Stuart Welcome Arch

The Stuart Welcome Arch was built to greet winter motorists entering Stuart, and it carried a promise about a planned cross-state canal. According to the Florida Division of Historical Resources marker, the Mediterranean Revival monument was designed by Nat C. Hodgdon of Pfeiffer and O'Reilly Architects, built by A. L. Doenges and completed on 20 February 1926. It celebrated the creation of Martin County, with Stuart as county seat, and its bronze lettering read "Stuart - Atlantic Gateway to the Gulf of Mexico", a reference to a planned cross-state canal through Lake Okeechobee. Martin County's history page says the chamber of commerce anticipated Stuart becoming a prosperous shipping port once the canal was finished, and that the site was donated by a development called Stuart Shores, where Stuart's boundary met the newly incorporated limit of Jensen.

The arch has been repaired many times. Martin County says the bronze trim and letters were reportedly stolen early in the Second World War, a hurricane in 1949 blew down the original crossbeam, a vehicle accident destroyed the east tower in 1976, and a garbage truck's arm struck the replacement crossbeam in 1998. The county says the replacement beam reads "Welcome to Rio" on the south face and "Welcome to Jensen Beach" on the north. The county says it is thought to be the only gateway of its kind spanning over a highway in Florida. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2004, and the marker says it is known as the Rio-Jensen Arch. The National Park Service register entry places it in Jensen Beach, between 2369 and 2390 NE Dixie Highway.