biscayne bay yacht club history

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Serving Sellers and Buyers in Coconut Grove & Coral Gables

Enjoy a Stroll Down Memory Lane

May 22, 2020 By Anne Platt

Biscayne Bay Era

Drawn by the allure of his brother Jack’s tales of the tropical breezes, sapphire skies, lush green tree canopy and the crystal-clear waters of Biscayne Bay, Charles Peacock and his wife, Isabella, sold everything and closed up their life in London. They boarded a steamship bound for New York with their three sons, and began their journey to the ‘Utopia’ Jack had depicted.

Paradise was difficult to reach as no overland route existed. In New York, the Peacocks changed to a Mallory Line Steamship to Key West, a bustling deep water port of over 18,000 people, 150 miles south of Miami. A local skipper from Key West, sailing a shallow draft boat to cross the treacherous rock and coral reef bottom of Biscayne Bay, took the Peacocks north to their destination.

Upon arrival, Charles and Isabella discovered the ‘Eden’ Jack had depicted was an undeveloped frontier outpost hidden in a wild hammock of dense tropical overgrowth. Approximately a dozen pioneer settlers lived in the mangrove entangled and mosquito infested back country that was South Florida in 1875. It could only be reached by a narrow Indian path that was cut through the wilderness, or a shallow draft boat. In the evening wild cats, raccoons, possums, the red panthers as well as an assortment of snakes came out to visit.

In 1875, there was no public lodging in the area. The Peacocks temporarily settled at old Fort Dallas on the Miami River and helped J. W. Ewan, Resident Manager of the Biscayne Bay Company, run his trading post and store.

Ralph Munroe, a business man, sailor and boat builder from Staten Island, brought his wife, Eva, to soak up the gentle tropical breezes in 1881. Her doctor had advised Eva that the warmer weather was a must to help extend her life and endeavor to cure her tuberculosis. The Munroes pitched their tents on the Miami River near old Fort Dallas where the hospitable Peacock family lived.

Munroe and his wife, Eva, visited again the next winter and Ralph fell in love with the untouched isolated wilderness and the strong minded independent trailblazers who lived there. Sadly, Eva died on this Florida visit in April 1882. After his wife’s death, Munroe returned to Staten Island to find his young daughter, who had stayed in Staten Island, had also just died.

Charles Peacock, in order to coax him to live in Florida year round, gave Ralph Munroe four acres of land on what is today the NE side of McFarlane where the Woman’s Club and the Library are located.

Munroe was closing his New York enterprises, and missed the bay people and calm life. He wrote to  Peacock suggesting he go look for some waterfront land for a house and small hotel. Munroe would return and endeavor to advise the Peacocks in running and promoting the hotel. Munroe had many friends in New York who were eager to come explore the new community and they would need a place to stay.

By the winter of 1886, The Peacock Inn was overflowing with visitors and tents needed to be set up in the front yard! The Inn was renowned throughout the area for comfortable lodging and delicious food. Two additions to the Inn were in progress and Charles Peacock and his sons had opened a local post office in their thriving General Store. A new building called The Peacock’s Casino was used for dances, entertainment and community events.

Several of Ralph Munroe’s friends from New York had joined him to spend the winter. Some of that group brought more friends to see what Ralph had been so excited about in the small wilderness outpost accessible only by water.

Arva Moore Parks, author of The Forgotten Frontier: Florida Through the Lens of Ralph Middleton Munroe , said it best.

“These newcomers were not ordinary pioneers. Most were Easterners of some wealth, education and sophistication – a strange combination of tourist and frontiersman rolled into one. When they joined the growing settlement of native Bahamians and “Conchs” that preceded them, Coconut Grove, as a community was born. Before long there was a yacht club for the Easterners and a School and Sunday School for young families. Charles Peacock and his son opened a store where the Woman’s Club later established a library.”

There was little cash on the frontier and people bartered for things. In 1886, Munroe traded $400 and his 30-foot-long sharpie sailboat, Kingfish, to John Frow, for 160 acres on Biscayne Bay next to the Peacock Inn. Munroe built a two-story boathouse and moved in. Then he and other men in the community formed the Biscayne Bay Yacht Club. Munroe became Commodore and the upstairs of his boathouse became the Yacht Club.

Word of the exciting new Inn and waterfront restaurant had spread and Ralph Munroe had so many friends coming from the frozen north to visit that he decided to build a larger home, making room for a few friends to stay with him and his new wife, Jesse Wirth. The home he built, the Barnacle, was not the typical pioneer home. It was a unique square with a high hipped roof creating a wide verandah all around the house. It offered expansive views of Biscayne Bay.

Today, the Barnacle, built in 1891, is still standing in downtown Coconut Grove. In 1973, the state of Florida purchased the house and grounds from the Munroe family. It is now a State Park for all to visit. It is definitely a Legacy and Tribute to Commodore Ralph Munroe and his family,

The first photo above is Ralph Munroe’s boathouse. This was how the South Florida coast looked (minus the boathouse and Peacock Inn) when Charles and Isabella Peacock arrived in 1875. Notice the Peacock Inn to the right and set back from the coast.

More “Happenings” in Coconut Grove

• 1884 – Ralph Munroe learned of an earlier closed Post Office and had it had it re-opened. The pioneer outpost had mail and was named Cocoanut Grove
• 1887 – First School opened in Dade County.
• 1887 – First Yacht Race in South Florida to honor Washington’s Birthday.
• 1891 – First Woman’s Club in Florida called the HouseKeeper’s Club was established. Circa 1917/ 1918 The Miami Bank and Trust loaned the Woman’s Club the money to build the Historic Coral Rock building you see at the corner of McFarlane and Bayshore Drive.The building was completed and the ladies today own it free and clear.
• 1894 – After Florida freeze, Henry Flagler arrived for dinner with Julia Tuttle at the Peacock Inn to discuss extending his Railroad to Cocoanut Grove.
• 1896, April – Railroad arrived.
• 1896, May – Miami Metropolis published the first issue.

