Coconut Grove Info History
Several waves of immigration established Coconut Grove, the first in 1825, when the Cape Florida lighthouse went into operation and was manned by John Dubose. Dr. Horace P. Porter is credited for coming up with the name when in 1873 he rented a home from Edmond D. Beasley’s widow, who homesteaded 160 acres bay front property. He lived there for only a year but during that time he established a post office which he named Coconut Grove.[5][6] Around the same time the area saw an influx of Americans from the Northeastern US, as well as British and white Bahamian immigrants.
The first hotel on the South Florida mainland was located in Coconut Grove. Called the Bay View Inn (later known as the Peacock Inn), it was built in 1882, on the site of present-day Peacock Park, by English immigrants Isabella and Charles Peacock, who had been the owner of a wholesale meat business in London. Coconut Grove's first black settlement, in the 1880s, was established by Bahamian laborers who worked at the Peacock Inn.[7] The Barnacle Historic State Park is the oldest house in Miami-Dade County still standing in its original location. It was built in 1891 and was home to Ralph Middleton Munroe, also known as "The Commodore" for being the first commodore and founder of the Biscayne Bay Yacht Club, an American yacht designer and early resident of Coconut Grove.
Formerly an independent city, Coconut Grove was annexed by the city of Miami in 1925.[8] In the 1960s, bay-shore Coconut Grove served as the center of South Florida's youth countercultural movement, notably hosting several love-ins[9] and concerts (including a now-infamous Doors concert on Dinner Key)[10] during the latter part of the decade.[11]
In popular culture [edit source | editbeta]
CocoWalkThe movie Where the Pavement Ends was filmed in Coconut Grove in 1923. It was directed by Rex Ingram and starred Ramón Navarro.[18]
Pioneer Folk rock musician Fred Neil resided in, and wrote songs about Coconut Grove, notably on the song "Bleecker & MacDougal".
"Coconut Grove" is a song written by John Sebastian and recorded by The Lovin' Spoonful in 1967. It later was covered by David Lee Roth. Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr has expressed a fondness for the song.
In the film Scarface, Manny lives in an upscale home in the Grove.
In the TV series Dexter, Dexter Morgan, lives in Coconut Grove, based on the book series by Jeff Lindsay.
In the video for the song "Careless Whisper" George Michael can be seen looking out at sea from a hotel balcony in Coconut Grove as a seaplane flies by.
In the 1980 song "American Dream" by the (Nitty Gritty) Dirt Band, Coconut Grove is mentioned prominently in the chorus as a vacation destination.
In the movie Bad Boys, Martin Lawrence and Will Smith follow a suspect through Coconut Grove.
In Big Trouble, by Dave Barry, the main setting is Coconut Grove.
The set for the TV series Burn Notice is in Coconut Grove, in what was once the City of Miami's Convention Center.
Coconut Grove is the setting for the movie, Meet The Fockers.
Coconut Grove has been a location on the show The First 48.
Coconut Grove is a location in the 1985 Burt Reynolds film Stick. A stunt man falls off hi-rise condo building.
The 2008 film Marley & Me with Jennifer Aniston and Owen Wilson was filmed on location in Coconut Grove, based on John Grogan's book.
CSI: Miami season 4 episode 10 ("Shattered") is set in Coconut Grove.
In the first episode of The Golden Girls, "The Engagement", at the end of the episode, Rose asks Dorothy and Blanche if they would like to go to Coconut Grove for lunch, her treat, to celebrate their friendship.
Notable residents[edit source | editbeta]Former and current residents include:
Hervey Allen, author of Anthony Adverse
Leo Baekeland, inventor of Bakelite
William Jennings Bryan, Secretary of State
Neal Colzie, NFL cornerback[19]
Marjory Stoneman Douglas, environmentalist
Frank Gore, San Francisco 49ers running back
Gilbert Grosvenor, president of the National Geographic Society
LeBron James, basketball player, Miami Heat.[20]
Peter Lewis, businessman
Madonna, 1992–2000
Mia Michaels, television star
Kirk Munroe, author of children's books
Ralph Middleton Munroe, American yacht designer, builder of the oldest house in Miami, Florida, now The Barnacle Historic State Park; 1886–1933
Fred Neil, American folk recording artist.
Ric O'Barry, Dolphin Activist; star of movie/documentary The Cove
Steven Raichlen, noted grill chef and author
Winston E. Scott, (Captain, USN, Ret.); NASA Astronaut (former)[21]
Sylvester Stallone 1993–1999
Sepy Dobronyi, 1963–2010, sculptor, movie producer, jeweler
More History
Here we offer a correction and some wonderful additional history.
We had misinformation and stated that Howard Hughes once lived at La Brisa. It turns out he stayed at a wonderful place in Acapulco, Mexico, called Las Brisas
An interesting and bright member of the Field family sent us the following * (and we thank her. We are pleased and proud to publish this information here 10July2019 and delight in the kindness of the Field family, who like us, seek to preserve the correct history of the Grove.)
We have only slightly edited her email (we added one word, deleted personal contacts and present the information in a different order, for continuity) :
Not too far from Dinner Key, is La Brisa, the waterfront estate a few steps from The Grove Garden Trilogy of Restaurants that included La Bottega by Carmen Trigueros, Calamari Italian Restaurant, and Taurus, the Grove’s most legendary bar. The cottage that is now Taurus is a designated landmark that was once the teahouse of Alice Munroe, the daughter of Grove pioneer Commodore Ralph Munroe. It was part of the large estate The Barnacle, just down the street, and now nationally recognized, award-winning state park.
