Coral Gables,
Merrick Moments
​As we celebrate our centennial, the Merrick House Board of Governors is bringing to the City Commission, The Merrick Moments, little tidbits that add up to a remarkable story. Many of these excerpts are from "George Merrick: Son of the South Wind" by Arva Moore Parks.
Feb. 11 - Eunice Peacock
From the moment of her birth in 1895, Eunice Isabella Peacock was adored. Born at Coconut Grove’s Peacock Inn, she was the first grandchild of inn owners Charles and Isabella. She had many suitors, but George Merrick won her over by taking her on rides in his 1914 Hudson touring car while describing his vision for Coral Gables. They married Feb. 5, 1916, and Eunice would remain ever loyal and supportive of her workaholic husband. Whenever away on business, George wrote lengthy letters ending with sentiments such as, “Big gobs of love and kisses for you, my sweetheart.” In his 1921 book of poetry, he dedicated these words to her:
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Sweet lips—of kisses Elysian
More fragrant than “Parfam Vantine”
Chic grace—of essence Parisian;
Hot temper that most matches mine
True heart—filled with love that is precious
Why you are my Valentine.
March 11 - UM Dedication
It was “a mite airish” on Feb. 4, 1926 — dedication day for the University of Miami. Coral Gables Mayor Edward Dammers and George Merrick stood side by side on a dignitary platform to address the crowd. Merrick had gifted 160 acres and $5 million, with a pledge of $15 million more in endowment, to establish the “Pan American University.” Denman Fink’s drawings “staggered our imagination,” according to Judge William Walsh, chairman of the Board of Regents. Regent Frank Shutts, founding publisher of the Miami Herald and founder of what would become Shutts & Bowen, Miami’s oldest law firm, was among the keynote speakers.
According to historian Arva Moore Parks, “When Merrick read the cornerstone inscription he had written about his father, his eyes filled with tears and his voice cracked: ‘This building is dedicated to the memory of Solomon Greasley Merrick, 1858-1911. Minister, scholar, pioneer, unselfish builder of material achievements. Persevering founder of spiritual and intellectual foundations that underlie, also, this very stone.’”
May 20 - Trolley
On April 29, 1925, the city of Coral Gables was born, with the same men who managed the Coral Gables Corporation named as its first commissioners: Edward Dammers, Telfair Knight, Charles Baldwin, F. Wingfield Webster and George Merrick.
Within days, the first trolley arrived in Coral Gables. The new city leaders, along with featured speaker William Jennings Bryan and an army of dignitaries, arrived by trolley to participate in the official inauguration ceremonies at the corner of Ponce de Leon Boulevard and Coral Way. At the same time, Merrick announced plans for extending the tracks southward and spoke of creating a new line he called the Coral Gables Rapid Transit. After speeches and congratulations, he invited the entire entourage to lunch at the Coral Gables Country Club.
June 10 - George's Travels
As summer begins, we bring you news of George’s travels. He never made it to Spain to visit the Alhambra palace in Granada, where he could have seen two statues of Washington Irving, the author whose Tales of the Alhambra inspired so much of what we treasure in the City Beautiful.
But on May 24, 1917, what was described as an “auto party” left Miami in George’s white touring car for a 16-day Florida adventure. The group included George and his wife Eunice, his mother Althea, grandmother Medie Fink, T.O. Wilson, and Mr. and Mrs. Clifton Benson. Seven people in one car with no air conditioning. Benson kept a detailed and humorous journal of the trip, cataloging George’s ice cream quests at nearly every stop. With George at the wheel, they traveled more than 1,100 miles, crossing or paralleling 24 bodies of water and visiting 20 counties, while averaging 20 mph, consuming 180 gallons of gas and blowing out three tires. Benson quipped that the ruts in the roads offered a new method of spinal adjustment.
July 1- New Ideas
In late 1920, George and his wife Eunice took a trip to Cuba via Key West. It was the closest he would ever come to seeing the type of architecture he envisioned for Coral Gables. He absorbed Cuba’s rustic colonial buildings, with their interior patios, painted tiles and ancient barrel-tile roofs. He walked through town gates to the central plazas with their picturesque wells and heard the bells ring from countless towers.
In the late summer of 1930, as George waited for Coral Gables Inc. to complete its refinancing plan, his brother Richard — 17 years his junior — convinced him to join a cross-country auto trek to California. During their two months on the road, they planned something new: an upscale but affordable fishing camp called Caribee Colony on 20 acres of Lower Matecumbe Key. George had purchased the land for Eunice’s parents a decade earlier. When the camp opened in January 1931, the Miami Daily News proclaimed, “Florida is awake again — the psychology of success again walks her sunlit beach.”