End of the Biscayne Bay Era

Published in the Miami Metropolis 1897

Bay Fronts at Coconut Grove will soon all be gone.

“We have a tract of 21 acres left. Price $4,500. Or, we will cut tracts in half so as to make two lots of ten and one-half acres each and will sell either lot for $2,500. Cash preferred, but if desired, half cash and the remainder in one year at 8 percent to right party. This property is Bay Front and lies between the places of A. R. Simmons and A. A. Boggs. Better secure a Bayfront while you can. They will all be gone a year hence.”

Doctor Eleanor Galt Simmons was the first female doctor to practice in Dade County. She and her husband Captain Albion Simmons purchased the eight acre estate at approx 4013 S. Douglas Road (now known as The Kampong) in 1892. The low oolitic limestone building was Dr. Galt Simmons office and her stable for her pony and cart were nearby. The building which housed her office still stands on the grounds of the Kampong and is the oldest building in Miami-Dade County still on its original foundation. Check out the plaque. It has some very interesting details of the early life in Coconut Grove.

Dr. David Fairchild, a renowned botanist and educator who traveled the world in search of useful and unique plants to be introduced to the United States, purchased the property known today as the Kampong in 1916. His name and outstanding reputation brought tropical plant enthusiasts from around the world to Coconut Grove. Today the Kampong (#1 on the map) is an eight acre Tropical Nature Research Preserve. This was owned in 1892 by Dr. Eleanor Galt Simmons (#7 on the map) .

Many of the homes in lush South Coconut Grove are built among what were active working groves of Avocados, Mangos, Guavas, Grapefruit, Kumquat, Loquat and more. When the 1920’s real estate boom began many of the growers became real estate agents and developers!

Note the new building (#2) at the end of St. Gaudens. I am told that will be three single family homes.

Today many buyers prefer the gated Bayfront communities. Four Way Lodge Estates  and  The Moorings are two of the favorites. Look carefully on the aerial and you will see other communities. The price can vary dramatically depending on the size and proximity to the water. We just sold a Bayfront home in Fourway Lodge Estates for $9,000,000 on a 12,000 sq. ft. lot. Last year direct Bayfront at the end of Matheson , on a 21,233 sq. ft. lot sold for $19,750,000.

When Henry Flagler brought his railroad to Cocoanut Grove it changed forever the peaceful ambiance of the Biscayne Bay waterfront community. The fiercely independent pioneers who had carved a lifestyle out of the wilderness and settled on the mysterious bit of land that could only be reached by boat or the narrow Indian path were about to have visitors.

After the April 1896 train arrival, vivid newspaper accounts of the breathtaking beauty and gentle tropical breezes of Cocoanut Grove were being spread around the globe by glowing newspaper reports. Buyers and tourists fleeing from the frozen north flocked to Florida and fell in love with the warm breezes, subtropical foliage and lush gardens in the exotic hammocks.

Many famous personalities including the internationally known boys books author and first editor of Harper’s Young People Magazine, Kirk Munroe and his wife Mary Barr Munroe, an environmentalist and civic activist, made Cocoanut Grove their home. Augustus Saint-Gaudens, the famous bronze sculptor and his wife created a waterfront home on Saint Gaudens Road. Flora McFarlane, the first woman homesteader and school teacher chose Coconut Grove for home. Ralph Munroe and Kirk Munroe are not related.

Always an international center, Coconut Grove had two Counts in residence. Count Patrick Nugent was from Paris and admitted to a bit of Irish blood. Count Jean D’Hedouville was Belgian.

I do wonder what Charles and Isabella Peacock and Ralph Munroe would say about the Coconut Grove of today!

In Memoriam of Arva Moore Parks

Arva Moore Parks , a beloved historian, author and fierce preservationist died May 11 2020. There will never be anyone to equal her knowledge of our beloved South Florida. We will miss her. If you wish to read more about our early Miami and Coral Gables days I suggest these books:

• The Forgotten Frontier: Florida Through the Lens of Ralph Middleton Munroe . by Arva Moore Parks Here you will learn more of Charles and Isabella Peacock and see gorgeous photography
• George Merrick, Son of the South Wind: Visionary Creator of Coral Gables by Arva Moore Parks The story of developers selling off the Sunshine State is as old as the first railroad tracks laid across the peninsula. But seldom do we hear about the men who actually built a better Florida. In George Merrick, Son of the South Wind, South Florida historian Arva Moore Parks recounts George Merrick’s quest to distinguish himself from the legions of developers who sought only profit.
• Coconut Grove (Images of America) by Arva Moore Parks , Bo Bennett Coconut Grove tells their story, from the native people who called it home to the Bahamians and sophisticated settlers who together shaped its special character. Despite hurricanes, booms, busts, and those who would change it, Coconut Grove remains uniquely itself.

Special Thanks…

Many thanks to Casey Piket of the Miami History Channel for his help to give me the copies of the early Coconut Grove photos from his collection when the museum was closed during the lockdown.

Contact me at [email protected] if you would like an aerial of your neighborhood .

Numbers are placed as near as possible to the proper property.

