Mariah Brown House Museum to open in December
After 15 years of efforts to honor the history of the West Grove, the Mariah Brown House Museum may finally become a reality in December.
Mariah Brown immigrated to Florida from the Bahamas in the 1880s. In 1890, Brown built a home along Evangelist Street, known today as Charles Avenue. As one of the first black-owned homes in Coconut Grove, the Mariah Brown House garnered historical designation by the City of Miami.
The historical significance of the structure inspired the late Esther Mae Armbrister, an activist and founder of the Coconut Grove Cemetery Association. In 1995, she enlisted the help of attorney W. Tucker Gibbs and community members to restore the building and turn it into a museum.
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Bahamian teachers discover new island history in South Florida
Annafaye Ferguson-Knowles, a social studies teacher in the Bahamas, thought she knew everything about the history of the Bahamian people.
But after spending four days in April touring the historical sites of Coconut Grove and listening to stories about the first Bahamians to arrive in the area, Ferguson-Knowles and nine other teachers have gained new information for the Bahamian history books.
“We were here on a fact-finding mission. Our curriculum has so much to do with the migration of Bahamians to Florida,” Ferguson-Knowles said.
The teachers were hosted by The Crystal Parrot Players, a Miami-based performing arts group, and the Women’s Club of Coconut Grove.
They visited cemeteries and churches in Coconut Grove and listened to speakers such as John C. Nordt, III, who introduced the teachers to the story of King Arthur Lafayette Jones and Sir Lancelot Garfield Jones, the sons of a Bahamian national who migrated to Key West in 1875. The two boys are believed to be the first African American to be born on Key Biscayne.
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Student-sponsored block party celebrates West Grove, website
Children with the painted-on faces of princesses and superheroes twirled in Hula-hoops and squirted each other with water guns as others tossed Frisbees and skateboarded through Virrick Park Saturday at a block party designed for West Coconut Grove.
Organized by a University of Miami public relations campaign class, the four-hour event offered local residents an afternoon of music, food and prizes as well as a chance to learn about a new community news website that focuses on Coconut Groves’ historic African-American and Bahamian community.
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Students to screen doc on oral history of black churches in West Coconut Grove
For nearly two years a group of students from Ransom Everglades School and the University of Miami School of Law interviewed parishioners and clergy from historic black churches in West Coconut Grove.
On Monday, the students will show a screening of the Black Church Oral History Project, a documentary that includes clips of longer interviews that will be given to the churches “so they can be passed on to future generations,” said law student Audra L. Thomas.
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Thelma Gibson – still giving in the Grove
Thelma Gibson remembers a time when news traveled through Coconut Grove by bicycle, not by Internet, television or even telephone. She recalls a community where everyone looked out for each other and Grand Avenue was a friendly place to socialize over an ice cream cone in the evening. Her memories come from a Coconut Grove much different from the neighborhood she still calls home today—one where her section of town was labeled “Colored Town”.
“Coconut Grove to me was a place where everybody was family,” said Gibson, 83. “A lot of us were from the Bahamas, and the Bahamians who came brought most of their relatives with them. We used to boast of knowing everyone.”
Gibson was born in Coconut Grove on Dec. 17, 1926, the sixth of 14 children, 11 of whom lived past infancy. She graduated from segregated George Washington Carver High School in 1944.
“All of the colored children – we knew our place and we stayed in our place,” Gibson said. “We knew we couldn’t go to the white schools, drink from the white fountains. But there was always a desire to make things better, to make things change.”
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Coconut Grove neighborhood fights to protect the home of Everglades hero
Two noteworthy trees embellish the front of Marjory Stoneman Douglas’ Coconut Grove home. One is a proud Mahogany, which is estimated to be an 80-year-old tree. The second is 70- to 80-year-old Lignum Vitae, which is characterized by its small leaves. It sits next to the Mahogany, wrapping towards the left side of the house.
She lived and worked as an author, Everglades historian, conservationist and civic activist in her home for more than 70 years. Although the state of Florida has tried to open it to the public, Douglas’ neighbors stand in the way.
The modest bungalow now sits tucked away in the trees.
“The street used to be all bungalows like this. Now it’s all ‘McMansions,’ ” said Steve Dimse, park services specialist for the Barnacle, in charge of supervising the house and maintaining it.
For five months, he has been enjoying its history with his cat, Sam Hill, “named after one of Marjory’s many cats.”
“The state very much would like this to be a museum,” said Dimse. “But the neighbors objected to that plan.”
Because the street is narrow, they were concerned about disruptions from bus traffic.
Dimse, however, contends that “the plans were very modest. The house would not have been open to the general public. There would have been only a few buses per day with students and special groups.”
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Coconut Grove native Richard Holton, dedicated to community
Coconut Grove native Dr. Richard Holton has vowed to never move from the neighborhood that raised him — and more importantly, to make giving back to his community an integral part of his life.
Holton, 57, grew up around Grand Avenue and left the West Grove to pursue his bachelor’s degree at North Carolina A&T State University. Immediately after college, Holton said he returned to his hometown to focus on the preservation of the Grove’s historical traditions.
“I wanted to come back and help build the community,” Holton said.
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Enjoy Free Food, Raffle Prizes at April 17 Block Party
Please join Grand Avenue News for the Coconut Grove Block Party from 1-4 p.m. Saturday, April 17, at Elizabeth Virrick Park. The afternoon will be full of free food, live music, free tickets for raffle prizes, kids’ games, giveaways and more. We’ll also demonstrate how grandavenews.com is working to serve your community online. We look forward to seeing you there – bring your family and friends!
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Ice cream: Perfect Coconut Grove treat
In Coconut Grove, whether shopping, eating out or just taking a walk through its canopied streets, hot days call for ice cream.
The Grove has multiple ice-cream shops. It is helpful to know which ice cream shop satisfies your taste buds and health interests.
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Grove Wall of Fame will be built, says community leader
For the past four years, the West Grove community has nominated role models whose names will be memorialized on a much heralded Wall Walk of Fame. There have been four Coconut Grove Wall Walk of Fame breakfasts where the awardees have received the community’s applause. But the wall that is supposed to contain the honorees’ names and photos has yet to be built.
The effort, however, has received a boost, said Rick Holton, president of the Coconut Grove Village West Land Trust, the nonprofit organization that is spearheading the wall project.
“It is a work in progress,” Holton said, “but things are starting to move much faster than they were before.”
After many long negotiations, a blueprint was drawn up that the city of Miami, architects, developers and Coconut Grove Land Trust agreed upon at a March 12 meeting. The project will take somewhere between $60,000 and $80,000 to complete, Holton said.
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