The Founders of Biscayne Bay

Appointed keeper of the Biscayne House of Refuge in 1890, Captain William H. Fulford logged his first journal entry on August 6 of that year. The seasoned United States Coast Guard captain, William had first fallen in love with Dade County, and in particular a locale that would later bear his name, when his stint in the Spanish-American brought him to the area. Upon receipt of his homestead of 160 acres, the captain and his wife Mary Ann began building their house on what they deemed the “highest and driest point of the land.” The Fulfords would occupy that house until 1913 when they sold it to the Fulford Improvement Company, downsizing to a cottage. They eventually sold their holdings to Lafe Allen, a former newspaper owner who came to Florida to develop and sell lots. In 1917, Lafe made plans for a “perfect city” with 80-foot-wide streets, evidence of which can still be seen in the city’s grid. The area was officially named after Captain Fulford, and following the 1926 hurricane, residents sought benefit from alliance. By 1927, the area had officially incorporated as the Town of Fulford. But even that name would not last as in 1931, the name was again changed, that time to the City of North Miami Beach.

The Tatum brothers owned one of the largest real estate corporations in Dade County. In 1904, they purchased 80,000 acres of Everglades at $1.25 an acre and started selling watery lots even before the drainage canals opened. In Miami Beach, the Tatums’ Ocean Park Company owned most of the oceanfront land north of the Biscayne House of Refuge, today 72nd Street extending up to 163rd Street. In 1917, they obtained commission approval to build a coastal road from the Miami Beach city limits (from 46th Street up to the beach adjacent to Fulford). It was called Ocean Drive and its legacy is still visible in North Beach where a portion called Ocean Terrace remains. In 1919, the Tatums began to plat their six Altos del Mar subdivisions in North Beach and Surfside; Ocean Beach Heights in what is now Bal Harbour; and Tatum Ocean Beach Park in what is now Sunny Isles.

Josiah F. Chaille worked in mercantile with his father in Miami until 1916 when he turned his attention to real estate development. He was president of the Mutual Savings and Investment Company, which he founded in 1913. He partnered with Hugh M. Anderson to form Anderson & Chaille, and in 1917, purchased the Pulaski Estate at Buena Vista, which was later sub-divided and sold successfully despite the presence of war. That firm also operated the Miami Citrus Groves and Fruit Company. In 1920, after buying 140 acres in Biscayne Bay and the Collins Bridge from the Collins family, they founded the Bay Biscayne Improvement Company to develop the Venetian Islands. In 1921, the Bay Biscayne Improvement Company started the construction of four islands in Biscayne Bay: Rivo Alto (platted in 1922), Di Lido (January 1923), San Marino and San Marco (June 1923). In 1925, Harvey Stanley designed and built the Venetian Causeway that would be completed a year later.

At age 12, George Merrick and his family to Miami from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1898. By the age 29, he was appointed as a county commissioner where he promoted the building of roads in South Florida. When his father died in 1922, he inherited 3,000 acres of citrus grove and land covered in pine trees. He then began carving out the plan to turn the grove, called Coral Gables, into a Miami suburb. He partnered with his maternal uncle Denman Fink, an artist who headed the concept drawing, as well as with architects H. George Fink and Phineas Paist, and landscape artist Frank Button to create a modernized Mediterranean city. One thousand houses were built and sold in three years. George went on to marry Eunice Peacock, a Christian Scientist whose family were among Coconut Grove’s pioneers. His reported heavy drinking put a strain on his marriage as did his reputed philandering. Though his marriage was to survive his indiscretions, the public was less forgiving, essentially blaming George for the ills of the Great Depression, even expelling him from boards. To settle his debts spawned by the foreclosures set in motion by the Great Depression, George started working as a postmaster in 1940. Once a multimillionaire, when the 55-year-old George died in March 1942, he was worth a little less than $400.

Ralph Middleton Monroe was one of the first to settle Coconut Grove. Coming from Staten Island, New York, and by all accounts both charismatic and persuasive, as Monroe not only convinced fellow settlers, the Peacocks, to build the area’s first hotel, he arguably helped give Coconut Grove its true identity. Having first learned of Biscayne Bay from William Brickell in 1874, he had made multiple trips to the area before finally deciding to make it home in the late 1870s, acquiring 40 acres of waterfront where the Barnacle will be built in 1891. You could’ve easily called him the man with many hats: He was the Merritt Wrecking Company’s territory representative. He was a New York registered naval architect who designed a number of the early yachts on Biscayne Bay. He would prove instrumental in founding the Biscayne Bay Yacht Club, serving as commodore for twenty-two years. In addition to his role as a correspondent for the Department of Agriculture and the Bureau of Fisheries, Monroe also contributed to the Museum of Natural History of New York. An accomplished photographer, Ralph’s images provide glimpses into early pioneer life in South Florida.