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ANNE PLATT Broker-Associate Direct 305-332-2027 Office tel: 305-667-4815

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Biscayne Bay Yacht Club (3939 Hardie Road)

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• site inventory form for 3939 Hardie Road
• realty information for 3939 Hardie Road
• excerpt from the June 1977 Update article, "The BBYC and the Barnacle"
• letter from DHT to the Historic Conservation Board, recommending historic designation for 3939 Hardie Road
• Miami Herald article (10/30/1990) on 3939 Hardie Road
• information on Micco, one of Ralph Munroe's boats
• excerpt from The Commodore's Story regarding 3939 Hardie Road
• information on the yacht club's history

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Storm Update – Park and Overnight Accommodations Closed 

Effective Sept. 24, 2024: To help ensure the safety of visitors and staff, the park and any associated overnight accommodations are closed due to Hurricane Helene. The Florida State Parks reservation team will email guests with affected reservations to make alternate arrangements or issue refunds. The park and its overnight accommodations will reopen as soon as conditions allow. Please visit our Storm Updates page for more information.

• Camping & Lodging

Situated on the shore of Biscayne Bay, The Barnacle was the 19th-century home of Ralph Middleton Munroe, one of Coconut Grove’s most interesting and influential pioneers. As a sailor, naturalist and photographer with ties through his grandfather, William, to the New England Transcendentalists (including Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau and Bronson Alcott), Munroe cherished nature and promoted what he called "the simple and genuine life."

Munroe first visited South Florida in 1877 while on vacation from Staten Island, New York. He enjoyed his visit, leaving with fond memories, but his next trip to the area was much less pleasant.

In 1881, doctors told Munroe that his wife, Eva, had contracted tuberculosis and indicated that a radical change of climate was needed at once. Munroe remembered beautiful Biscayne Bay and brought Eva there in hopes of her recovery. Despite his efforts and the nursing of Isabella Peacock, Eva passed away at their camp on the Miami River. Upon arriving back in New York, Munroe discovered that his only child had also died.

Munroe returned to South Florida in 1882 to visit his wife’s grave and to help Charles and Isabella Peacock open a hotel. First known as the Bay View Villa, the hotel became the Peacock Inn and went on to have a long and profitable history. In thanks for his help, the Peacocks gave Munroe four acres of land. He moved his wife’s grave to the new site and then donated the property to the community for the construction of its first church. An accomplished amateur photographer, Munroe took many iconic photos of life on Biscayne Bay during this time.

Boats were the major form of transportation in the early days, and yachting was a popular sport. Ralph Munroe's principal passion in life was designing yachts, and he received many commissions from his friends in South Florida. In his lifetime, he drew plans for 56 different boats.

Munroe purchased 40 acres of bayfront land in 1886 for $400 and one of his sailboats, Kingfish, valued at an additional $400. The boathouse was built the following year. It served as his home, his workshop, and the clubhouse for the newly formed Biscayne Bay Yacht Club. Munroe was elected the Yacht Club’s first Commodore and held the title for 22 years.

When the boathouse was destroyed during the disastrous hurricane of 1926, Munroe quickly rebuilt in the same location. The new structure had a concrete foundation, guy wires strapping the framework to the ground, and walls in front and back that were designed to break away during a storm. It survived Hurricane Andrew in 1992.

While living in the original boathouse, Commodore Munroe designed the one-story bungalow that would become his next residence. Completed in 1891, the new house was named The Barnacle   because the lines of its high-pitched roof were thought to mimic the shape of the conical crustacean.

The autumn of 1894 marked a new beginning for the commodore. He met Miss Jessie Wirth while on a cruise with friends. They were married the next summer and began a long and happy life together. When Jessie gave birth to a daughter, Patty, in 1900, she asked her sister Josephine to come help with the house and the baby. Miss Jo (aka Aunt Dodie) became a permanent resident of The Barnacle and served as a librarian at the Coconut Grove Library for 55 years.

Ralph and Jessie’s second child, a boy named Wirth, arrived in 1902, and the family needed more space. They began enclosing the porches on two sides of the house to expand the interior. In 1908, they raised the entire structure using railroad jacks and completed a new first floor below it. Electricity, city water and a library wing all followed. The last major structural changes occurred in 1928.

After Ralph and Jessie passed away, a grown-up Wirth moved back into the main house with his wife, Mary, and sons Bill and Charlie. Mary Munroe moved to a retirement community after her husband’s death in 1968, and after turning down lucrative offers from developers, the Munroe family sold The Barnacle to the state of Florida. It became a park in 1973 and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Today, The Barnacle is the oldest house in Miami-Dade County still standing in its original location and is a tangible reminder of Miami's nautical roots in a simpler time.

Books and videos about the Munroe Family and pioneer life in Miami include:

• "The Commodore's Story: The Early Days on Biscayne Bay"   by Ralph Middleton Munroe and Vincent Gilpin.
• "The Forgotten Frontier: Florida through the Lens of Ralph Middleton Munroe" by Arva Moore Parks.
• "Season of Innocence: The Munroes at the Barnacle in Early Coconut Grove" by Deborah A. Coulombe and Herbert L. Hiller.
• "Ralph Munroe's Barnacle: Centerpiece of a Legacy," a production of WLRN.

Early Stirrings in Coconut Grove

The early history of coconut grove from the 1870s to 1900..

We’ve noted in the previous blog that a vast wilderness with small clusters of hardy settlers living along Biscayne Bay was the greater Miami of just 125 years ago. Further, we observed that Coconut Grove, one of those communities, was also the area’s most dynamic, progressive, and independent-minded settlement.

The Grove’s natural setting is unrivaled as it looks out from behind lush subtropical foliage toward the turquoise waters of Biscayne Bay.  The province of Tequesta Indians for millennia, the Grove’s modern incarnation begins in the nineteenth century, when it became a favorite stop for mariners attracted to the bubbling fresh water springs on its waterfront.  After the Cape Florida Lighthouse opened in 1825, light keepers and their assistants became frequent visitors to Coconut Grove, as were wreckers or salvagers of disabled ships along the nearby Great Florida Reef.  In fact, an early, unofficial name of the area was “The Land Across from the Light.”

