NEW OPTIMISM

Jennifer Ash Rudick, author of Palm Beach Living, gives us a tour of one of the island's most historic homes, which has had new life breathed into it

- JENNIFER ASH RUDICK

In 1891 Henry Maddock shipped two wooden cabins from Brooklyn, New York, to a small colony in Palm Beach. There, the cabins were joined and embellished with scalloped shingles, a gabled roof and an inviting front porch. The house overlooked the Intracoastal (known locally as Lake Worth) to the west and a sprawling freshwater lake to the east, where the quacking fowl inspired the house's moniker, Duck's Nest. In 1941, the freshwater lake was filled in to make way for an access road that would become North Lake Trail. The original families of the colony, including the Cluetts, the Henrys and the Merrills, eventually scattered and their wooden houses were torn down. Today, only the original Bethesda-by-theSea Church and Duck's Nest stand sentinel over the bike path, charming all who pedal by.