Whittington & Associates, LLC

Jacksonville Homes Magazine (March 2009)
Ponte Vedra's Oldies, but Goodies

By R.P. Whittington

At 75 years of age, his business card now reads "Captain Jimmy Stockton" as he enjoys his "retirement" by orchestrating worldwide fishing safaris.

But James R. Stockton, Jr., the man who coined the name "Sawgrass" and developed much of the area beginning in the 1960"s, says he remembers the days when, as the five-year-old son of well-known real estate mogul and civic leader James R. Stockton, Sr., he began spending his summers living in the first homes built on Ponte Vedra Beach – enjoying days on the beach while his dad went out and tried to sell the virtually unknown area to potential buyers.

"It"s hard to realize that this used to be A1A," says Stockton as he drives along Ponte Vedra Boulevard and points out houses he lived in as a boy. "It"s also hard to visualize how the south and western parts of Ponte Vedra Beach would have developed if my dad and Mayor Burns (former Jacksonville Mayor Hayden Burns) hadn"t lobbied the Governor to redirect A1A westward and make this section a residential street. If that hadn"t happened, none of this would be here now."

Of those original homes constructed in the 1940"s when development began along the boulevard, less than 20 still remain. Most have either been razed and completely rebuilt to give modern day homeowners the space and design they expect in a 21st century home – or remodeled to the point that their original designs have disappeared. The remaining first homes are located on the Oceanside within the 300 to 500 block of the boulevard.

"The development started on the beachside first, obviously because that"s where you want to buy a vacation home," Stockton notes. "However, they initially left an easement between every fifth lot to spur development and home sales on the other side of the street when the time came."

C.L. Staughan and his wife Mary knew they were buying into a piece of history when they moved into their house at 319 Ponte Vedra Boulevard in 1970. Three years ago, when the couple decided they needed some upgrades, they decided to renovate rather than bulldoze and rebuild. That"s when they began a $1.5 million labor of love with an aim to modernize and retain the home"s 1940"s ambiance.

"We used much of the home"s original materials, down to reusing and matching the glass door knobs in the house, while providing the upgrades that we want and future buyers expect to find in an oceanfront home these days," Mary said.

In the forties, builders used as many local raw materials as possible to reduce construction costs. Woods like Cypress and Magnolia were plentiful and easy to transport and are prevalent in the first homes built along the coast. The couple retained the home"s original Cypress walls in the foyer, complimented with Cypress beams added in a modern kitchen, while they refinished and replaced the original Magnolia flooring.

"We were lucky on the flooring," Mary said. "When the Ponte Vedra Inn & Club was built in the 1920"s, they used wood from Magnolia trees that were cut down from the actual property around here. We heard they were renovating and tearing out the flooring, so we picked up what they were throwing away and repaired it for our project."

While similar construction materials were used on the circa-1940s homes, square footage and architectural design vary dramatically – a design trend you can see at Ponte Vedra today.

"In those days, there was never a true architectural design review committee," Stockton says. "The early homes were had a sort of New England Cottage look, but you"ll see a hodge podge of different designs throughout the area."

Despite the wide disparity of designs, and the stops and starts in development over the years, Stockton says he"s especially pleased that Ponte Vedra has been able to retain its residential identity.

"It"s amazing that the community held on to its character. No high rises, and it"s still very family-oriented."

Nearly a century ago, it was Mineral City – a rugged terrain where workers with the National Lead Company mined titanium, rutile, and zircon for the government to support the First World War (Stockton notes the area was stripped mined for the raw materials also used to produce poison gas for use by Allied Troops.)

By 1928, its value as a mining town diminished with the end of the war and the discovery of cheaper sources of materials, so the company eventually brought in Stockton"s grandfather"s company, The Telfair Stockton Company, to manage the property and develop the land. Roads were built and dredging began on the lagoons.

