History
Coconut Grove was not always part of Miami. It was a well established settlement long before there was Miami. It was christened “Coconut Grove”, more than a century ago but its unique history began much earlier with the arrival of Bahamian seamen who came to South Florida to salvage the millions of dollars worth of vessels that wrecked on the Great Florida Reef. When some of them decided to settle down, they chose “the land across from light” (Cape Florida) as their permanent home.

In 1840’s members of Pent and Frow families were the Grove’s first permanent settlers. During 1870’s other homesteaders lured by the U.S. Government’s offer of free land settled in Grove. During this time young Staten Islander, Ralph Munroe, came to South Florida for a sailing vacation. While there he met most of the people living on the bay including Charles and Isabella Peacock. He returned in 1881 with his wife who was dying of tuberculosis. Because there was no public lodging in the area and few homes, the Munroes camped on the grounds of old Fort Dallas near Charles and Isabella Peacock. Not even the constant and loving care of Isabella Peacock, however could save poor Eva Munroe who died in 1881. She is buried next to the Coconut Grove library – the oldest marked grave in Miami.

The friendship between Charles and Isabella Peacock and Ralph Munroe was the catalyst that brought Coconut Grove into being. Realizing that South Florida needed a place for people to stay, Munroe told the Peacocks that if they would open a hotel at “Jack’s Bight” he would bring his northern friends down. In 1882 the Peacocks bought 31 acres from John Frow and build the Bay View House – the first hotel in the Miami area.

At about the same time the hotel opened, Ralph Munroe discovered there had been a discontinued Coconut Grove post office. Although there were only two coconut trees in the area, he reopened it because it was easier to reopen a post office than to open one with a new name.

Charles Peacock went to Key West to find people to work at his hotel. The first to arrive was Miss Mariah Brown from Upper Boque, Eleuthera. Soon thereafter, a large number of black Bahamians followed Miss Brown to Coconut Grove and before long South Florida’s first black community was born.

The Bay View House quickly became a popular resort. Titled noblemen, world- famous scientists, writers and preachers including Charles Stowe, son of Harriet Beecher Stowe, began to make the Grove their winter haven. The small hotel soon expanded into a larger, more pretentious Peacock Inn.

Many of the people who came as tourists subsequently moved to Coconut Grove. Besides Ralph Munroe the most influential new residents included Kirk Munroe, his wife Mary Barr and Flora McFarlane. With the Peacock Inn as the gathering place and Isabella Peacock as the nucleus these extraordinary settlers permanently stamped their hopes and dreams on Coconut Grove.

Isabella Peacock despaired because there was no house of worship in Coconut Grove.

To remedy the situation she collected donations from her guests to build a Sunday  School building across from the Inn in 1887. Two years later it became first public school building in what is now Dade County. It has been and is now on the grounds of Plymouth Congregational Church, the church that began as the Coconut Grove Sunday School.

In 1901, with funds donated by Kirk Munroe and land donated by Ralph, the men of the community built the Coconut Grove library building. A replica of the original building is part of the new library located on the original site.

By 1896, Coconut Grove was acknowledged as the ”largest and most influential” community in South Florida. When Henry Flagler brought his railroad to the Miami River in 1896 and the city of Miami was born, many predicted that the people of Coconut Grove would move to Miami. However, Coconut Grove continued to prosper.

Soon after the turn of the century, many giants of America’s industry and letters discovered Coconut Grove and built winter residences on the bay front. But even these men of great wealth such as William Deering, William Matheson and his sons, Arthur Curtis James, David Fairchild and William Jennings Bryan became an active part of the community and, like the others, left their distinctive mark.

By the start of World War I, the Grove had two nationally known boys migratory schools that were operating winter campuses on Biscayne Bay. The Florida – Adirondack School which Paul Ransom founded as “Pine Knot Camp” in 1896 is still active in the Grove as Ransom – Everglades School.

The U.S. Navy built one of its first air stations in America at Dinner Key in 1917. The Groveites endured the noise and inconvenience as long as a war was on but once it was over theywanted the station closed. The Navy, the city of Miami and the Chamber of Commerce were no match for the determined Groveites. The station was abandoned in 1919.

In the midst of this controversy, the citizens of the Grove decided to incorporate so that they could have more strength against the upstart City of Miami. The city fathers hired Philadelphia architect John Irwin Bright to prepare a master plan for the Grove. Bright came up with a grand Mediterranean-styled city plan with mirror lakes and dramatic towers. A few buildings were constructed following the “Bright Plan” but for the most part it was too grandiose and impractical to implement.

Mediterranean revival architecture, however, was popular in the neighborhoods and one of the finest architects of the era, Walter DeGarmo, lived in Coconut Grove, The beauty of his work is still visible today.

In 1925, the City of Miami, fat with boom-time power, annexed Coconut Grove, much to the displeasure of its citizens.

Depressions, storms, the “hippie” invasion in the 1960’s and the “trendiness” of our time have buffeted Coconut Grove. But the spirit of Coconut Grove survives amidst the change and it remains a place apart.

Adapted from Arva Moore Parks Historic Coconut Grove