Stuart, Florida: 12 interesting facts about Martin County's biggest city

Editor's note: This is the first part in a series highlighting little-known facts and tidbits about cities and towns on the Treasure Coast. The first story is dedicated to Stuart.

Many thanks to authors and historians Alice and Greg Luckhardt, Rick Crary and Sandra Henderson Thurlow, as well as the Stuart Heritage Museum and TCPalm readers and Treasure Coast residents for providing information about Stuart and Martin County.

Want to share other little-known facts with our readers? Email them to maureen.kenyon@tcpalm.com.

The discovery of treasure from the 1715 Treasure Fleet, lost in a hurricane near the Sebastian Inlet, gave the Treasure Coast its name.

John J. Schumann Jr. and Harry J. Schultz, former publisher and editor of the (Vero Beach) Press Journal, actually coined the term shortly after salvagers began recovering Spanish treasure off the coast in 1961.

According to an April 1, 2011, article in The Stuart News, Schumann and Schultz started referring to Indian River, St. Lucie and Martin counties as the Treasure Coast.

"We had the Space Coast to the north of us in Brevard County and the Gold Coast to the south (Miami to Palm Beach County), but there was no designation for the area right here," Schumann said.

The moniker stuck.

But do you know how Stuart got its name? It's a little less glitzy but still a good story.

According to historian Sandra Henderson Thurlow in "Stuart on the St. Lucie: A Pictorial History," the city of Stuart is named for Homer Hine Stuart Jr.

Born in 1855 in Willow Tree, New York, Stuart came to Florida and eventually settled near the St. Lucie River in 1883.

Why he came here, however, is unclear. Stuart eventually built a bungalow on the north side of the St. Lucie River and started growing pineapples.

Here are a few more fun facts and interesting tidbits you might not know about Stuart.

'The fishing grounds of the presidents'

Five presidents loved fishing in Stuart, including Grover Cleveland, Chester A. Arthur, Theodore Roosevelt, Howard Taft and Warren G. Harding.

Cleveland actually found Stuart by mistake, and some historians say the 22nd president of the United States put Stuart on the map.

According to "A Treasure We Call Home" by Rick Crary, Cleveland was an accidental tourist. Crary writes that someone mistakenly decoupled the ex-president's railway car and left it stranded in Stuart. He probably was on his way to Palm Beach, Crary writes.

Cleveland loved fishing in Stuart so much that he returned many times, and in 1905, he purchased waterfront land where City Hall stands today. It was rumored Cleveland was planning to build a winter home but he never did.

During his 69th birthday vacation, the New York Times reported that Cleveland, at the time the nation's only living ex-president, reeled in one of the biggest tarpons ever caught.

A big bear hug

"Gentle Giant," a story about the adventures of a Florida game warden in the Everglades, his family and a loveable black bear named Ben, was filmed in Port Salerno and other places, including Palm Beach Gardens, MacArthur Park and the Everglades.

Dennis Weaver played Tom Wedloe, the game warden; Vera Miles was Ellen, his wife; and the son, Mark, was portrayed by 6-year-old Clint Howard, the brother of actor/director Ron Howard.

Filming began Sept. 12, 1966, in Port Salerno at many local facilities and with a few locals, including Elbert C. Blackman Jr., owner of the Port Salerno Grocery; Phil’s Boat Yard; Fowler Fish Company docks; James O’Connor’s Drug Store; P. O. Smith’s Grocery Store; and the Coconut Bar on State Road A1A in Port Salerno. About 17 authentic fishing boats, complete with boat captains and crews, were hired for about $1,000 a day and positioned at the Manatee Pocket.

'The Real McCoy'

Bill McCoy, who gained famed during Prohibition as the "King of Rum Row" and is credited with the origin of the expression "The Real McCoy," died in Stuart on Dec. 30, 1948, according to Thurlow's "Stuart on the St. Lucie: A Pictorial History."

McCoy was at the city dock aboard his yacht Blue Lagoon of the Coral Strand, a name shared by the Hutchinson Island property north of the St. Lucie Inlet he and his brother, Ben, owned since 1915. Today, the former McCoy property is known as Sailfish Point.

When the 18th Amendment became law in 1920, rum-running became a source of income for several Stuart fisherman and boat captains. West End, on Grand Bahama Island, was only 65 miles away.

Fishermen would clear customs at the Port of Palm Beach, sail to West End, load up on scotch, Canadian whiskey, bourbon and gin that was repackaged as "hams," and return through the St. Lucie Inlet to stash their cargo. Then they'd rush to the Port of Palm Beach in their empty boat to report to customs.

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Later, gator!

The city of Stuart had a mascot in the 1920s, an alligator named Dirty Ben, according to historians Alice and Greg Luckhardt.

The gator was kept in a fenced pool area in the park between Southwest Flagler Avenue and Southwest Osceola Street, before buildings were constructed in that area, and Dirty Ben actually was considered by some to be Stuart's mascot.

More: 8-foot gator near Port St. Lucie house creates quite a scene

About 50 years later, H.D. Worth, at one time a concert band and orchestra director in Stuart, recalled that an alligator somehow escaped the enclosure, and while attempting to cross the railroad tracks, lost part of its tail to a passing train.

Lights, camera, action!

Several actors graduated from Martin County High School.

Dan Bakkedahl, who is best known for movies "This Is 40," "The Heat" and "Battle of the Sexes" and TV shows "Veep" and "Community," graduated from Martin County High in 1988. He's also the younger brother of Tom Bakkedahl, chief assistant state attorney for the 9th Judicial Circuit.

