Duck
Key Mecca of the Americas
Bryan
Newkirk, Builder of
Paradise
|
The
Newkirk Legacy
More
than 45 years ago Duck Key developer Bryan
Newkirk, envisioned making Duck Key into the
most luxurious resort and prestigious
residential area in the Americas.
Prior to becoming a developer Newkirk was a sales manager for George Merrick, founder of Coral Gables.
Newkirk became wealthy by invested his money in oil wells and Canadian gold and silver mines. A native of
North Carolina he went to Canada in 1933 and later chose to became a Canadian citizen.
Bryan Winslow Newkirk was born Dec 18, 1888 at Wilmington, NC, and died in 1966 in London, United Kingdom. He married Lucille Rebecca King on June 18, 1913. Lucille died in 1984.
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Bryan Winslow Newkirk
More
than 50 years ago Duck Key developer Bryan Newkirk,
envisioned making Duck Key into the most luxurious resort
and prestigious residential area in the Americas. "Duck
Key is the same size as Prince Ranier's kingdom of
Monaco," Newkirk liked to tell guests touring the island.
His plans for Duck Key seemed just as fabulous. After one
such visit in 1959, a guest reporter from the Florida
Keys Keynoter headlined the front page,
Coral
Gables Developer Wants
Duck
Key Mecca of the Americas.
To
this end Newkirk devoted his time and efforts
unceasingly. The task was formidable and Newkirk's
efforts prodigious. Newkirk spent many millions on his
vision in the Keys, and the island of Duck Key became the
place to which people wanted to go.
Newkirk's
involvement with Duck Key began on the golf course of the
Riviera Country Club in Coral Gables.
"I
was playing with Ted Semple, the City Attorney for
Coral Gables," Newkirk told the Miami News, " and he
kept harping on this property in the Keys. He was
really putting the heat on me to buy it. I couldn't
concentrate on my game. Finally, in order to get
around the course before dark, I told him to quit
talking about it and I'd buy it sight unseen. We
agreed on a price of $47,000 and finished the
game."
Newkirk
visited the uninhabited coral rock island and saw beauty
in Duck Key and the possibility for establishing a
complete island community. He had his engineers change
the natural contours of the island. Low spots were filled
with a million cubic yards of fill from the sea bottom
and nearby Tom's Harbour. Five small islands were formed
and four miles of canals excavated. The rock from the
canals was used to brace the outer edges of the fill and
to make a ten mile road network.
Newkirk named a number of streets and the yacht basin after family members. The yacht basin sometimes referred to as Yacht Harbor was given the name Lake Lucille after Newkirk's wife Lucille.
Newkirk's
Legacy
Bryan
Newkirk not only saw the beauty of Duck Key but enhanced
it. Newkirk's legacy to Duck Key remains. He gave the
island its landscaped stone entranceway, its marvelous
arched bridges with their balusters and urns, and its
original buildings with their West Indian architecture.
It was his idea to build a lagoon for those resort
patrons that favored the salt water of the Atlantic in
addition to a fresh water pool. He built canals which are
free flowing and cleansed with the change of tides, and
he surrounded the residential islands with a moat like
canal protecting the island homes and vessels from ocean
storms by constructing a 60 to 70 foot wide waterway
behind a rock revetment or low breakwater.
1958 - The Newkirk Home on Duck Key
Below is the earliest photo of the Duck Key home of Bryan and Lucille Newkirk.
One of the first residential buildings to be constructed on Duck Key was the home of Bryan Winslow Newkirk. The home was designed by architect Alexander Lewis. Images of the the Newkirk home "Trinidad House" and the Administration Building on Duck Key appeared in The Architectural Digest magazine, Volume XV, Number 3 in the fall of 1958. Issues were not dated in the belief that many ideas in decorating and design would be of "valuable use not only today, but for years to come."
Architectural Digest both then and now deals primarily with interior design, and much less so to the field of architecture. Describing itself as "A Pictorial Digest of Outstanding Architecture, Interior Design and Landscaping", the magazine is published for readers in the upper income brackets and style-conscious.
The images were taken by Ezra Stoller (now deceased) who is recognized as one of the leading American architectural photographer of the 20th century.
The interior of the Newkirk's Trinidad House was decorated by Virginia Costello of Richard Plumer-Miami.