By the middle years of the nineteenth century, Edmund (“Ned”) and Ann Beasley, the Grove’s first known permanent residents, lived along its bay front in the area around today’s Barnacle State Park.  When Ned died, Ann rented a portion of their property to Dr. Horace Porter, a onetime Union surgeon in the American Civil War.  Porter applied for—and was granted-- a U.S. Post Office for the area in 1873, calling it Cocoanut Grove (sic) after viewing a couple of nearby Coconut Palm trees!  Soon after, he left the area following a failed attempt to swindle the widow Beasley of her property, and the post office was quickly forgotten.

Lured by the prospect of free land through federal homestead laws, other settlers, in the 1870s, settled in the region.  Most important of those in Coconut Grove were the Pent and Frow families, who hailed from the Bahamas, as well as “Jolly” Jack Peacock, a British settler who was also keeper of the House of Refuge for shipwrecked mariners on today’s Miami Beach. Indeed, the settlement was called “Jack’s Bight” by some in recognition of both Peacock and its curved shoreline.

In the 1870s, Jack Peacock convinced his brother Charles and his family to leave England for the wilds of southeast Florida.  At about the same time, Ralph Munroe, an accomplished sailboat designer from Staten Island, came to Miami on a sailing vacation.  Munroe met the Peacocks, with whom he became friends, and he suggested that they open a guest house in the area for its ever-growing number of visitors. The Peacocks opened the Bay View Inn, a simple wood frame structure, in 1882, in today’s Peacock Park.  It was the first “hotel” in the area.  Some of the Inn’s early staffers were black Bahamians who created their own settlement along Charles Avenue.

In the late 1880s, Ralph Munroe discovered Porter’s post office from a postal map at the Fowey Rocks Lighthouse.  When he informed his neighbors of this discovery, the post office was reopened and Coconut Grove acquire its enduring name and bore its spelling from the Porter era. In the meantime, the number of people visiting the Bay View House grew to include a motley collection of eccentrics and creative types, including titled counts, writers, early environmentalists, and even the son of Harriett Beecher Stowe.  Many less notable Coconut Grove residents labored as farmers in areas of the Grove west of the settled bay front region.

Soon the Peacocks had enlarged their facility to accommodate the increased number of visitors and renamed it the Peacock Inn.  It served as the community center. Enthralled with the natural splendors of Coconut Grove, many of its visitors decided to build homes in the area. By 1900, the community claimed more than one hundred residents ranking it among the largest settlements on the southeast Florida mainland.

By then, those institutions associated with maturing communities began to appear.  The Biscayne Bay Yacht Club opened in 1887 following a Washington Birthday sailing regatta.  In the same year, Isabella Peacock began conducting Sunday school classes in a building constructed for that purpose.  In 1889, the structure hosted the first public school in the county.  The Sunday school, moreover, helped spawn the first church, today’s Plymouth congregational Church, where blacks and whites, for a time, worshipped together.

Flora McFarlane, the first woman homesteader and school teacher in the area, founded the Housekeeper’s Club (today’s Woman’s Club of Coconut Grove) in 1891 with the goal of “community uplift,” which it achieved through fundraisers that paid for amenities in the community.  The fame of the Housekeeper’s Club spread quickly.  Within one year of its inception, Harper’s Magazine, a major national publication, profiled the club.  The Pine Needles Club, consisting of the young women of the community, was organized in 1895.  It members established the first library.

In our next blog, we will examine the development of Coconut Grove in subsequent years and decades.

Cover: Coconut Grove Residents in 1887. Courtesy of Florida Memory.

Figure 1: Bayview Inn in 1880s. Courtesy of Florida Memory.

Figure 2: Black Bahamians in Coconut Grove in 1890s. Courtesy of Florida Memory.

Figure 3: Road to Coconut Grove in early 1900s. Courtesy of Florida Memory.

Figure 4: Sunday School in Coconut Grove in 1889. Courtesy of Florida Memory.

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THE COMMODORE’S STORY: Ralph Munroe and the Wilderness That Was South Florida

July 14/2022:  I must confess I had never even heard of Ralph Middleton Munroe , a.k.a. “the Commodore,” until just 12 years ago, when I test-sailed a very interesting boat called the Presto 30 , designed by Rodger Martin, on Biscayne Bay during the Miami International Boat Show. I was informed at that time that this new Presto–a svelte narrow shoal-draft sharpie-like thing with unstayed carbon masts and a unique cat-ketch rig–was inspired by the original Presto (see image up top), a round-bilge sharpie designed by Munroe explicitly for sailing on the south Florida coast 120 years earlier. Since then my appreciation of Munroe, both as an important yacht designer, and as a key figure in the development of Florida, has accelerated a good deal.

I achieved maximum acceleration just this past winter, when I was loaned a copy of Munroe’s autobiography, The Commodore’s Story , published in 1930 and co-authored by Vincent Gilpin.

It is a fascinating book!

Munroe was born in New York, in Manhattan, in 1851, and was raised primarily on Staten Island, a much more rural place at the time. The island then was only accessible by water, and Munroe became interested in boats and sailing at an early age. As a young man, he gloried in sailing out to witness the earliest America’s Cup races live and in person.

Munroe also obviously enjoyed living in primitive circumstances. An early chapter in the book describing the winter of 1872, which Munroe spent living on Fire Island, then nothing but an extremely isolated, mostly unpopulated barrier beach, is a bit startling. He writes: “The experience with cold, ice, snow and surf, and escapes from disaster, hardened my body, and taught me things of the sea ever useful afterward.” An understatement, to say the least.

Hunting for birds to eat while hiding “behind cakes of ice,” saving shipwrecked sailors on the beach in freezing conditions, and skating and ice-boating great distances to fetch provisions were common activities. For Munroe, it was all a grand “vacation.”