Judge Reinhold, who starred in "Beverly Hills Cop" and "Beverly Hills Cop II," "Stripes," "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" and "Ruthless People," graduated in the mid-1970s.

Chris Marquette, a 2002 graduate of Martin County High, is known for his roles in "Freddy vs. Jason," "The Girl Next Door," "Alpha Dog" and "Just Friends."

Jimmy Gary Jr., of "Nurse Jackie" and "Orange is the New Black," also is from Stuart.

More: The Lyric Theatre's free summer movies include 'GoodFellas,' 'My Fair Lady,' 'Indiana Jones'

Academy Award winners made stops here as well.

Katharine Hepburn attended a public screening of "The Philadelphia Story" on March 16, 1941, at The Lyric Theatre. (Hepburn starred in the film.)

A week later, Hepburn also attended a Stuart Kiwanis Club benefit and recited Edna St. Vincent Millay’s “The Harp-Weaver,” and signed autographs that were sold in the lobby.

Robert Wagner and Natalie Wood were married in Arizona on Dec. 28, 1952, but because the couple loved fishing, they stopped for a few days in Stuart before continuing on to New York City.

More: 'The Voice' contestant JessLee, of Stuart, shares powerful message about being yourself

That's a wacky way around!

Visitors to downtown Stuart are all too familiar with Confusion Corner. (Or, maybe you're not because you've always avoided the baffling traffic pattern.)

In January 1979, journalist Charles Kuralt was intrigued by the wacky roundabout and arrived in Stuart to film Confusion Corner for a segment of CBS television's weekly series "On the Road" to be broadcast nationally, according to the Luckhardts.

Footage included traffic navigating the confusing intersection, the FEC train and musician Cliff Buckosh singing a song written about "swinging around" that baffling junction of roads.

Kuralt was impressed by the courteous behavior of motorists who had to maneuver through Confusion Corner.

Bank-robbing bandits

The Ashley Gang terrorized Florida's east coast and was involved in robberies, murders, bootlegging, jail escapes and even a shootout in downtown Stuart.

During the getaway from a robbery at Bank of Stuart on Feb. 23, 1915, leader John Ashley lost his right eye after he was accidentally shot by a member of the gang, according to the Luckhardts.

The gang robbed the Bank of Stuart again — this time when the bank was at a different location — May 12, 1922. Then, in 1970, a restaurant called De Bank Wuz Robbed briefly occupied the building at St. Lucie and Osceola avenues, where the robbery occurred.

A real gangster's paradise?

On March 28, 1930, it was reported that Al Capone was seen in Stuart, according to the Luckhardts. A local fisherman said he recognized Capone, who was heavily armed with bodyguards, near Babcock's Garage. He said Capone was in a Lincoln or Marmon with several other men. However, the witness refused to be identified when questioned about the incident.

Was Capone also involved with the construction of what was supposed to be a casino complex outside the city limits in Martin County, about 4 miles south of Stuart off of U.S. 1? The story was told by two local men who claimed to have worked on the project many years earlier, possibly verifying the information.

Oh, hail no!

On Feb. 10, 1934, just one month after the "new" Roosevelt Bridge — which is now the "old" Roosevelt Bridge — was dedicated, Mother Nature initiated the bridge, too.

A hailstorm covered Stuart with ice, creating street scenes that some say looked like "someplace up North."

Mammoth discovery

A portion of a tooth identified from a Parelepha floridanus, or Florida mammoth, was discovered on Fourth Street (East Ocean Boulevard) by a boy in April 1959.

Other discoveries in the area, of animal or human origin, include various fossils found in the C-23 Canal and skulls in Indian mounds on Hutchinson Island.

More: Consistent rain increases mosquitoes, gator, love bug sightings on Treasure Coast

No dumping, please!

Before the incorporation of the city of Stuart in May 1914, there was no trash or garbage service, according to the Luckhardts.

Instead, most citizens dumped debris or refuse off the dock into the St. Lucie River.

Wait. HOW many city halls?!?

Six!

Before the current City Hall building, 121 S.W. Flagler Ave., was complete in 1974, official town meetings were held in five other buildings.

From late 1914 to 1917, meetings were held in a rented space on the second floor of Woodmen Hall on Avenue B (Akron Avenue), according to the Luckhardts. The second city hall (1917-21) was a gas station, Stanley Kitching's Stuart Gas Well, on Dixie Highway near the southern base of the new St. Lucie Auto Bridge.

From 1920-22, town council meetings were held in Stanley Kitching's store building on Flagler Avenue, and in 1922, the city purchased a two-story block building, recently vacated by Stuart Bank, at the corner of St. Lucie and Osceola avenues, making it the fourth city hall.

In July 1953, the City Commission signed a purchase contract for the Stuart Department Store building (Kitching-Eckess) on Flagler Avenue to be the Stuart City Hall complex, city hall No. 5.

Groundbreaking began in January 1973 for Stuart's sixth city hall. The $400,000 modern facility, with a view of the river, opened September 1974.

Maureen Kenyon is TCPalm's trends reporter, keeping Treasure Coast residents updated on hot topics and happenings. Do you have a story to tell? Want to start a conversation? Send an email to maureen.kenyon@tcpalm.com, call 772-221-4249 or follow her on Twitter @_MaureenKenyon_.