Historical Vignettes: Landmarks and old structures that still exist
Martin County is fortunate in that most of its history can be fairly well traced, verified and documented. There are buildings, homes or structures that have survived for many decades, some more than 75 or even 100 years; a few are historic landmarks. Preservationists assure the community that places such as these will remain for future generations. Herein are names and brief descriptions of a few that have endured natural disasters such as storms, floods, fire or deliberate demolition by man, most remaining in basically the same capacity since conception.
House of Refuge: The oldest building in Martin County is the Gilbert's Bar House of Refuge on Hutchinson Island, dating back to 1875. It is the only such building remaining of 10 built along the Florida coast, which at one time as a life-saving station offered assistance to crews and passengers of passing ships in distress. By 1955, in poor condition and needing repair, Colonel J. Brian Frazier, president of the Martin County Historical Society, '55-'56 and a crew of volunteer workers, restored and renovated the House of Refuge, which was soon to become a unique museum for the county, a site for the area's priceless artifacts, documents and photographs, among its antique furnishings. In 1974 it was included in the National Register of Historic Places, a fine example of preservation for Martin County.
Riverview Apartments: The Riverview Apartments, Seminole Street, formerly known as the Kimberly Apartment House was completed in October 1913, by contractor Sam Matthews for Elmer and Mary (Hall) Kimberly. The $17,000 two-story structure, with 'third floor' dormers, measured 46 feet wide, 108 feet in depth, featured a large screened porch and was even wired for electricity, when it became available, about 1917.
In the 1920s, the Kimberly Hotel and Apartments were established with the creation of 24 hotel rooms, 12 three room apartments, two four-room and one five-room apartment, all fully furnished. By 1928, a single room without bath was $4 a week, with bath $6 and a double with bath $15. After Elmer died, widow Mary Kimberly sold the apartment house in 1931 to Fred and Adeline Low from Passaic, N.J., after which Mary returned to Pennsylvania. By 1932, Fred had renovated the complex, redesigned with 16 full apartments and nine smaller rooms. Joseph T. and Effie N. Ahlquist purchased the Kimberly Hotel and Apartments in 1939 for $4,500 and promptly changed the name to Riverview Apartments.
During the war in the 1940s, the establishment was used as a wives' residence for those whose husbands were at the Coast Guard Station in Fort Pierce and at Camp Murphy in Hobe Sound. The Ahlquists sold the Riverview to Albert Trefney and Stanley Dunn in the mid-1940s. Fern and Albert Cepec purchased the apartments in 1949, making major improvements to the interior and exterior of the building including private bathrooms in each rental and awnings over aluminum frame windows.
Over the decades of the 1950s-70s, there were a series of owners, eventually leaving the property in a state of disrepair by 1979, when Armond and Veronica Pasquale purchased the Riverview. Although remodeled, repaired and modernized through the years, the comfortable, nostalgic, unique character of the building has been restored and preserved by the Pasquales.
Seminole Inn: Indiantown's Mission-Revival Spanish Colonial, Seminole Inn, with gala opening October 1, 1927, was a 52-room hotel built by the president and chairman of the Seaboard Air Line Railroad, S. (Solomon) Davies Warfield of Baltimore, Maryland. Warfield's Orange Blossom Special Railway System would extend into South Florida, competing with the established Florida East Coast Railroad.
The Inn, just blocks from the Indiantown railway station, was to provide lodging for railroad executives and guests, who could also enjoy the fishing and hunting in the region. S. Davies Warfield died suddenly Oct. 24, 1927, soon after the Inn had opened.
The grandeur of hotel with its pecky cypress ceiling, hardwood floors, winding staircase, wonderful lobby fireplace, brass wall fixtures and bronze chandeliers went through economic hard times and actually closed at different periods through the decades. (Wallis Warfield Simpson, niece of S. Davies, married Edward, the former king of England. The couple reportedly often visited the Inn.)
Eventually bought and renovated by the Homer Wall family of Indiantown, the establishment remains a charming, 28-room hotel and restaurant, the Seminole Country Inn, included in the National Register of Historic Places in May 2006.
Stuart-Jensen Arch: The Stuart-Jensen Arch, located over Dixie Highway (State Road 707), was dedicated in 1926 and has been known by different names, Rio-Jensen Arch, Stuart Welcoming Arch, Welcoming Arch. The impressive structure marked the division between the incorporated towns of Jensen and Stuart, touted as the gateway from the Atlantic Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico, by way of route through the canal system.
During the Great Depression, the incorporated city of Jensen was dissolved and portions of Stuart by the arch were surrendered to the county. It has endured hurricanes and vehicles crashing into its massive pillars and on Sept. 15, 2004, was placed on the National Register of Historic Places and rededicated in 2006.
Sunrise Apartments: Located at the corner of Camden Avenue and West Ocean Boulevard in Stuart, the Sunrise Apartments are easily identified by the name etched into the top center portion of the structure, which was constructed by contractor Sam A. Matthews about 1925. The two-story building of tile and stucco, measures 32 by 46 feet and features wonderful Dade County pine floors, a hardy wood. (The original growth Dade County pine, known by many names and native to Southeast Florida, was almost completely harvested through the years and is rare, with most sizable specimens found only in parks or on public lands.)
