McKee Botanical Garden: The Jungle That Came Back From the Dead
Inside a cypress and pine building designed to look like a Polynesian ceremonial palace, there’s a mahogany table carved from a single slab. It’s 35 feet long and 10 feet wide. Waldo Sexton, the eccentric visionary behind much of old Vero Beach, built the entire Hall of Giants around it because he couldn’t stop thinking about that table. That kind of obsessive, wonderful thinking is how McKee Botanical Garden got started in the first place.
From Hammock to Jungle Gardens
In 1929, Arthur McKee, a Cleveland steel engineer who’d made his fortune building refineries, and Waldo Sexton purchased an 80-acre tropical hammock along the Indian River in Vero Beach. They’d originally planned to grow citrus, but the land was too beautiful to plow. They hired William Lyman Phillips, a landscape architect from the Olmsted Brothers firm, and consulted legendary plant explorer Dr. David Fairchild to help fill the hammock with tropical species from around the world. McKee Jungle Gardens opened in January 1932 and was an immediate hit, drawing 100,000 visitors a year to see native orchids, imported palms, resident monkeys, and an alligator named Ole Mac.
The Long Nap
By the mid-1970s, the interstate had rerouted traffic away from US Highway 1, and Disney had redefined what a Florida attraction looked like. McKee Jungle Gardens closed in 1976. Developers bought most of the land and turned it into condos and golf courses. For nearly 20 years, the remaining acres sat empty, the jungle slowly reclaiming its own paths and ponds.
The Comeback
In 1995, the Indian River Land Trust stepped in and purchased what was left. After years of restoration, McKee Botanical Garden was formally rededicated in 2001. Today it covers 18 acres, holds more than 10,000 plants, and draws over 130,000 visitors a year. It’s listed on the National Register of Historic Places and was named by National Geographic Traveler as one of the top 20 places of surprise and sanctuary in North America. The garden is open Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday from noon to 5 p.m. at 350 US Highway 1 in Vero Beach.
Official page: McKee Botanical Garden