Dominy House, where Munroe stayed that winter, was one of the few structures on the island at the time. It was entirely uninsulated, and winter gales blew straight through it

Ultimately, and quite sensibly, Munroe decided in favor of a warmer climate and took to visiting south Florida in the winter. Eventually he settled there permanently. At this time, in the late 1870s, there was no railroad, nor roads of any sort, south of St. Augustine. “The peninsula was nothing more than a vague wilderness,” wrote Munroe. “To me, however, there was no appeal short of Biscayne Bay.” (This in spite of the fact that it didn’t even appear on many maps in those days.) “No more isolated region was found in the country, and scarcely any less productive. The few hardy settlers depended mainly on the products of the sea, together with plentiful game, for food. Green turtle and fish of all kinds were unlimited, the Indians brought in venison, bear, wild turkey, terrapin, gopher (an edible land tortoise) and plenty of the finest ‘pumpkins’ or rather squashes, and sweet potatoes similar to yams, but far better, and of huge size.”

The mouth of the Miami River, now at the center of the great city of Miami, as it appeared in 1877

Munroe with a very large crocodile and a somewhat smaller alligator

Old Emathla, once a Seminole warrior, was very suspicious of the white settlers on Biscayne Bay, but became very friendly with Munroe, who deemed Emathla “a fine old man”

A Seminole canoe, hewn from a cypress log, under sail

The only way to travel around Biscayne Bay and south Florida at that time was by boat, and Munroe’s talents as an amateur designer were thus in some demand. He specialized in creating shoal-draft vessels that were also comfortable in a seaway. He was, in his day, recognized as something of genius in this regard. He ultimately became very friendly with Nat Herreshoff, and Munroe purportedly was the only other yacht designer who significantly influenced Herreshoff.

Egret , with her fully battened cat ketch rig (quite similar to what eventually appeared on the Presto 30), was a particularly important design

Allapatta , seen here off Dinner Key. Note how her skipper is poling her easily through a flat calm

Munroe also designed the first American proa, inspired by a debate he had with Nat Herreshoff

One thing I was surprised to learn from this book was that pretty much the first serious organization of any sort to be formed in southeast Florida was the Biscayne Bay Yacht Club . Here we see its inaugural event, a Washington’s Birthday regatta, held in February of 1887. Munroe was the club’s first commodore and served in that capacity for 22 years

The boathouse that Munroe built and lived in at Coconut Grove also served as the club’s first permanent home. The more substantial home that Munroe later built himself in 1891, called the Barnacle , is today the oldest house in Miami-Dade County still standing in its original location

The Commodore was an important pioneer in south Florida’s history. But in his later years, as he saw the Miami area rapidly developing, he could only mourn the loss and destruction of the Biscayne Bay’s natural wonders. He became something of an environmentalist and strongly resisted the onset of modernity

The entire population of Miami-Dade County circa Christmas Day 1886, not including indigenous persons

I have to admit I didn’t quite read all of this book. The last third, written solely by Gilpin, is pretty dry, and I just jumped around in that a bit. But the rest of it was great–a rare firsthand account of the very early history of the Miami area that will be of particular interest to sailors. The photos, as you can see, are cool too. Munroe was also a great amateur photographer, and his pix are basically the only ones available of the Miami area at that time.

As for the Presto 30, it sadly did fall out of production not long after it was first introduced. But I see there is a chance it will be resurrected by some folks calling themselves Adventure Boatworks .

I sure hope that pans out. It is a very unique boat and a worthy successor to Munroe’s designs.

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You are here: SFI / Biscayne Bay Yacht Club / BISCAYNE BAY YACHT CLUB

BISCAYNE BAY YACHT CLUB

Client Biscayne Bay Yacht Club

Location Coconut Grove, Florida

Engineer of Record Coastal Systems International

Date of Completion February 2008

Contract Bond $2.6 million

Founded in 1887 by Commodore Ralph, the Biscayne Bay Yacht Club is one of the oldest members-only yacht clubs in Florida. In 1932, the Club purchased its present clubhouse which continues to serve as its main facility. Over time its marine facility became more developed and was extended beyond the bulkhead and into the waters of Biscayne Bay. In 2006, the Club selected Shoreline Foundation to demolish and reconstruct the existing 74 slip marina which had fallen into total disrepair.

Construction began with the demolition and disposal of the main concrete piers that had been covered with a secondary wooden deck structure. All concrete dock piles, wooden fender and mooring piles were also removed. Work then commenced on the installation of 200, 14 inch x 14 inch concrete pilings for the main and secondary piers.

The decking of the main pier, (422 feet x 10 feet), and the two intersecting T-piers, (145 feet x 9 feet), feature inlay panels of Ipe wood and fiberglass grating, set between precast concrete panels. All of the pre-cast concrete panels were manufactured off-site by Shoreline Foundation and delivered by barge. Construction included the installation of 35 finger piers with wood decking that intersect at various locations along the main and secondary piers. A total of 190 tropical greenheart piles were installed as fender and mooring piles. All utility runs were installed and held in position above the concrete caps and under the removable inlay decking sections. The installation of aluminum power pedestals and galvanized mooring cleats completed the construction of the new marina.

The Coconut Grove waterfront along Bayshore Drive is home to six other marine facilities that provide safe harbor for thousands of vessels. There are those who would argue that the Biscayne Bay Yacht Club’s new marina is the finest marine facility in the area. At Shoreline Foundation, we are inclined to agree.

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Tomsk: Cultural treasure of central Siberia

Tomsk. Church of the Resurrection on Resurrection Hill. East view. September 24, 1999

At the beginning of the 20th century the Russian chemist and photographer Sergey Prokudin-Gorsky developed a complex process for vivid color photography. His vision of photography as a form of education and enlightenment was demonstrated with special clarity through his images of architectural monuments in the historic sites throughout the Russian heartland.