The Sunrise, built for Edwin Keen Long as an investment, costing $10,000, each of the large apartments, with varying number of rooms, included a bath and pantry with commodious chest space, considered one of the largest and most desirable places in town in the 1920s, always in demand.
A 1928 brochure described the establishment as having "Four fully furnished four-room apartments, two five-room and two six-room apartments. Silverware and linen included. Rates: three-room $8 per week, $35 per month; five-room $50 per month." Through the decades the outside design of the building has kept its original integrity.
The apartments were remodeled in the 1990s and the owner, Marcela Camblor, offered four apartments for rent in 1998, each 900-square-feet in size, for $775 a month. In 2012, owner Thomas Stone offered four apartments, two on the first floor, two on the second and a small efficiency downstairs.
Log Cabin: The Log Cabin in Stuart was constructed in connection with the governmental WPA (Works Progress Administration) project of the 1930s, whose purpose was to provide employment for citizens and create some entity which could be useful to the community.
The idea for a log cabin can probably be credited to A. O. Kanner, a local attorney, judge and legislator. Having attained approval, 95 men were hired to build the recreation hall at the Fourth Street Park, behind Stuart High School and in so doing every name on the county's unemployment list was removed; wages ranged from $19 to $35 per month. Work began in September 1935 as 300 pine logs were brought to the site to undergo a bark peeling process; 112 more would be needed for a total of 412, equaling 4,400 board feet of timber. A foundation was poured and the prepared logs assembled by early 1936.
Emilio Cabre constructed a fireplace and chimney, using 12 tons of native coquina rock from the Hildebrand quarry at Hobe Sound. The single roof with gentle slope was built on a truss foundation allowing an unobstructed 40- by 80-foot open interior. A select grade of hardwood flooring was installed, creating one of the finest dance floors in the area, enhanced by a beautiful lighting system. The trusses and walls were reinforced making the building suitable as a storm shelter.
A swampy area north of the cabin was dug out to create a lake with two small islands. Costs and expenditures for the project paid by the U.S. federal government was approximately $10,022, while the city of Stuart contributed $3,737 to finish the building. On Nov. 24, 1936, the American Legion sponsored a dance, which marked the formal opening of Stuart's rustic log cabin recreation lodge.
Community and school events, card games and meetings of civic groups were often held at the log cabin, including the establishment of the local Girl Scout Troops in December 1937, Kiwanis' charter party on May 6, 1938 and organization of the Stuart High School band, which began in September 1938, with instruction and practice sessions. It remained the school music room for years, actually until 1967, when a band room was built at the high school on Kanner Highway.
By the beginning of the 1970s, however, many people thought the Log Cabin had lost its usefulness. Land would also be needed in that location on the Stuart Junior High campus for expansion, to construct a large building to implement what was thought to be an innovative 'open concept' method of teaching. In March 1971 Lester Combs (WSTU and WMCF) announced to commissioners that he had agreed to pay mover, James Tucker, $1,000 for the disassembled Log Cabin in order that it might be preserved. It would need to be stored while money was collected for a restoration fund with plans to eventually reconstruct the building to be serviceable to the community and also as a tribute to a previous era.
After about eight years in storage, with assistance from Vince Bocchino and a crew of workmen, the structure was meticulously reassembled in Langford Park in Jensen Beach, completed by November, 1981.
Landmarks and structures still in existence
Many homes or other structures considered landmarks in Martin County have remained veritably the same for decades, a few of which include: Bandshell, Bessey House, Bigenuf Cottage, Coventry Hotel, Cypress Lodge, Dehon Buildings, Dyers Dry Goods Building, Feroe Building, France Apartments, Gunter-Minschke House, Hancock House, Hipson Building, Hull-Lane House, Kitching House, Knapp Inn-Holleran Apartments-TCRPC, Krueger Home (Burn Brae), Lyric Theatre, Matthews House, Newnham House, Olympic School, Osceola / Fuge Building, Parks-Atwood Home, Pitchford Apartments, Platt-Porter House, Post Office Arcade, Schroeder House, St. Lucie Sanitarium, Stuart Feed Store, Stuart High School, Stypmann House, Taylor House, Thomas House and Woodmen Hall, among many others.
Several of the landmark buildings and houses are featured on the annual Stuart Heritage Home Tour, celebrating the 25th anniversary of the event in 2014.
8Â½x11" copies of all of the vignettes are available at the Stuart Heritage Museum
Alice L. Luckhardt is a freelance historical researcher and writer, member of the Board of Directors for the Stuart Heritage Museum and researcher for the Elliott and House of Refuge. Greg Luckhardt, a native of Stuart and 1967 MCHS grad, is a former science teacher, retired businessman and member of Stuart Heritage Museum. They are Martin County's Historic Preservationists for 2013.
They can be contacted at: email@example.com
This story is contributed by a member of the community and is neither endorsed nor affiliated with TCPalm.