HOMES OF THE TREASURE COAST
45
HOME & DESIGN
crete pond in the front of the house and we always wondered
what the steps were for,” says Fried. “One day Sawyer’s
great-grandson pulled into the driveway and told me the
pond was made as a wade pool for his sister who was three
or four years old. The children were always asking to go to
the beach, and his grandfather thought this was safer.”
Terry Sawyer has vivid memories of visiting the home as a
young boy. “The house was built as part of the Riomar development,
and both my grandparents and great-grandparents
were very involved in the community and in getting that
whole area of Riomar going,” he recalls. “I was born in Vero
and we had a cattle ranch and citrus grove (west of town)
that my parents managed. We used to visit the house and
back then — obviously pre-air conditioning — it was set up
with a wonderful cooling system where all the panels on the
walls underneath the windows had screened vents that could
be opened up so you could draw cool air into the house via
an attic fan. I remember it had a downstairs shower with a
ringer, so whenever you were over at the clubhouse or down
at the beach, you could come back and wash the sand off
before you came into the house.”
And reiterating Dale’s narrative, he says, “My grandmother
was very much a caretaker of animals. She would always
rescue calves from the ranch and bring them to the house to
nurse back to health. She even removed the back seat of her car
so she could transport them. As a child, I remember being put
to bed in a crib in the nursery and there was an animal in the
playpen. It scared the dickens out of me,” he admits, laughing.
He says that where the Sawyer Park three-story townhouses
now sit — an area that Walter annexed, developed
and named after Terry’s great-grandfather — was where he
The family expanded the outside deck area to wrap around the back of
the house and overlook the pool. Situated close to the kitchen, it is a go-to
gathering spot for the De Schouwer family and their friends and a perfect
>> setting for al fresco dining and star gazing.
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