The Stults Era

Larry and Jan Stults: The Couple Who Opened Cabbage Key to the World

The Cabbage Key visitors know today can trace much of its beginning to an adventurous couple from the Midwest who took a chance on an isolated Florida island in 1944.

Elwin Martin "Larry" Stults Jr. was a successful Chicago commercial artist and advertising executive. His work had appeared in major national publications including The Saturday Evening Post, Vogue, House and Garden and Harper's Bazaar. After a serious illness, Larry and his wife, Jan, moved their family to Florida, hoping the warmer climate would improve his health.

While on a fishing trip near Boca Grande in 1944, they passed an island then known as Palmetto Key and learned it was for sale.

They eventually offered $25,000 for the property—which had reportedly been listed for $45,000—and became its new owners.

What they purchased was hardly a conventional resort. The island had been largely vacant for approximately two years. There was no connection to the electrical grid, transportation was entirely by boat, and even the generator needed repairs.

Larry and Jan nevertheless saw possibilities.

They renamed their venture The Inn and Studio at Cabbage Key, converting the former Rinehart estate into accommodations and transforming buildings previously used for scientific research into guest cottages. Instead of conventional advertising, they initially wrote friends and business associates in the North and allowed Cabbage Key's reputation to spread largely by word of mouth.

Guests came to escape.

There was no social director and little organized entertainment. Visitors read on the porches, fished, explored neighboring islands and traveled with Larry by boat to the beaches of Cayo Costa. Larry offered painting instruction while Jan prepared meals—including memorable boat dinners served while cruising among the islands.

Running the retreat was anything but leisurely. Supplies, gasoline, groceries, linens, mail and guests all had to cross the water. Their children, Debbie, Peter and Taylor, faced the unusual challenge of getting an education while living on an island; Peter and Taylor even traveled by school boat.

The Stultses operated Cabbage Key for 25 years, from 1944 until 1969. In doing so, they established something far more lasting than an inn. They created the basic character of Cabbage Key as an informal, secluded Old Florida retreat—a character succeeding owners would work to preserve.

When Larry and Jan finally sold the island in 1969, they left behind the foundation for what Cabbage Key would become.

The modern Cabbage Key story began with them.