COVER STORY
20
The post office was moved to a new building, the post office
Arcade, which stands between Osceola and Seminole streets.
After he was hired in 1926, Stuart’s first city manager,
Ralph E. Mahr, decided that the town should have a systematic
way of naming streets. East-west streets were named with
numbers — except for Osceola. Avenues were to run north
and south with alphabetical state names assigned to main
arteries and city names appended to less important avenues.
CHALLENGES
In 1959, thepost office moved from the Post Office Arcade
to Seventh Street, now Martin L. King Jr. Boulevard. Beginning
in the 1960s, shopping centers were built in outlying
areas and downtown Stuart became a ghost town. In 1985,
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THURLOW COLLECTION
This rendering shows a vision of Stuart proposed by George W. Maher of
Chicago, a leading city planner. It appeared in the South Florida Developer
in June 1924. Above, a broad view of Flagler Avenue, which was widened
in 1925.