COVER STORY
16
FLORIDA PHOTOGRAPHIC COLLECTION
Besides land speculators, Stuart attracted tourists, as shown in this 1929
photo of a Stuart tourist camp.
The Englishmen now had control of the city, and they
didn’t want it to be called Potsdam, and they weren’t keen on
having the railroad depot on the north side of the St. Lucie
River.
STUART’S START
The Stuart family had donated the land for the northside
depot, and Flagler officials had promised the Stuarts it would
bear their name. The promise was kept when the depot, with
the Stuart name still affixed, was loaded onto a flatcar and
transported to the south side of the river.
The newly southern depot was advantageously placed in
front of Walter Kitching’s store and soon was the center of
commercial activity. Postal authorities changed the name of
Potsdam to Stuart on June 15, 1895.
The era was the heyday of commercial fishing and pineapple
culture. Soon additional freight warehouses and docks
were constructed near the depot, and a rail spur connected
the area to the river beside the bridge. Other stores sprang up
to meet the needs of the growing community.
The Stypmanns, you might have expected, were not
pleased with these changes. Ernest Stypmann, who owned
54 acres in what is now Historic Downtown Stuart, moved
to preserve Potsdam. In 1897 he platted the Potsdam subdivision
on the southwest side of the railroad tracks, laying it
out with lettered and numbered streets. Some of his num-
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THURLOW RUHNKE COLLECTION
This 1964 photo shows the intersection of Dixie Highway, the Florida East Coast
Railway, Ocean Boulevard, Flagler Avenue and Colorado Avenue, in downtown Stuart
known as Confusion Corner.