moored offshore. As a seaman, civic activist, naturalist, and photographer, Commodore Munroe was a man who cherished the natural world around him. A walk into the park passes through a tropical hardwood hammock. It is representative of the original landscape within the city of Miami. Today, it is one of the last remnants of the once vast Miami Hammock. Regatta In the spring of 1887 Ralph Munroe organized a regatta on Biscayne Bay with fifteen boats divided into three classes. "The winners were Ada (Captain Brickell), Maggie (Captain Carney) and Edna (Captain Addison), while Alfred Munroe and Charles Peacock were timekeepers and judges. After the race all hands, about fifty in number, participated in a good dinner at Peacock's (the Peacock Inn), given by the promoters. Thus began organized aquatic sports on the Bay, the Washington's Birthday Regatta afterwards being a fixture of the Biscayne Bay Yacht Club, until the displacement of sails by gasoline in general interest caused it to degenerate into a "Chowder-party". Timeline: Early history of the site Before 1846: Largely unused, like most of South Florida, until the Seminole Wars forced Seminoles into this area. Spanish expeditions may have explored the bay on mapping expeditions, but any inland explorations are purely speculative. 1846: Land first surveyed. 1868, November 14: Edmund Beasley files claim for site under the Homestead Act. May have dug well on site. Built a small house later called the Three Sisters Cottage about this time. 1870: Beasley dies, leaves site to his wife, Anna. 1872: Site rented to Dr. Horace Porter. 1873, January 6: Porter establishes a post office, which he calls Cocoanut Grove. 1873, July: Porter unsuccessfully attempts to claim site under the Homestead Act, claiming that it had been abandoned by the Beasleys. 1875, May 20: Mrs. Beasley gains clear title to the site. 1877: Mrs. Beasley sells site to John W. Frow, lighthouse keeper at Cape Florida, for $100.00. 1886: Ralph Munroe purchases for $400.00 plus the boat "Kingfish" which he values at $400.00. 1887: First Washington's Birthday Regatta held. Timeline: History of the Barnacle 1887: Ralph Munroe builds boathouse with living quarters on upper floor and workshop on lower floor. 1891, Summer: Ralph begins constructing the Barnacle house. 1895: Ralph marries Jessie Wirth. 1900: Daughter, Patty, born. Jessie's sister, Josephine, joins household to help with child. 1902: Son Wirth Middleton Munroe is born. 1903: Northwest corner of house expanded.