LIVING HISTORY
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bound State Road 60 at 15th Avenue. The Andrews house
didn’t fare as well. It was acquired by Harbor Branch
Oceanographic Institute several years ago, was moved to
the Harbor Branch campus, and was destroyed by the
2004 hurricanes.
Baker says he doesn’t remember hearing his grandfather
reminisce about Vero’s beginnings.
“Other than the fishing trips I had with him, I really didn’t
have any conversations with him about his early days in
Vero,” Baker said.
ISLAND LIVING
The barrier island was slower to develop than the mainland.
Considered remote and inhospitable and choking with
mosquitoes, it was inaccessible to all but the hardiest folks
until the first bridge was built in 1920. Old-timers remember
hunting hogs and bears there as late as the 1940s.
Cooper recently received letters indicating that a hermit
known as Captain Estes lived in a riverfront shanty on the
barrier island in the 1850s. He had no neighbors until the
Bethel Creek House of Refuge was built two decades later.
One of Estes’ rare visitors wrote
that Estes captured two live manatees
and took them to the nation’s
Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia
in 1876, Cooper said, but after
that, Estes’ trail grows cold.
“I think he died on the barrier
island, and it was months or even
years before anyone found him, if
they ever did,” Cooper said.
Development of the island began
several decades later, with Riomar,
a winter colony for wealthy Midwesterners.
Alex MacWilliam Sr.,
the builder, had been wounded in
World War I and was hospitalized
in Cleveland.
“A group of doctors, when he got
well, convinced him to go to Vero
FLORIDA PHOTOGRAPHIC COLLECTION Beach and develop a winter resort,”
Vero’s beach has always been one of the city’s biggest draws.
FLORIDA PHOTOGRAPHIC COLLECTION
Pioneer Alex MacWilliam,
Sr. moved to Vero Beach
in 1919. He helped develop
Riomar, a wealthy
colony for Midwesterners,
and later served as the
city’s mayor and as a state
representative.
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