The same year, Mineral City was rechristened Ponte Vedra. Accounts vary on the name change, but Stockton recalls that one of the company directors visited Pontevedra, Spain and liked the place…and the name, which was certainly more appealing to potential buyers.

In 1942, Telfair Stockton bought most of Ponte Vedra for the price that one oceanfront lot would cost in today"s market.

While it sounds like a steal by today"s standards, Ponte Vedra was a hard sell in those days. The remoteness of the beaches was a problem, forcing developers to offer deep discounts to initial buyers to encourage sales.

"This was a very isolated area then," Stockton said. "The only way out here was on Atlantic Boulevard, so that"s why development took off at Atlantic Beach first."

To get to Ponte Vedra in those days, people would arrive in Atlantic Beach then drive south along a narrow, two-lane Florida A1A to reach Ponte Vedra Beach. Sometimes they chose to drive on the beach to get there faster. At first, the only grocery stores were in Jacksonville Beach, which had a boardwalk and some shops along First Street.

By the time his father, James Stockton, Sr., assumed management responsibilities for the development company, Stockton remembers there were just a few homes along the beachside – and very little else.

"There was a filling station, small convenience store, barber shop and a post office directly across the street from where the surf shop is today, and that was about it," he recalls.

South of the lodge, there was also Barney's – a beer hall that locals loved to visit to eat hamburgers, listen to the jukebox and visit the public beach area.

"I have some great memories of those days," Stockton says. "In the 50"s there were only about 50 homes out here, and just a couple of homes past Micklers Landing. I remember that every time we would water ski down there the people would always complain to the cops that we made too much noise."

At the same time the first homes were being built, there was that little thing called the Ponte Vedra Inn & Club. The club, founded in 1937, was built at the location where National Lead Company had a log club house, a nine-hole golf course and a polo field to serve as a respite for miners who worked the land. The club grew comfortably during the 1950's and 60"s under the management his father.

There was a population of about 500 in Ponte Vedra in 1960, compared to more than 30,000 today. The real development explosion came soon after with the arrival of companies like Prudential Insurance and the expansion of the road system into the beaches. By 1966, a bypass was created and A1A was rerouted to the west, eliminating Ponte Vedra Boulevard as the main north-south road and opening up western Ponte Vedra and the Palm Valley area to development.

Around the same time, Stockton was following in his dad"s footsteps – forming the Stockton Land Corporation in 1966 and breaking ground on the 1,100 acres now known as Sawgrass in 1972. And despite stories to the contrary, Stockton didn"t dream up the name.

"Myself, golf course architect Ed Seay and land planner Don Cheek gathered at a house on the ocean to develop the name. We went through hundreds of them over a bottle of Scotch. At one point, I said ‘dammit, the only thing we have out here is plenty of sawgrass." Ed jumped up and said ‘that"s it," and starts scratching out the logo. As a hunter, I know sawgrass only grows in muck and cuts and rips you up. There"s nothing good about it, so I was initially embarrassed by the name, but that"s how it came to be."

Stockton would continue developing the land until 2006, when he sold the final family link to Herb Peyton and Gate Petroleum.

From the time the Stockton Family came to the remote area to today, the population has skyrocketed and the area has become a world-renown resort destination, especially among golfing enthusiasts.

And while the most of the vestiges of those early days are nearly gone, those who know the area – and its history – are glad that some remnants of the first homes built on the beach are still intact.

"These original homes harken back to the early days of Ponte Vedra and capture the essence of home building in the 1940"s," said Elizabeth Hudgins, a long-time realtor in Ponte Vedra. "It"s just wonderful when one of the earliest homes built in Ponte Vedra can be saved, because so very few remain."

While nostalgic of the old days, and what the old homes represent, Stockton is still, at heart, a developer.

"In real estate, our job is to see beyond those few houses and visualize what an area can become," he said. "I"m just proud of the way it turned out."

Media Contact: Ron Whittington (904-563-0402)