* I found your site, which I enjoyed, and have some additions.
The Howard Hughes home is across from Sacred Heart Church [and] isn't La Brisa.
Correction: La Brisa was my old home at 3551 Main Highway, across from Taurus and next to Ransom School, now owned by the school. The original property was owned by Ralph Monroe. In the late fifties, my father, Henry Field, the famous archaeologist/anthropologist of the Marshall Field family in Chicago owned the house.
We sold it it in '91.
Ric O'Barry lived in our guest cottage for a number of years.
Leicester Hemingway, the younger brother of Ernest, lived in the Grove, and also lived in our guest cottage for a short time. He died in Miami Beach, also by suicide. https://www.nytimes.com/1982/09/15/obituaries/leicester-hemingway-writer-and-ernest-s-brother-is-suicide.html
Charles Deering, brother of the man who owned the Deering Estate in S. Dade, lived on Royal Rd. The third family member of the Chicago family, Deering Danielson, was the former owner of the Stallone estate.
https://www.bizjournals.com/southflorida/news/2018/05/10/deering-family-sells-coconut-grove-mansion.html
Vince Martin, who died last year, played with Freddie Neil and played at the Flick, among other places.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vince_Martin_(singer)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Neil
Tennessee Williams had a home in the Grove.
Robert Frost owned Pencil Pines and taught at UM.
http://mappingartsproject.org/miami/connection/robert-frost-lived-at-his-home-called-pencil-pines/
Alexander Graham Bell's daughter, Marion, married David Fairchild of the Kampong. Bell had a workshop on the property. The Kampong was purchased from the Fairchilds by Catherine Sweeney who kept it as a botanical garden and left it to the National Tropical Botanical Garden in Hawaii. They own the property. https://ntbg.org/about
The Grosvenors lived next to the Kampong on Douglas Rd. Gil was the founder and president of Nat Geo.
I hope this information is helpful!
A bit of name-dropping: The Grove in the Arts
Early on, the Grove became a magnet to the talented and the interesting throughout its history.
John Singer Sergeant was a frequent guest of James Deering’s at Vizcaya.
Robert Frost and Tennesee Williams wintered in the Grove as well.
Renowned humorist and author, Dave Barry wrote an entire chapter about Coconut Grove (where he also lived before defecting to Coral Gables), in "Naked Came the Manatee" the madcap mystery thriller with different chapters authored by writers associated with Miami such as Elmore Leonard and Carl Hiaasen.
The winner of the Miami Herald’s contest to write the last chapter of the book was Coconut Grove veterinarian, Dr. Michael Marmesh, now an author (Top of the Heap) in his own right.
Among the most venerated famous authors of Coconut Grove is Marjory Stoneman Douglas, the environmentalist and author of "River of Grass," who made the Grove her home until she passed away at the age of 108.
A block away from La Bottega is the old Coconut Grove Playhouse, where Broadway-bound plays were first previewed. The curtain first lifted on Becket’s “Waiting for Godot” here, and it is rumored that Eugene O’Neill’s favorite watering hole was the Taurus, which later also became a favorite hangout of 60s folk legend Fred Neil. The Grove itself was quite the bastion of counterculture musical luminaries of the 60s including David Crosby, Jimmy Buffet and the Lovin’ Spoonful, the lead singer of which, John Sebastian, immortalized the Grove with its own theme song, “Coconut Grove”. One of the inspirations for Joni Mitchell’s “Ladies of the Canyon” was Estrella, Circus Girl whom she actually met while living in Coconut Grove and performing at The Gaslight South. The memorable lines “I'm goin' where the sun keeps shinin' through the pourin' rain. Goin' where the weather suits my clothes. Bankin' off of the northeast winds, sailin' on summer breeze, and skippin' over the ocean like a stone,” in the hit song from the Oscar-winning movie, Midnight Cowboy, starring Dustin Hoffman and Jon Voight are often attributed to singer Harry Nilson, were indeed Fred Neil’s words, undoubtedly about his beloved home, Coconut Grove.
No mentioning of the Grove in the 60s is complete without reference to the famous Doors concert at Dinner Key Auditorium, and what Jim Morrison allegedly did (or did not do, as the case now is) during the performance. Grovites are amused that in an apparent Freudian slip, the city renamed the auditorium/ convention center “The Expo Center.”
Till August 2013, The Expo Center was actually a film set, and the home of the hit USA Cable series, Burn Notice filmed on location in south Florida with its main set based in Coconut Grove. It is not unusual to come upon a film shoot involving stars Jeffrey Donovan, Gabrielle Anwar, Bruce Campbell and Sharon Gless. Also frequently seen in the Grove are VH1’s Basketball Wives, who in one episode wined away at La Bottega.
Coconut Grove has always been a sought-after location for the film industry, starting as early as 1923 when director Rex Ingram filmed Ramon Novarro in “Where the Pavement Ends” (aptly named since part of the Grove’s charm is that many of winding streets indeed have no sidewalks.) The Grove also served as location for scenes in “Scarface” “Absence of Malice,” “Something about Mary, ” and “Marley and Me, ” It was a featured location in “Meet the Fokers,” the home of Ben Stiller’s character’s artist parents, played by Dustin Hoffman and Barbara Streisand.
Today, the Grove is home to a diversity of people, some famous, and some, as the T-Shirt sold in the CoconutGroveGrapevine.com (named among the “boggiest blogs in the country” it is a favorite online local source for happenings, gossip and news), says “I’M FAMOUS IN THE GROVE”. -- contributed by Liliana Do