mid-to late 1930s which had six bedrooms for
guests, a caretaker’s cottage, the children’s
playhouse, the boat house and dock, and a
cottage used by marine scientists who were
doing research in the area. There was also
another house, built by Mary Roberts Rinehart’s
son.
“It was full of mysteries,” Debbie said. “The
house was fully equipped with books in the
library and towels on the rack, but no one had
ever used it.”
About a half-mile away, on Punta Blanca, there
was a fish house run by a man named Chief
DeWitt. Larry’s daughter Debbie remembers
how DeWitt hated the water.
“He had no boat, lived in the boathouse and
loved his gin,” she recalled. Larry loved spending
time there, and would often paint when he
stopped by.
If you’ve been to the Inn at Cabbage Key you
can visualize Larry’s art studio where the gift shop
and showers are now. It was there he spent” as much
time as he could, but a great deal of the time he was
an innkeeper, groundskeeper, a guide, and shopper for
the necessities of island living. What is now the bar,
was their living room. The room next to it was the
dining room, and French doors opened onto porches
that have now been enlarged to accommodate the
visitors to Cabbage Key who come for lunch or
dinner.
When the Stults family bought the island the
property also included its own powerhouse with two
generators. One was 2 kilowatts, the other was 5
kilowatts which ran the entire island and by today’s
standard are barely enough to run a hair dryer. They
had a well that pumped water into the 6,000-gallon
water tower tank. The water tower still stands today.
“I used to have to go up the tower to the top
platform, then put the ladder up to top and go in to
clean it,” Peter said.
January/February 2018 GASPARILLA ISLAND 63