In June 1912, Prokudin-Gorsky ventured into Western Siberia as part of a commission to document the Kama-Tobolsk Waterway, a link between the European and Asian sides of the Ural Mountains. The town of  Tyumen  served as his starting point for productive journeys that included Shadrinsk (current population 68,000), established in 1662 on the Iset River. By the time of Prokudin-Gorsky’s visit, the town already had several enterprises, including a ceramics factory, and a population of some 15,000. 

Prokudin-Gorsky’s photographs of Shadrinsk include the rapid construction of pine log buildings for a railroad station complex – part of a secondary rail line built in 1911-1913. The partially completed buildings show an efficient use of standardized design, with measured log stacks in the foreground. Tall, spindly pine trees complete the picture.

Shadrinsk. Construction of standardized log buildings for a railroad station complex. Summer 1912

In a broader context, these photographs reflect the expansion of Russia’s rail system from Yekaterinburg to the Far East. Although Prokudin-Gorsky did not reach Tomsk (in central Siberia), I visited there in the late Summer of 1999 and saw the extensive use of log structures in an urban environment.

Tomsk beginnings

Tomsk. Church of Kazan Icon of the Virgin at Virgin-St. Aleksy Monastery, south view. Built in 1776-89; bell tower added in 1806. September 26, 1999

Archeological evidence suggests that Tomsk Region, part of the vast Ob River basin in central Siberia, has been settled for at least four millennia.

Epiphany Cathedral, southeast view. Built in 1777-84; expanded in 19th century; severely deformed in Soviet period for use as factory. This historic photograph shows the process of restoration, completed in 2002. September 25, 1999

By the time detachments of Russian Cossacks arrived in 1598, the native inhabitants included the Khants and Siberian Tatars, who, in 1603, accepted the authority of Tsar Boris Godunov.

In 1604, a fort was founded on the banks of the River Tom (a tributary of the Ob) and, throughout the 17th century, the Tomsk settlement served as a bulwark against the Kalmyk and Kirghiz steppe tribes.  

Church of the Resurrection on Resurrection Hill, north view. Built in 1789-1807; excellent example of "Siberian Baroque" architecture. September 26, 1999

With the expansion of Russian control to the south during the 18th century, the military significance of Tomsk was replaced by trade and transportation, centered on caravans of tea from China.

Former Stock Exchange Building, begun in 1825. September 25, 1999

The expansion of the Moscow Road through Siberia in the middle of the 18th century provided further stimulus for growth that was reflected in the construction of large brick churches, such as the Epiphany Cathedral (first completed in 1784) and the Church of the Resurrection (1789), a masterpiece of Siberian baroque architecture.             

Alexander Vtorov & Sons Building, Lenin Prospect 111. Built in 1903-05 as a department store & hotel; a major example of Art Nouveau architecture in Siberia. September 24, 1999

During the 1830s, the development of gold mines in the territory greatly increased the town's significance as a center of mining operations and administration. Tomsk Region also continued to serve as a place of political exile, as it had in the 17th and 18th centuries.             

‘Diverted’ opportunities

N. S. Zaslavsky "Fashionable Store," Lenin Prospect 105. Built in 1898-99; example of "Brick Style" commercial architecture. September 24, 1999

During the construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway at the end of the 19th century, Tomsk missed a second golden opportunity when the Ministry of Transportation decided to place the railroad crossing over the Ob’ River to the south. There are conflicting explanations for this decision, which slighted Tomsk, but created the town of Novonikolaevsk, subsequently to become the major Siberian metropolis of Novosibirsk.

Former building of the Flour Exchange, Lenin Square 14. Built in 1906-08; an example of Art Nouveau architecture. September 25, 1999

Tomsk settled for a branch line constructed in 1896 through the small junction of Taiga (80 kilometers south of the city) and that spur enabled Tomsk to remain a center of trade and agricultural development in central Siberia.             

Commercial building of A. V. Shvetsov, steamboat magnate. Built in 1882 in the "Pseudo-Russian" style (based on late medieval Russian architecture). September 25, 1999

The impressive scale of its commercial and residential architecture illustrates the diversity of Siberian culture at the turn of the 20th century. The Vtorov firm built one of Siberia’s largest department stores, which still graces Tomsk’s central district. Tomsk also became one of Siberia's preeminent educational centers, the location of Siberia's first university, founded in 1878. Among Russian institutions of higher learning, Tomsk State University is distinguished not only by its academic luster but also by its attractive, spacious campus.             

Main Building of Tomsk University. Built in 1885 in a late Neoclassical style. September 27, 1999

It should be emphasized that Tomsk accepted religious faiths in addition to Russian Orthodoxy. By 1910, the city had a Catholic Church of the Holy Rosary (now restored for use), two mosques (both of which have been restored), a Lutheran church (rebuilt), an Old Believer Orthodox church and a large synagogue that is among the most beautiful in Russia. The dome over its entrance has now been reconstructed.

Catholic Church of the Rosary of the Blessed Virgin. Consecrated in 1833 for the community of Polish exiles. Bell tower added in 1856. September 26, 1999

Architectural heritage

In 1911, the city’s northern area gained the neo-Byzantine Cathedral of Sts. Peter and Paul, the only church to remain open for most of the Soviet era. Some of the churches were built of wood, such as the Old Believer Church of the Dormition, completed in 1913 and lovingly maintained today by the parish. I was particularly honored to be asked to photograph Metropolitan Alimpy (Gusev; 1929-2003), who was visiting Tomsk at the same time.             

