LIVING HISTORY
ON THE MOVE
22
COPYRIGHT SCRIPPS TREASURE COAST NEWSPAPERS/SAM WOFE
The former home of Talley and Evans Crary rounds “Confusion Corner” in Stuart during the early morning hours of April 30, 2010. The Crary House is now
the Stuart office of Congressman Tom Rooney at 171 SW Flagler Avenue.
Stuart’s historic Crary House, the longtime
home of Florida Speaker of the House Evans
Crary, is saved from the wrecking ball and
now serves as a congressman’s office
BY SANDRA THURLOW
Talley Crary would have been flabbergasted if
she could have watched her beloved home of 66
years round Confusion Corner on its way to a
new site beside the Stuart Heritage Museum on
Flagler Avenue.
That happened on April 30 of last year, in a 4 ½-hour move
that started near midnight the day before — or the year before,
if you begin at the beginning.
The preservation of Crary House, which had once been
marked for demolition, might have been written in the stars
because unlikely events lined up to bring about its preservation.
Some were good; some were bad. As illogical as it might
seem, one was the poor economy.
A bank foreclosed on the Crary House and auctioned it off.
A neighbor, Donna Dorney, bought it to make way for a new
house she wanted to build to accommodate her elderly father.
Dorney offered the old place to the City of Stuart.
A free house, especially an historical one, is a good thing, but
it’s never truly free. In the case of the Crary House there were
moving and restoration costs. And there was the decision-
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