Swampy's Florida

McKee Jungle Gardens opened in 1932 after Arthur G. McKee & Waldo E. Sexton bought 80 acres of land decided to make part of it a part of it featuring the botanical wonders of Florida and beyond. They made a good go of it as is shown in the brochure. The park was a major stop for those traveling U.S. 1 going north or south from Vero Beach.
The onslaught of the Disney mess toyed with all locations in Florida and shuttered many, including McKee Jungle Gardens in 1976.

After the closure and the coming ’80s building boom, about 3/4 of the property originally bought by McKee & Sexton was transformed into residential lots and wider roads. including a great expanse of the right-of-way of U.S. 1.
The remaining part of the land and part of the park lay fallow until 1996, when the, still-existing, Indian River Land Trust nabbed the property. They went to work to bring McKee Jungle Gardens to return. Thus, in 2001 the, now-named, McKee Botanical Garden returned in a bit different form with the focus of plants and flowers. Like the re-made Silver Springs and other former Florida parks, the McKee critters did not return.

A with the church websites, there’s plenty of verbiage, but little that really displays what is at the park these days compared to the brochure shown here. The website looks like there is only 1 acre to visit as compared to the 18 they have.
Unlike the changes in church websites, this website does have history of the park. Every location in our state that has 50+ of history should be including what has let that location continue to exist.

If you would like to plan a visit to McKee Botanical Gardens, you can click here:
https://mckeegarden.org/

This brochure, as with all you see here, is part of the Swampy’s Florida collection.
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