The first big tract was sold by Lawrence Becker. He sold 6,000 acres of land for $1.3 million. That was $225 per acre, for land he had purchased at $6 an acre. Then the Mackles bought another 10,875 acres from the Helmly family west of U.S. 1. Over the next 25 years GDC purchased land from several other pioneer families, including the Carlton, Mattson, Sharett and Peacock's.
Marketing wasn't simply full page colored ads. Next to the GCD sales office at Prima Vista and U.S. 1 (in River Park) stood a building the company designed to look like a Mississippi River showboat. Prospective buyers had to pass through the showboat before they could see any of the GDC homes. Salesmen dressed in turn of the century gamblers costumes greeted customers. As many as 300 contracts were signed in a day! At Grand Central Station in New York a model home landscaped with Florida sand and pretty girls dressed in swimsuits lured many purchasers from that location.
Until 1959, when GDC opened a bridge over the Saint Lucie River, folks, who lived on the dirt road Prima Vista, would sit at the end of that road and wonder if they would ever be able to cross without a row boat. Once the bridge was built, plans for 200 more homes east of Floresta Blvd. and south of Prima Vista Blvd. began. The next year a recreational park was opened on North Port Island, including a Yacht Club and Marina.
By February of 1961, 250 homes were built in the area of the developing city. When GDC asked the state legislature to incorporate the 70 miles of uninhabited land into Port St. Lucie they purposely omitted the developed lands. To include them would have required approval by the residents that already lived there, which wasn�t likely. With the passage of House Bill No. 953, introduced by State Representative Rupert Smith and signed by Florida Governor Bryant Farris, on April 27, 1961, Port St. Lucie became a city; a city without residents. The hundreds of River Park residents in the 1,000 acre development rejected incorporation, and remain to this day as part of unincorporated St. Lucie County.
The Mackles left GDC in 1962 to form the Deltona Corporation, another Florida development giant. The following decades reflect the impact of their vision. The population of the City of Port St. Lucie in 1970 was 330. In 1980 the city's population was more than 17,000, by 1996 it had climbed to 73,000-plus and by 2007 it had reached 160,000.
We can only hope that in the next decades, as we continue to grow our city, that we try and preserve much of the beauty of the river, the quiet of the western backwoods, the fish, birds and plants that appealed to Gardner Cowles.
Then Gardner Cowles, owner and publisher of Look magazine, discovered the St. Lucie River. He was one of the first to realize the potential of postwar Florida development. He purchased 8,500 acres south of Fort Pierce. In January of 1953 Cowles' St. Lucie River Land Company filed the plat for Unit 1 of River Park, the south St. Lucie County sub-division that was nestled just outside the northern border of soon to be Port St. Lucie.
Mr. Cowles developed a nationwide advertising campaign, designed primarily to attract retirees. He used magazine and newspaper ads to promote the areas natural beauty. He attracted buyers by marketing tropical living and a fishermen's paradise. When prospective buyers came to look at the property they were given a serene boat ride down the winding river. They almost always signed a contract when the tour ended.
Entrada Avenue and East Arbor Avenue were the first two streets laid out in his plan within River Park. Four homes built for the Youngerman Estate Company of Miami were completed in 1956. Guy & Gladys Clark were the first residents to move into the new development in 1957. Their new home was at 216 East Arbor. Four other families quickly followed, and by September of 1958 River Park had 42 families. There were no shopping centers. The closest store was 12 miles north in Fort Pierce. At first mail was delivered at Fort Pierce, then a FFA mailbox was put out facing U.S. 1 for the new residents. That same month General Development Corporation purchased the River Park sub-division from Cowles. Thus began the great Port St. Lucie land rush !
The unique evolution of the River Park sub-division was nothing short of remarkable. It was at first intended as the beginning of this new city to be named Port St. Lucie. However, as time progressed and circumstances prevailed, recognizing the differences between the vision of the developer and that of the River Park residents, the city was chartered to exclude River Park. To this day River Park abuts the northern border of Port St. Lucie in unincorporated St. Lucie County. While its residents, many of whom were and remain a vital part of the history of the City, are not within the boundaries of Port St. Lucie, they are a part of the fabric of the City.
It was settled by the widower John Enos Fultz, who came here in September of 1891 from Rockledge. Fultz homesteaded 160 acres on Winter Creek, now called Blakeslee Creek. Mr. Fultz petitioned for a Post Office and the name Spruce Bluff was adopted. Fultz did for a time carry mail. A Mr. John Calhoun was the first carrier who operated a 20 foot schooner-rigged boat. He picked up the Potsdam (Stuart) mail at Sewell's Point and brought it north, up the Indian River.
William F. and Harley A. Crews operated a sawmill at Spruce Bluff in the late 1890's. Sawmills at that time were set up near large stands of pine or cypress. When the trees were cleared the sawmill was moved. This sawmill employed some black laborers who came to the area with the mill. William married Mary F. Winter at Spruce Bluff on July 3, 1903. Their first child, a daughter, was stillborn, but they later had three sons and a daughter. William and his family moved to Oregon about 1910, but returned within a few years to Stuart.
Mr. Charles D. Blakeslee arrived in 1893. His homestead was on the north branch of Winter Creek (about 1.25 miles south of the Fultz home). Charles fished with his father, Capt. John Blakeslee, during the fall and winter. An enterprising gentleman, Lloyd G. Hill raised bees and pineapple with his family. He was a photographer, and promoted honey production with a monthly "trade" journal, American Beekeeper, published in Fort Pierce.
Other members of this tiny community included the Winter family. In 1896 a school opened with a young teacher from Tennessee, a Miss Heath, who boarded with Mrs. James Winter. Not long after the school, a small Methodist Church was built which held services twice a month. A young man from Potsdam was smitten with this newly arrived educationalist, he was said to have rowed six miles up the river and back, in order to accompany her to church service.
The early settlers planted pineapples and citrus, but by the severe winter freeze of 1894-95, most were discouraged and left Spruce Bluff. Fultz, along with his new wife and family, moved to Fort Pierce and when St. Lucie County was formed in 1905, he became the first Clerk of the Court. Mr. Hill also moved to Fort Pierce where he opened the Florida Photographic Concern. The glass plates taken by Mr. Hill, his son and grandson, give us a priceless view of our county since the beginning of the last century. Thousands of these photos are available for reprint, from the St. Lucie Historical Society in Fort Pierce.
All that remains of this community is a small stone obelisk on Lookout Boulevard, with some broken gravestones. The monument is inscribed "Spruce Bluff Early Pioneer Settlement 1892." On the north and south faces are the names or descriptions of the seven that are buried there. Spruce Bluff is now considered a recreation area, a tract of 97 acres owned and managed by St. Lucie County.