Hobe Sound - Hutchinson Island - Jensen Beach - Jupiter Island - Palm City - Port Salerno - Sewall's Point - Stuart

About the Town:

The City of Stuart is located in Martin County, near the southern end of Florida’s Treasure Coast. Chartered in 1925 as the county seat, the city is home to a population of over 16,000. With access to miles of waterways including the St. Lucie River, the Indian River and the Atlantic, Stuart is famed for its fishing, boasting the title of “Sailfish Capital of the World.”
Vast stretches of un-crowded beaches and a quaint historic downtown district add to the small-town charm of the area. Stuart is also home to a thriving arts community and one of the Treasure Coast’s largest family events, the annual Stuart Air Show.

History:

Hubert Wilbur Bessey and his brother, Willis, are credited with being the first residents of what is now modern Stuart.

They settled on the banks of the St. Lucie River in 1883 and began growing pineapples and building boats, which allowed other settlers to travel about, gather supplies and communicate in a tropical wilderness without roads or bridges.

Then and now, the St. Lucie River defines the community which clusters along its graceful curves. Originally, it flowed out into the Atlantic through an inlet at Peck’s Lake. The natives of this region reportedly called it Halpatiokee or Alligator, but that is a Creek word and probably did not come into use before the arrival of the Seminoles in the early 1800s.

In 1566, the Spanish under Don Pedro Menendez de Aviles traveled down the coast from St. Augustine and applied the present name St. Lucie River to the body of water.

Gradually other settlers arrived, grubbed out pineapple plantations, fished or captured turtles for shipment north, until in 1892 Otto Stypmann applied for a permit to operate a post office under the name Potsdam. The community grew when settlers from the lower Indian River lagoon area dug out what is now the St. Lucie Inlet, bringing salt water inland and with it commercial quality fish.

In 1894, Henry Flagler’s railroad, then known as the Jacksonville, St. Augustine and Indian River Railway, rolled across a new bridge bring freight and passenger service to the town.

The conductors also caused the name to change because they outraged the women by shouting out of town name as “Pots..dam, Pots..dam!” Tradition says the community took the name of the popular railway telegrapher, Homer Hines Stuart.

Stuart it has been ever since.

The City of Stuart was incorporated on Jan. 27, 1914, and became known as “Stuart on the St. Lucie,” and the “Sailfish Capital of the World.”

For more than 40 years it also produced most of the chrysanthemums sold in the United States.

With the opening of the St. Lucie Canal to Lake Okeechobee in June 1923, it got another title “Atlantic Gateway to the Gulf of Mexico.”

When Martin County was formed in 1925, Stuart became the county seat.

Fast Facts:

• Stuart was first settled in 1880 and incorporated in 1914.

• The Lyric Theatre, built in 1925 and originally a silent movie house, is on the National Register of Historic Places.

• An 18-foot-tall bronze sailfish welcomes visitors to downtown Stuart.

• The books "My Florida" and "The Last Cracker Barrel" were written by Stuart's own Ernest Lyons.

• Gilbert's Bar House of Refuge (circa 1876) is Martin County’s oldest building.

• Stuart native Ross Witham was known nationally as “the Turtle Man”.

• Elliot Museum has preserved the region's history for over 50 years.

• B&A Flea Market is the Treasure Coast’s oldest and largest flea market.

• Florida Oceanographic Coastal Center has trails through coastal hardwood hammocks and mangrove forest.

Hobe Sound - Hutchinson Island - Jensen Beach - Jupiter Island - Palm City - Port Salerno - Sewall's Point - Stuart