LIVING HISTORY
HOME & DESIGN 10
ROB DOWNEY
Bay Tree Lodge in Martin County has had an impressive chain of owners that offers a veritable who’s who in American history. The lodge was destroyed by
fire in 1990 and later rebuilt to echo the design of the original.
SHARING
THE
WEALTH
Once a haven for the rich, Bay Tree Lodge
serves as a retreat for Kiplinger employees
BY RICK CRARY
Behind a magnificent shroud of palms hugging
a bluff beneath a high coquina ridge in Sewall’s
Point is a century-old retreat. Camouflaged by
cypress-shingled walls, Bay Tree Lodge blends
into the landscape near the southern end of a peninsula
separating the St. Lucie and Indian rivers. Named for a
tree that has been lost to time, the stately private resort has
been a fixture on the Treasure Coast for longer than anyone
has been alive. So what is Bay Tree Lodge? Where does it
stand in our history, and who is using it now?
It was trees, presumably oaks and pines, that began the
lodge’s trail of private ownership, as recorded in public
records. They were going to be cut down. In 1813, a man
who had supplied the king of Spain with soldiers was entitled
to receive a large grant of land. His name was Samuel
Miles, and he intended to erect a saw mill and go into the >>