Richard Plumer-Miami (now Richard Plumer Design, Inc. of West Palm Beach, Florida) began in 1925 as a small drapery shop located on NE 40th Street in the Miami Design Plaza. It became a one of the preeminent interior design firms in Florida.
Newkirk Family and Bryan Newkirk II
Picture to the left are Newkirk's daughter-in-law Mrs. Bryan M. T. Lumpkin Newkirk II and two grandchildren, Eleanor and Elizabeth. The Winnepeg Free Press announced in December 1961 that Granddad Bryan was shopping for a department store to give to his granddaughters for Christmas.
Newkirk's son, Bryan Newkirk II was active in the development of Duck Key until his death in 1955.
A memorial garden was built on Duck Key by his mother, Lucille Newkirk in memory of her son. According to Newkirk's granddaughter, Elizabeth Newkirk Pitts, the garden was behind the nursery building located near the Administration building. The nursery building still exists. It is now used for storage.
The granddaughter related in email in 2005
"Sometime ago I received a call from a resident of Duck Key saying that my dad's memorial garden had been torn for the space to make a profit. That was sad to us. . . .
My grandmother, Lucille, and I last visited Duck Key around 1979. In the 1960's we moved around a lot between North Carolina, camp in Georgia and Duck Key via an airplane my grandfather had. He put a landing strip on Duck Key. I spoke to my Uncle - Ed Lumpkin - today and he might be able to add information and he started working on Duck Key early on. He's 86 now but still remembers more than I do about a lot of things."
Ed Lumpkin
A newspaper account from the 1954 January 4 Kingsport News reported that Ed Lumpkin, along with Lucille Newkirk went fishing in the Keys and failed to return.
Three persons reported missing all night in a small boat in the Gulf stream were found safe Thursday by the Miami Coast Guard. The rescued trio — Mrs. Bryan Newkirk, a Coral Gables socialite.
Maj. (retired) Edwin Lumpkin of Athens, Ga., and a servant identified only as John — failed to return Wednesday from a fishing trip in a 14 foot skiff. They were picked up Thursday morning by a commercial fisherman and taken to Grassy Key. . . .
Bryan’s Garden
On Indies Island adjacent to the resort’s employee housing was what appeared to be the vestiges of the garden built as a memorial to Bryan Newkirk II, son of Lucille and Bryan W. Newkirk, developers of Duck Key and the Indies Inn in the 1950s. Bryan contracted polio and died in 1955. Work on Duck Key came to a halt while the Newkirk family grieved and gave serious thought about selling Duck Key. Upon reflecting on all the work their son had done and the vision Bryan had for the island’s future, the Newkirk’s decided to continue building.
Below is a photo possibly of the altar.
Lucile Newkirk and Robert Gene Otto, a well known Key West artist who was interested in architecture and tropical plants, designed the garden and placed a small altar there with a plaque that read:
The kiss of the sun for pardon
The song of the birds for mirth
One is nearer to God’s heart in a garden
Than anywhere else on earth.
The altar remained in a garden setting, but was moved to the tennis garden with the building of the Hawk's Cay villas and an additional resort pool in that area. The plaque was not part of the altar when surveyed in 1991.
Bryan, the son, and Robert Gene Otto are credited with designing Duck Key’s arched Venetian bridges that grace our canals. The bridges with their columned balustrades and matching stonemason-carved railings were topped with concrete ornamental urns, pineapples, and baskets of fruits. According to the minutes of the Duck Key Property Owners Association, the association had to replace 23 bridge ornamentals in 1972.
Early Times on Duck Key
Granddaughter Elizabeth in an earlier email wrote in the summer of 2005
My sister and I were present at the ribbon cutting ceremony for the opening of the causeway. My family lived on Duck Key on the weekends after the Administration Building opened and in Coral Gables during the week. It sure was hot and miserable there without air-conditioning and lots of mosquitoes. We lived in several homes on the island until building our home. We were on Duck Key the night of Hurricane Donna because we didn't get information to evacuate until it was too late. Our home was terribly damaged. Along with all the people left on the island, we moved to the Indies House for shelter. Most of the glass was broken out of the walkways between buildings allowing water to pour into the hotel. I can remember going down into the office areas and having to stand on desks to stay dry. That was an unnerving experience . Growing up on Duck Key was a wonderful experience. My brother and sister and I had golf carts to go all over the island . My grandfather got us a pony with a cart. There were many beautiful peacocks which were lost in Hurricane Donna.
