Charles Torrey Simpson's Love Affair with South Florida - FIU Digital ...

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66 TEQUESTA the rather sharp roof which has never leaked seriously in the worst hurricane. Some of the ideas embodied in it have been taken from dwellings in Jamaica, Hawaii, Cuba and the Philippines; others are my own, and it is not like anything in the heavens above, the earth beneath, or the waters under the earth. 24 The Sentinels, home of Charles Torrey Simpson (HASF x-763-54) In Lemon City: Pioneering on Biscayne Bay, 1850-1925, Thelma Peters simply describes the Simpson house as a frame structure of two stories that was built seven or eight feet off the ground, with a basement enclosed in lattice. 25 While Simpson was justifiably proud of his house, for the most part his thoughts were drawn to the surroundings: There were two magnificent Caribbean pines in front of the house, eighty feet high and in the full glory of robust life. I called them the Sentinels, and from them I named my house. I felt they would watch over and guard me and mine. But the glory of the place was a couple of acres of fine young hammock that lay within a few rods of my door containing a large variety of mostly
The Sage of Biscayne Bay 67 tropical growth, a thing of joy and inspiration. Year in and year out its greenery, its peace and quiet have appealed to me and from it I have learned some of the most valuable lessons of my life. 26 And, in those days, a short distance to the west lay the Everglades. It would be nine years before there was electricity and ice. In Lemon City, Thelma Peters wrote that at the Sentinels a "vista was opened to the bay through the mangrove, and a path was built up with rocks across the swamp, giving access to the dock, boathouse and pavilion that Simpson built over the water. The pavilion, open to the breezes, was a favorite spot of the Simpsons', and they often entertained their friends there." 27 And of friends there were many, such as fellow naturalists David Fairchild, John Kunkel Small, Liberty Hyde Bailey, Wilson Popenoe, John Gifford, Marjory Stoneman Douglas and others who both shared Simpson's appreciation of the unique South Florida environment and also made a name for themselves in part by writing about it. Later in life, Mrs. Simpson's daughter, Marion Roper, recalled that one of the visitors to the Sentinels was James Deering, who came to consult with Simpson about the landscaping of Vizcaya, his stunning Mediterranean villa on Biscayne Bay. "Mr. Deering was a very serious man most of the time," Miss Roper said, "but after a drink or two he became jovial and full of fun." 28 And then there were the neighbors and the endless procession of garden clubs. Toward the end of his life, Simpson once estimated that he had shown as many as fifty thousand people around his garden. According to David Fairchild, "Simpson's charming personality and unfailing generosity towards everyone who came for information or plants made his place a general rendezvous."29 In his book, A Yank Pioneer in Florida, Allen Andrews, after a visit to the Sentinels, characterized Simpson as: Most gracious and kindly, especially to kindred souls who are interested in Florida wild life and its preservation. One might ordinarily be inclined to visualize an outstanding authority on botany, tree snails and Florida wild life as a dry-as-dust individual, entirely wrapped up in his scientific investigations and devoid of all sense of humor. On the contrary, the Doctor is possessed of a keen wit that is continually effervescing, and
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