Ralph Middleton Munroe

Ralph Middleton Munroe was born on April 3rd, 1851, in New York City, New York, to Thomas and Ellen Munroe. This family has a storied history in the greater New England area. Ralph Munroe’s grandfather, William Munroe, was a member of the transcendentalist movement in Concord, Massachusetts. These early transcendentalist ideals influenced Ralph Munroe heavily as an adult. 

Ralph would marry Evaline “Eva” Amelia Hewitt in Staten Island. Eva was diagnosed with tuberculosis in 1881 just after she gave birth to their first daughter, Edith. Ralph and Eva would leave their young daughter and head south to Fort Dallas (modern-day downtown Miami) in the hopes that the change in climate would cure Eva’s illness. Unfortunately, Eva passed away here. The tragedy continued when he arrived back to Staten Island and found out that his infant daughter had also passed away. These tragedies pushed Ralph Munroe on a serendipitous trajectory. 

Overcome with grief, Ralph Munroe would spend his winters in Coconut Grove and his summers in New York. He would eventually purchase this property in 1886 for $400 cash and a boat, the Kingfish. Construction would first start on the boathouse. Then by 1891, the Barnacle House had been built. Construction on the carriage house would start in 1927. This unique structure is now our park visitor’s center.

Ralph Munroe married his second wife, Jessie Wirth, in 1895. This new family grew exponentially with the addition of their children, Martha “Patty” and Wirth.  Jessie’s sister, Aunt Sarah Josephine “Dodie,” moving in shortly after. Aunt Dodie would take the children into the great outdoors to learn from what they could see, feel, and experience. 

As a young man, Wirth would marry Mary Kimball Poore. They would move into a cottage on the property where they would have two boys: William “Bill” and Charles “Charlie.” Wirth would eventually move his young family into the Barnacle House, where Bill and Charlie would grow up. With the weight of escalating property taxes and increasing maintenance on the aging property, Wirth Munroe’s passing felt like the right time to part ways with the home. Thanks to Arva Moore Parks, the family sold the house to the State of Florida, and The Barnacle Historic State Park would open in 1973.