Time was, families coming to the beach stayed in simple cottages in beach towns where porch-sitting and strolling were activities at least as important as swimming and sunbathing.

In 1946, on one of the family's summer pilgrimages to the shore, Robert Davis' grandfather, J.S. Smolian, bought 80 acres near Seagrove Beach on Florida's northwest coast. His intention was to build a summer camp for his employees, but his business partner wanted no part of what must have seemed like a worthless tract of sand. The Smolian family continued coming to that same shore every summer, and occasionally J.S. would take young Robert to the fields at the western edge of Seagrove Beach and walk around the tract.

Robert Davis grew up to be a student of history as well as business, and became an award-winning builder/developer in Miami in the 1970s. When he considered making plans for the property near Seagrove, he naturally thought about idyllic family vacations along the same coast and the small cottages the family had stayed in. If he closed his eyes and let his mind wander back, he could almost feel gentle sea breezes evaporating the moisture on his skin as he sat on a porch rocker after a shower at the end of a day on the beach, absorbed in stories being told by grandparents, parents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. . . . . .