Marjory Stoneman Douglas

Marjory Stoneman Douglas is best known for her role in promoting the protection of Florida's critical environments, particularly the Everglades. The publication of her book The Everglades: River of Grass in 1947 focused national attention on this unique resource, and she became the guiding force behind the creation of Everglades National Park. She formed Friends of the Everglades several decades later to continue to restore and maintain the area's natural state.

 

Marjory Stoneman Douglas was born on April 7, 1890 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Her parents separated when she was very young, and she was raised in Taunton, Massachusetts by her maternal grandmother. In 1912, the year Mrs. Douglas graduated from Wellesley College, her mother, who had a history of mental illness, died. After a brief marriage, Mrs. Douglas joined her father, Judge Frank B. Stoneman, in Miami in 1915. Her father had recently founded the Miami Herald, and Mrs. Douglas joined the staff as society columnist. She left the paper in 1918 to join the Navy in World War I. She lived overseas and worked with the Red Cross. Upon her return to Miami, she rejoined the Herald and worked as associate editor. After leaving the Herald on the advice of her physician due to nervous fatigue, she began her career as a short story writer and novelist. Mrs. Douglas always loved Coconut Grove because of its unique character, half garden, half community. The people she liked best seemed to gravitate there, people who "enjoyed their neighbors but didn't want to live too close to them." When she mentioned to Frank Schulz that she might like to live in Coconut Grove, he offered her a lot on his property, which was referred to as "The Patch." He offered the lot immediately west of hers to her good friends, Franklin and Alice Harris. The lot next to that went to Natalie Newell, who ran a bookstore in Coconut Grove. This created a community that gave Mrs. Douglas the financial, intellectual, and emotional support that she greatly needed at that time in her life.

 

In 1924, Mrs. Douglas began the construction of her house, which was designed by her friend George Hyde, who mostly designed factories. Mrs. Douglas felt this was fortunate, because she hoped her "little house would be as stout and as sparse as a factory." It must have been because it "held up like a factory" during the 1926 hurricane. Mrs. Douglas has referred to the house as "the house that Saturday Evening Post built," because every Saturday she would tell the builder whether to go ahead or wait for the next bit of money to come in from a short story or article.

Marjory Stoneman Douglas has lived and worked in her Stewart Avenue home for approximately 70 years. During this time, she wrote several books of regional and national importance, including: The Everglades: River of Grass, Voice of the River (her autobiography), Alligator Crossing, Florida: The Long Frontier, Road to the Sun, and Hurricane; a play, "The Gallows;" and many short stories and articles. When her career as a free lance writer began, Mrs. Douglas was in a weak financial position and in a frail mental state. Mr. and Mrs. Harris, who had begun the construction of their own house next door to Mrs. Douglas at approximately the same time, were a stabilizing factor in both areas. The Harrises were also involved in shaping important parts of the Dade County community. Franklin Harris supported Dr. Bowman Ashe while he rescued the University of Miami. Mrs. Douglas helped Alice Harris in starting the French Department at the University of Miami. Mrs. Douglas and Mrs. Harris also played a significant role in the creation of a botanical garden for South Florida, now known as Fairchild Tropical Gardens. Mrs. Douglas wrote the case for a botanical garden and served as the correspondent for much of their effort. So close was Mrs. Douglas' friendship with the Harrises that Mrs. Douglas inherited the Harris property upon Mrs. Harris' death in 1955.

 

In 1957 Mrs. Douglas sold the Harris property to her Wellesley roommate Carolyn Cole, widow of opera performer Kelly Cole. After Mrs. Cole died in 1972, Mrs. Douglas was given a life estate in Mrs. Cole's house. The Marjory Stoneman Douglas House was purchased by the Florida Department of Natural Resources in 1992, and Mrs. Douglas had a life estate on the property.   She has been named a "Great Floridian" by the Florida Cabinet and received the Medal of Freedom from President Clinton in 1993. She continued to live there until her death in 1998 at the age of 108.