CHARLES AND ISABELLA PEACOCK PARK

Side One: Peacock Park is named for Charles and Isabella Peacock, early homesteaders who settled on this property that later became part of the city of Miami. The two were encouraged to travel to South Florida by Charles’ brother, Jack, who was the keeper of the House of Refuge on the beach. Charles and Isabella had three sons, Charles John, Henry, and Alfred. In 1875, the Peacocks left their meat business in England to begin a new life in the maritime fishing and sailing village, originally named “Cocoanut Grove.” The area was growing and attracting visitors in need of a place to stay, and the Peacocks decided to build a hotel on this site. The Bay View House, later known as the Peacock Inn, was the first hotel in this rugged, rural, tropical-forested landscape. It was built with beachcombed wood, the local driftwood found along the shoreline. The hotel was in operation by 1883, and featured 30 rooms and a detached cottage annex. Guests were charged $1.50 a day, $7-9 a week, or $30-35 a month. At the time, it was the only hotel located between Key West and Lake Worth (Palm Beach County). Side Two: According to a Miami News article, some of the hotel's notable visitors included President Grover Cleveland, railroad magnate Henry Flagler, and author Kirk Munroe. Henry Flagler nicknamed Isabella the “Mother of Cocoanut Grove” as she served as a doctor, judge, minister, and friend to the local community. Isabella was also a great cook of frontier-style foods such as stewed venison, boiled Seminole squash, corn pone, turtle fry, roast wild hog, and turkey. This land is one of the highest elevations along the Atlantic Coastal Ridge that divides the Everglades and coastal estuaries. The rock-faced cliffs along today’s Bayshore Drive attracted mariners to the bubbling natural fresh water springs. The hotel also housed the local post office and courthouse. In 1902, Charles sold the hotel to Philadelphia investor G.F. Schneider, who changed the hotel into a private school. In 1926, the hotel building was torn down. The City of Miami purchased the site in 1934, and converted it into one of the city’s first waterfront parks. Originally named Coconut Grove Bayfront Park, the name was changed in 1973 in memory of the Peacock family.