Did You Know?: Million Dollar Homes & Pineapples

...Yes, Pineapples.

In 1815, the King and Queen of Spain and the Governor of Florida awarded Don Eusebio Gomez a Royal Land Grant of roughly 12,000 acres.
Known as “Gomez Grant,” it covered a vast land area surrounding the Loxahatchee and Indian Rivers, as well as a narrow strip of barrier island between the St. Lucie Inlet and the Jupiter Inlet. The barrier Island was identified as Jupiter. 

In 1821, the same year in which Florida became a United States possession, Gomez sold 8,000 acres of his land (not including Jupiter Island) to Joseph Delespine for $1.00 an acre. 

Gomez left Florida for Cuba, and his remaining 4,000 acres – including Jupiter Island – remained unsold until 1892, when a group of Englishmen bought the land with the intention of developing it as a pineapple plantation. 

That’s right, pineapple! The only problem with growing pineapple in South Florida that Hawaii doesn’t have is winter freezes. And that’s why we still get our pineapples from Hawaii and not Jupiter, Florida.