Choral Synagogue, Rosa Luxemburg Street 38. Built in 1902 to replace a wooden synagogue built in 1850. View before restoration of dome above main entrance. September 25, 1999

The most distinctive part of the city’s architectural heritage is displayed in its neighborhoods of elaborately decorated wooden houses, structures of solid logs often covered with plank siding.

Cathedral of Sts. Peter & Paul, southeast view. Built in 1909-11 in Neo-Byzantine style. September 24, 1999

It is no exaggeration to say that the "lacework" of Tomsk's wooden architectural ornament – particularly the window surrounds, or nalichniki – is unrivaled in Russia for its lavish detail and the extent of its preservation. Many of these extraordinary wooden houses were built for merchants who lived in the Tatar Quarter.  

Old Believer Church of the Dormition, southwest view. Wooden structure built in 1909-13 for the Old Believer Orthodox community in Tomsk region. September 27, 1999

The Tatar Quarter also contains the renovated White Mosque and a cultural center, located in a mansion built at the beginning of the 20th century for Karym Khamitov, a Tatar financial magnate.  Other ethnic groups include Russian  Germans, composed of settlers who moved to the area beginning in the 19th century. One of them was Viktor Kress, the governor of Tomsk Region in 1991-2012. 

Old Believer Church of the Dormition. Historic photograph of Metropolitan Alimpy (Gusev), spiritual leader of Russian Orthodox Old Believer Church. Photograph taken with the blessing of the prelate, who is standing in front of icon screen. September 27, 1999

Decline & rebirth

The many positive trends in the region’s development during the early 20th century were crushed by the savage fighting of the Civil War between 1918-1921. After that conflict, Tomsk entered a decline that was reversed by the evacuation to the city of industrial and research facilities during World War II.

Wooden house, Belinsky Street 19. Excellent example of "Carpenter Gothic" style. September 24, 1999

This momentum, reinforced by strong institutions of higher education in Tomsk, continued after the war with the development of nuclear research installations for both military and energy purposes.             

Wooden house built by architect Andrey Kryachkov. Fine example of Art Nouveau architecture in wood. September 26, 1999

With over a half a million inhabitants and a regional population of almost a million, Tomsk remains a leading Siberian center for administration, education, industry and energy resources.

Wooden house & courtyard gate, Tatar Street 46. One of many distinctive wooden houses built in the district of Tatar merchants. September 26, 1999

Protecting the environment has been a major concern, particularly in an area of stunning natural beauty. 

White Mosque, built in Tatar District in 1912-16. September 26, 1999

At the same time, dedication to the city’s historical environment – including its houses of worship – has succeeded in preserving an architectural legacy that represents a Russian national treasure.

House of merchant Karym Khamitov, built in Tatar District in 1894. Under conversion into cultural center for Tatar community of Tomsk region. September 25, 1999

Indeed, a walk through the historic neighborhoods of Tomsk reminds just how much Russian culture belongs to the forest.  

Ornamental wooden gate leading to courtyard of house on Solyanoi Lane 18. September 26, 1999

In the early 20th century, Russian photographer Sergey Prokudin-Gorsky developed a complex process for color photography. Between 1903 and 1916, he traveled through the Russian Empire and took over 2,000 photographs with the process, which involved three exposures on a glass plate. In August 1918, he left Russia and ultimately resettled in France, where he was reunited with a large part of his collection of glass negatives, as well as 13 albums of contact prints. After his death in Paris in 1944, his heirs sold the collection to the Library of Congress. In the early 21st century, the Library digitized the Prokudin-Gorsky Collection and made it freely available to the global public. A few Russian websites now have versions of the collection. In 1986, architectural historian and photographer William Brumfield organized the first exhibit of Prokudin-Gorsky photographs at the Library of Congress. Over a period of work in Russia beginning in 1970, Brumfield has photographed most of the sites visited by Prokudin-Gorsky. This series of articles juxtaposes Prokudin-Gorsky’s views of architectural monuments with photographs taken by Brumfield decades later.

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Tomsk Oblast, Russia

The capital city of Tomsk oblast: Tomsk .

Tomsk Oblast - Overview

Tomsk Oblast is a federal subject of Russia located in the southeast of the West Siberian Plain, part of the Siberian Federal District. Tomsk is the capital city of the region.

The population of Tomsk Oblast is about 1,068,300 (2022), the area - 314,391 sq. km.

Tomsk oblast flag

Tomsk oblast coat of arms.

Tomsk oblast map, Russia

Tomsk oblast latest news and posts from our blog:.

10 November, 2019 / Tomsk - the view from above .

History of Tomsk Oblast

The development of this region began in the late 16th - early 17th centuries. The oldest settlement in the Tomsk region is the village of Narym, founded in 1596.

The town of Tomsk was founded as a military fortress by the decree of Tsar Boris Godunov in 1604. It was one of the outposts of the development of Siberia.

From 1708 to 1782, Tomsk was part of the Siberian province. In 1804, the town became the center of a separate Tomsk province, which included the current territories of the Altai krai, Novosibirsk, Kemerovo, East Kazakhstan, Tomsk regions and part of Krasnoyarsk krai.

In the 19th century, the growth of gold mining, smelting of metals, fur trade concentrated large capital in Tomsk, triggering a revival of trade. Important transport routes - the Moscow and Irkutsk tracts - passed through Tomsk.

In 1888, the first university beyond the Urals was opened in Tomsk, in 1900 - the Technological Institute, in 1901 - the first commercial school in Siberia, in 1902 - the Teachers’ Institute. By 1914, Tomsk was one of the 20 largest cities in the Russian Empire.

In 1925, the Tomsk Governorate was abolished and became part of the Siberian region. In the 1930s, Tomsk lost its administrative significance. In August 1944, the city became again a regional center.

