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HomeMy WebLinkAboutSunday Brown Wrapper pages 3-4 on Dr. Munyon 6-17-84Supplement. to. The. Past, Sunday, June 17, 1984—Page 3 elm as 'the most picturesque spot in Florida.' " "Doctor" James M. Mun- yon bought the island from — - Pitts in 1901. Munyon was a genial, stocky man of financial " means and unusual energy who made a popular patent medicine called "Paw -Paw Remedy" from papaya juice. He liked to be called. "Dr. Munyon," although he had no medical degree, and became I well and favorably known by that name in the West Palm Beach area. He was a married 1 man of mature years, but greatly relished the company of young women — demon- strating that Paw -Paw • Reme- dy was powerful stuff. Munyon loudly haw his medicine, advertising it a a "great natural remedy for in- digestion, dyspepsia, and all stomach ailments. It cures nervousness, sleeplessness, i loss of vitality, kidney, liver "wand blood problems, dizziness, and constipation." He had a theme song: Munyon's Isle all hearts beguile Down where the Paw - Paw groins; There's job for each a gay Palm Beach Down where the Paw- Paw grows! Munyon built an attrac- tive inn, the Hygeia Hotel, on the south end of the island, replacing the Pitts' house. A post office was established on the island in 1903. Although it had only 21 rooms, the hotel, which rose to five stories in the center, had expansive lounges and a large dining room for the accommodation of droves of visitors who came by boat from Palm Beach. An article in the Philadelphia North Amer- ican on March 25, 1902, de- scribing the busy resort life in Palm Beach, stated: "There isn't a dull minute — golf, fishing, ostrich riding, visits to the alligator pens, lun- cheons at the Beach Club, at the Houseboat and Casino — where a band of Hungarians furnishes music — and chiefly excursions by the whole fleet Here Is A List Of Every Bank Service The Big first Doesn't Have: Page 4—Supplement to The Post, Sunday, June 17, 1984 of launches and lake steamers to Munyon's Island, ten miles up the lake, on which there is a magnificent growth of tropical trees and fruits, with hundreds of visitors daily." Dr. Munyon went into rose culture on a considerable scale in the vicinity of his ho- tel. Joel Dean's Palm, Beach News stated in 1903 that "nearly 2,000 choice varieties" were in bloom, and 3,000 more were added later. The News observed that "an unbroken ne of orchard and garden" extended for nearly a mil arong the length of the island ith an "astonishing variety of tropical and subtropical trees and plants." The Hygeia Hotel was d stroyed by fire, evidently about 1917. Munyon's famil sold the island to Harry Kel sey, the founder of Lake Par (originally called Kelsey City in 1925, after which it came into the hands of Sir Harry Oakes. During these years it ornamental shrubs and floral life languished from storms and neglect. John D. MacArthur ac- quired the island on June 21 1955, and ultimately complet ed the obliteration of its plant life and trees by heaping ton of dredged sand all over it. Hew originally planned to develop it, with a bridge crossing the waters of Lake Worth from the mainland, but this idea w abandoned. Australian pine cover the island now, and boggy kind of fill covers t old oyster beds between it an ;Singer Island. © 1984 by James R. Knott