Aug. 26 - Bahamian Workers
Summer is winding down, the kids are back in school and we have work on our minds. One of my favorite hard workers in the Merrick story is not a person at all, but she did have a name. She was Maude the mule, who came with the homestead. There are enough stories about her to fill a few Merrick Moments, but today I’ll share one told by Richard Merrick, George’s youngest brother.
George’s father, Solomon, hired Bahamian workers who were also new to the area. After their first week on the job, the men wanted to stock up on groceries in Coconut Grove. Incidentally, Merrick’s ledgers show he paid workers $9 a week. That's $6 more than the average weekly national salary for farmhands in 1900.
The workers asked Solomon if they could borrow his wagon and mule so they wouldn’t have to carry all their goods to their new home (probably the barn, as Solomon offered free housing to single workers on the property in the early days). Maude was hitched up to the wagon, and off they went. But when the men came out of the store, they discovered — to their horror — that Maude and the wagon were gone. With heads hanging low and likely fearful of losing their jobs, they walked the three miles back to the farm.
When the men reported the loss, Solomon chuckled and told them to return and walk a few blocks over. It seems Maude had a favorite spot in the yard of Union Congregational Church, where Solomon preached. Sure enough, there she was, totally content under the shade of her favorite tree. She had braved Coconut Grove “traffic” at a time when the sight of a mule and cart with no driver was not all that concerning.
Sept. 10 - Spanish Heritage
As we celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month, we look at some of the writings and architecture that influenced George Merrick. The story of Merrick devouring Washington Irving’s "Tales of the Alhambra" as a boy is well known. Planned communities such as Winter Park, Florida; Haworth, New Jersey; Shaker Heights, Ohio; and New York’s Forest Hills Gardens informed his vision.
The final step was to incorporate all he had learned into a plan that reflected South Florida’s subtropical ambiance. He remembered his first trip to Cuba, and visits to Addison Mizner’s buildings in Palm Beach and the “ancient city” of St. Augustine gave him a renewed appreciation of the history and architectural remnants of Spanish Florida. He developed a team who understood what he was after.
His uncle, Denman Fink, wrote: “When Mr. Merrick asked me to join him in carrying out his visualization of the scheme along purely Spanish lines — of the real old type — I welcomed the invitation with open arms.”
In 1927, Spain’s King Alfonso XIII took notice and presented Merrick with the prestigious Order of Isabella de Catolica, which today is framed outside these chambers.
Sept. 25 - College Years
As students have settled into the school routine, we’ll consider Merrick’s education.
George was not in the classroom from the age of 13 to 21. He was working the farm and self-educating on his 4-hour afternoon mule-cart treks back from downtown Miami, where he would sell produce to Flagler’s Royal Palm Hotel and others.
In 1907, George entered Rollins College in Winter Park—which was Florida’s first planned community—feeling trepidatious. “I felt like a green, untried boy—raw from the pines and rocks and fuller of inferiority complexes than any college freshman,” wrote the man who was two years their senior. He went on to win many awards and accolades for his writings and oration. His speech intitled “A Plea for the Weak,” where he stood up for the underdog, won him one of the school’s highest honors. His accomplishment was covered in the pages of the Miami Metropolis newspaper.
Upon graduating, George hoped to pursue a career as a writer and poet. His father had other plans in mind — law school — and one did not say no to Solomon Merrick. He enrolled at New York Law School and lived with his uncle Denman Fink and Fink’s wife, Betsy, in the planned suburb of Haworth, New Jersey. He hated law school, but New York City taught him more than any book. He wrote that the city’s “sky-climbing” towers inspired him — none more than Madison Square Garden, with its spire patterned after La Giralda in Seville, Spain. Fifteen years later, he would build his own Giralda tower in Coral Gables.
Oct. 14 - Merrick's Marketing Genius
We speak of George Merrick as a visionary. He was also a master at marketing and promotion … and a workaholic. In the early days, he created the schedule, contacted the newspapers and magazines and wrote the copy himself. Nothing – no ad copy, promotional brochure, nor essay – made it to the pressroom without his blessing. From 1920 to 1926, Merrick spent $5 million in newspaper advertising alone. That’s approximately $90 million in today’s dollars. At the time it was the most expensive real estate advertising campaign in history.
In the days leading up to the very first land auction of the 75-acre Section A in November 1921, full-page ads directed readers to “Watch for the Golden Galleons and follow them. They will point the way to a really fair new land: a place where Beauty rests, Health abides and Fortune grasps you by the hand.”
Free bus tours brought “responsible parties” from Daytona and Atlanta. Train tours carried prospective buyers from New York. There’s so much more to this story. Watch for more marketing marvels in future Merrick Moments.
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Coral Gables City Hall
405 Biltmore Way
Coral Gables, FL 33134
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Tel: 305-446-6800