During the Second World War, dozens of factories, educational, scientific, and cultural institutions were evacuated to Tomsk oblast and became the basis for the further development of the region in the postwar years.

In the 1950s, the first in the USSR nuclear center of the world level was created in Tomsk Oblast - the Siberian Chemical Combine. In the 1960s-1970s, oil production began on the territory of the region, a giant petrochemical plant was built - the Tomsk Petrochemical Combine.

Nature of Tomsk Oblast

Small lake in Tomsk Oblast

Author: Andrey Gaiduk

Beautiful nature of the Tomsk region

Author: Sergey Timofeev

Tomsk Oblast scenery

Author: Egor Dyukarev

Tomsk Oblast - Features

The length of the Tomsk region from north to south is about 600 km, from west to east - 780 km. Most of the territory is difficult to access because of taiga forests occupying about 60% of the region and marshes (28.9%). The Vasyugan swamp is one of the largest marshes in the world.

The climatic conditions of the southern and northern districts of the Tomsk region are markedly different. Almost the entire territory of the region is located within the taiga zone. The climate is temperate continental. The average temperature in July is plus 24 degrees Celsius, in January - minus 16 degrees Celsius. The climate in the northern part of the region is more severe, winters are longer.

The largest cities and towns of Tomsk Oblast are Tomsk (570,800), Seversk (105,200), Strezhevoy (38,900), Asino (24,400), Kolpashevo (22,200). Lake Mirnoye located in Parabelsky district is the largest lake. The main river, the Ob, crosses the region diagonally from the southeast to the northwest, dividing it into two almost equal parts.

The main industries are oil and gas, chemical and petrochemical, engineering, nuclear, electric power, timber industry, and food industry. All the machine-building and metal-working plants are located mainly in Tomsk and partly in Kolpashevo and Seversk. Oil is extracted mainly in the north-west and west of the region.

The main branches of agriculture are meat and dairy cattle breeding. Agricultural fields occupy about 5% of the territory. Wheat, flax and vegetables are grown in small amounts. Cattle-, pig-, sheep-, and goat-breeding are presented as well as poultry farming. Fur trade (squirrels, sables, musk-rats) and fur farming (silver-black fox) are also developed.

Tomsk Oblast - Natural Resources

Tomsk Oblast is rich in such natural resources as oil, natural gas, ferrous and non-ferrous metals, brown coal (the first place in Russia), peat (the second place in Russia), and groundwater. In the region there is the Bakcharskoe iron ore deposit, which is one of the largest in the world (about 57% of all iron ore in Russia).

Forests are one of the most significant assets of the region: about 20% (more than 26.7 million hectares) of forest resources in Western Siberia are located in Tomsk oblast. The timber reserves amount to 2.8 billion cubic meters.

In the Tomsk region there are 18.1 thousand rivers, streams and other watercourses with a total length of about 95 thousand km, including 1,620 rivers with a length of more than 10 km.

The main waterway is the Ob River. The Ob length in the region is 1,065 km. The main tributaries of the Ob flowing into it on the territory of the Tomsk region are the Tom, Chulym, Chaya, Ket, Parabel, Vasyugan, Tym.

Attractions of Tomsk Oblast

The sights of Tomsk Oblast include the harsh beauty of Siberian nature, the variety of winding rivers and canals, as well as monuments of wooden architecture, and other places that keep ancient legends about this land.

Undoubtedly, it is worth to visit Lake Kirek, one of the most beautiful reservoirs of the Tomsk region. It is located only 50 km from Tomsk. According to legend, a local millionaire drowned his diamonds here during the revolution in 1917.

About 40 km from Tomsk, there is a lake complex of the village of Samus consisting of seven lakes. These lakes are known for their very dark water, which is explained by the streams flowing into them from peat bogs.

Near the village of Kolarovo, located 33 km south of Tomsk, there is Siniy (Blue) cliff. It is a three-kilometer precipice descending to the Tom River. The cliff got its name due to the gray-blue shale that covers it. Several centuries ago, after the founding of Tomsk, a watchtower was installed on the cliff, from which signals were sent to the fortress.

At the source of the Berezovaya River, 40 km southeast of Tomsk, there is such an attraction as the Talovsky bowls, a natural monument of national importance. These are huge natural figures in the form of vessels of oval form, covered from the inside by birnessite - a rare mineral.

There is a tourist attraction of a global scale in the Tomsk region - the Vasyugan marshes, the largest marsh complex in the world. It is also called the “Russian Amazon”, because the Vasyugan marshes are not inferior to the famous South American river by their scale.

To the collection of sights of Alexandrovsky district of the Tomsk region, the most distant from the regional center, we can add Lake Baikal, the namesake of the famous lake, Goluboye (Blue) Lake, Malyye mountains (highlands) in the valley of the Vakh River and the Paninsky reserve, where the ancient burials of the Khanty and Ostyaks are preserved.

On the right bank of the Ob River, more than 200 km from Tomsk, the village of Mogochino is located. St. Nicholas Convent can be found here.

In Tomsk itself, plenty of monuments of wooden architecture deserve attention. In total, there are more than 700 objects, including 109 monuments of federal and regional significance.

Also in the Tomsk region you can visit more than 100 museums (most of them are located in Tomsk). The most popular museums are the Museum of History of Tomsk, the Memorial Museum “The NKVD Investigative Prison”, the Museum of Wooden Architecture, the Tomsk Regional Art Museum.

Tomsk oblast of Russia photos

Pictures of the tomsk region.

Abandoned village in Tomsk Oblast

Author: Sergei Loyko

Orthodox chapel in the Tomsk region

Winter in Tomsk Oblast

Author: Koshkin V.

Field road in Tomsk Oblast

Author: Dolgin Andrey

Country life in Tomsk Oblast

Author: D.Lebedev

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