring Governor Martin and his party in the yacht club following the speeches.

St. Lucie River Yacht Club was destroyed in the 1928 hurricane that drowned over two thousand people south of Lake Okeechobee.

At the bottom of this 1925 aerial photograph are: the Riverview Apartments, still standing but now vacant; the Coventry Hotel and Apartments, now flourishing as the Old Colorado Inn; the Platt/Porter House also known as the “Owl House” that is now also part of the Old Colorado Inn vacation rentals. It is easy to pick out the Post Office Arcade with the black roof that goes from Osceola to Seminole Street. It was newly built when the photograph was made.

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

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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

Learning of Stanley Kitching’s and Harry Hill’s Early Association

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Stanley Kitching arrived on the Indian River from England with his parents as a ten-year-old boy in 1884.Harry Hill came to the east coast of Florida in 1894 as he was approaching 30.

They were both Southeast Florida pioneers. After setting up apiaries in New Smyrna and Spruce Bluff, Harry moved to Ft. Pierce with his wife Kate and young son, Lowell. The family previously lived in Titusville, Pennsylvania, not to be confused with Titusville, Florida. What a conscience! Stanley Kitching was using Harry Hill’s photographs as soon as the Florida Photographic Concern was founded.

The above item is in the archives of the Historical Society of Martin County located in the Elliott Museum.

Stanley Kitching secured rights to use Harry Hill’s photographs on postcards he had printed in Germany just like big firms like Hugh L. Leighton of Maine and other large publishers.

Above is the front and back of a postcard published by Stanley Kitching. There are a dozen or so others. It shows that there was an early commercial relationship between Stanley Kitching and the Florida