1965
One year before Newkirk had his fatal heart attack he was indicted by a Federal Grand Jury in New York for income tax evasion involving the sale of $5 million in stock in several Canadian mining companies.. Newkirk who had taken on Canadian citizenship refused to answer the endictment. The Winnipeg Free Press quoted Newkirk, "They can go to hell. I'm a Canadian citizen and they can't touch me. I ... won't pay them a penny. This Is character assassination. I couldn't care less about the charge except it smears my
name."
1983 - Lucille Newkirk, wife of Duck Key devloper Bryan Newkirk
Lucille Newkirk survived her husband until 1983. She was 83 years of age and according to the November 17, 1985 Miami Herald lived behind a coral rock wall in a big white house located on seven lots in Coral Gables at 1418 Salzedo St.
The Miami Herald ran an article entitled "GARDENER, GRANDSON VIE FOR INHERITANCE". The substance of the article was that the aged Lucille Newkirk had willed half of her estate to her faithful gardener Purless Merrell. The problem was that Lucille and her husband Bryan had previously signed a trust agreement in 1955 leaving the property to grandson Bryan "Buzzy" Newkirk III. The property was to be turned over to the grandson in 1969 when he became 21 years of age and Lucille could continue to live there.
In 1983, before Lucille Newkirk died she filed suit against her daughter-in-law and an accountant to reclaim the Salzedo property. The suit claimed that Lucille owned the property and that she lost her control of the trust through trickery and fraud. Lucille's attorney also challenged the gifts to the other grandchildren.
Gardener Purless Merrell who Lucille called "Purlie" had been with Lucille for 34 years and tended to her garden, house and property. With age Lucille grew dependent on Purlie and according to Purlie Merrell who was quoted by the Miami Herald
"She'd say, 'This is our place. I can't do without you, Purlie.' And I'd say, 'Well I don't know what I'd do without you,' " Merrell said. . . .
"She asked me to move my family here and live in the garage apartment. But back then, Coral Gables had a law that no black family could stay on the premises with children. So that killed that.
"I used to go everywhere with her. She always introduced me as her family. When she went to the mortuary to make some plans, they asked her who her next of kin was. She said Purless Merrell. That got quite a reaction.
The Miami Herald wrote that as Lucille aged she relied on the gardener to take her everywhere, doctor and lawyer appointment, trips to the hairdresser, and to the grocer.
The attorneys for each side presented their arguments and in 1987 the judge ruled that the grandson Bryan Winslow Newkirk III was the rightful claimant to the property.
The grandson gained the Salzedo lots and home, and other property such as several lots on Duck Key, and a parcel of land in Wilmington, N.C. went to two other grandchildren.
As for gardener Purlie Merrell, one of the attorneys stated Purlie would get around $60,000 in cash. According to the grandson's attorney Lucille Newkirk had already given Purlie title to several oil wells, jewels valued at $25,000, a car, a $25,000 certificate of deposit for one of Purlie's daughters. Purlie is quoted in the Miami Herald as stating that Mrs. Newkirk had given him over the years some "old family linen, mismatched silver now and then, and once, Merrell said, $22,000 in cash she had hidden in a broken television set."
1989 - Newkirk Home in Coral Gables at 1418 Salzedo St.
The Newkirk home on Salzedo Street was demolished in1989. It was built in 1924-25 in an area now designated as the historic “Coral Gables Plantation District.” This district area consists of approximately one hundred blocks in the northern half of the City and encompasses the original Merrick family citrus plantation. The Salzedo Street home was built when Bryan Winslow Newkirk was treasurer of the Coral Gables Corp., the company started by Coral Gables city founder George Merrick.
In 1989 the Miami Herald printed several stories about the Newkirk home. One story entitled, " HISTORIC GABLES HOME'S DEMOLITION LOOMS" described how Newkirk's grandson, Bryan Newkirk III, had made all sorts of attempts to find a buyer who would restore the decaying Spanish colonial revival home that was one of the oldest buildings in Coral Gables. The two story home was surrounded by a large garden, and local historians thought the building has a number of unique architectural elements that warranted preservation. The city and Bryan Newkirk III had negotiated, but Newkirk was forced to sell to a developer who planned to put up apartments on the site.
Bryan Winslow Newkirk's grandson, Bryan Newkirk III, stated he could not pay the taxes on a home in which he didn't reside, and that the Salzedo home would cost between $45,000 to $65,000 to restore.
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