Approximately 75 of his watercolors have
been uncovered, but it is the images of his
Boca Grande residence at the corner of
Gilchrist Avenue and 1st Street that speak
to his love of the tropical beauty of their
Florida surroundings. So far, about 37
are identifi ed as aspects of Boca Grande.
Eight of these works were given to the
Boca Grande Health Clinic by Mrs. James
“Toddy” Hammond, Frank’s niece. Although
two watercolors are of the rose garden
at Peach’s Point, the rest are of their Boca
Grande home, including the swimming
pool area, a garden statue, and a man
painting in their garden.
While Louise fi lled their house with
various poodles and Pekingese, friends,
relatives, and many Boca Grande children,
Frank painted every nook and cranny of
the landscape and its buildings. Also an
amateur architect, Frank planned small
Spanish-style guest houses behind three
homes they owned on 1st Street. Then, he
probably designed his own Spanish-style
studio and guest house that can be seen
from Gilchrist Avenue. When the huge
wooden doors opened to the world, this
studio was fl ooded with sunlight. Outside
were views of fl owers and tropical plants,
and the perpetual sounds of birds mingled
with the chatter of Louise‘s pet macaw,
Bobby, and the noise of the parrots (which
Frank secretly disliked and schemed to
eliminate).
The Crowninshields’ life together
had begun in June of 1900 outside of
Wilmington, Delaware, at their wedding
at her parents’ house, now the Winterthur
Museum. It was the joining of two
48 GASPARILLA MAGAZINE • May/June • 2021
important dynasties – each with its own
distinct contribution to American life. The
highly-educated du Pont family immigrated
to America in 1800, looking to it as the
land of opportunity. Soon after their arrival,
both the family home, Eleutherian Mills
(now the Hagley Museum of Industry)
and the beginnings of the E. I. du Pont
and Nemours Company, were built on
the banks of the Brandywine River near
Wilmington.
Despite the Crowninshield family’s early
and distinguished history in America,
Frank Crowninshield was to be the end
of the line of great Salem sea captains,
wealthy Bostonians, and a few political
fi gures such as Benjamin Williams
Crowninshield, who was Secretary of
the Navy under presidents Madison and
Monroe. The fi rst ancestor, Dr. Johannes
Kaspar Richter Von Kronenscheldt (1644 -
1711), son of a captain in the Portuguese
East India Company, came from Leipzig,
Germany in 1684 to settle in Salem. His
son, Captain Johannes Von Kronensheldt
(1696 - 1761), entered the shipping
trade and built in 1740 one of Salem’s
fi rst Georgian mansions, known today
as the Crowninshield – Bentley House. It
would be home to four generations of
Crowninshields, up to 1832.
Johannes’s son George (1734 -1815)
changed his name to the more American
“Crowninshield” and married the sister of
the country’s fi rst millionaire, Elias Haskett
Derby. By the 1790s, Salem was a major
port in the China trade and the sixth
largest city in America. The Crowninshields
developed an extensive shipping business
– fi rst in codfi sh exports, and then the
Montana the Crowninshield’s horse
swimming in the Gulf
One of Mr. Crowninshield’s watercolors.