Jupiter Made Famous in 1696 – How Jupiter Homes Got A Name

Jupiter once had no such designation. The town was known to the Spanish as Hobe, after the Hobe tribe of Native Americans who lived on Florida’s East Coast. There were no modern Jupiter homes or golf resorts. It was a time when the Spaniards were feared and anyone who ventured too far north was likely to be killed or enslaved to work on the emerging fortress of St. Augustine. Little changed over centuries and the tribe might have disappeared from history in obscurity had it not been for an untimely shipwreck on the Florida coast as a “fierce storm did arise” and doom the Reformation to her end. On board was a little known but very successful English Quaker merchant, Jonathan Dickinson, who had decided to travel to Philadelphia to expand his business in a bid to elude forever, Jamaica’s Port Royal, the “wickedest city on earth.”

Having been run aground by a storm, likely a hurricane, the ship’s passengers survived the shipwreck only to face a suspicious “rescue” party who alternated between abusive and hospitable. Finally, they were allowed, with meager provisions, to leave Hobe and make their way toward St. Augustine and ultimately, Philadelphia.

Jonathan Dickenson wrote a journal of his harrowing experience which was printed 22 times, making both him and the area ultimately named Jupiter (based on a mis-translation of Hobe to Jove, the Latin form of Jupiter)

Today, Jupiter homes, golf clubs and resorts populate the area once known as the home of “inhumane Canibals of Florida” as Dickinson’s journal’s lengthy title claimed. Now the choice real estate of America’s famous from Celine Dion to Bryant Gumbel, Jupiter homes are among the finest in the country.

For information on buying or selling Jupiter homes, contact Jeff Lichtenstein today.