The 18-year-old great-great granddaughter of Commodore Ralph Munroe earned a Girl Scout Gold Award for documenting the history of Coconut Grove and finding a way to share that history with others.
For many people, Coconut Grove’s beautiful streets lined with banyan trees and bougainvillea are simply part of their daily commute.
For Girl Scout Ginger Seabrook, though, these same streets tell the story of her family and the community she calls home.
“I’ve lived in Coconut Grove my whole life,” said Seabrook, a 2026 graduate of Ransom Everglades School. “I’ve always gone to school in the Grove… the Grove is a big part of my life, but it’s also connected to my family history.”
Seabrook’s interest in history inspired her to create a 21-page training manual for Coconut Grove tour guides and participate in the development of a smart phone app for self-guided walking tours.
The effort earned Seabrook a Girl Scout Gold Award – an achievement award for scouts who pursue a challenge they are passionate about and bring change to their community. Seabrook was one of 11 winners in Miami and the Florida Keys.
Both the training guide and the smart phone app tap into the Grove’s rich history by focusing on the Commodore Trail, the five-mile footpath that cuts through the Grove and is named for Seabrook’s great-great grandfather, Commodore Ralph Munroe.
Munroe was among the area’s earliest settlers in the 1880s and his home, the Barnacle, is one of the Grove’s best-known landmarks. Seabrook’s grandfather, Charlie Munroe, grew up at The Barnacle.
Surrounded by that incredible history, Seabrook began to wonder how a rapidly changing city could preserve the places that shaped both her family and the wider Coconut Grove community.
Motivated by that question, Seabrook partnered with Friends of the Commodore Trail to create a historical walking tour featuring 14 significant sites throughout Coconut Grove.
Facing many bumps in the road, Seabrook stated that, “the hardest part was finding the information because so much of it wasn’t online. I relied on historians, archives and people in the community who knew the history.”
With this challenge in front of her she consulted local historian Iris Kolaya and spent countless hours at the University of Miami’s archival collections studying historic maps, photographs and documents unavailable online.
Seabrook’s research also contributed to the creation of Coconut Grove Roots, a companion smartphone app highlighting nearly 40 historic locations in the Grove, allowing visitors to continue exploring beyond the guided tour.
As she immersed herself in the project’s research, Seabrook became increasingly concerned about what preservationists call “demolition by neglect,” where historic buildings deteriorate after years of limited attention and maintenance.
She pointed to landmarks such as the Coconut Grove Playhouse and Miami’s first schoolhouse, located on the grounds of Plymouth Congregational Church, as reminders of what can be lost when communities fail to preserve their history.
“I think part of the project was bringing that history to the front of people’s minds and educating people about it so that they’ll start to care and these places can be preserved,” Seabrook explained.
During her fact-finding, Seabrook made an unexpected discovery that affected her and her family on a personal level.
“We had always been told Kirk Munroe wasn’t related to us,” Seabrook said, referring to the writer and conservationist who also an early settler in Coconut Grove. “When I was doing the research… we found out that he actually was part of our family. That was super cool for me.”
After months of research, one of Seabrook’s most rewarding moments came when she led her first walking tour using the guide she had created.
“Seeing the work that I had done to gather the research and the information come together and teach people about it was pretty cool,” she stated.
Also pretty cool: learning she had won a Gold Award for her project.
Chelsea Wilkerson, CEO of Girl Scouts of Tropical Florida, believes Seabrook’s project perfectly reflects the purpose of the Gold Award.
“Ginger’s project stands out because it’s rooted in both a genuine love of history and preservation and a deep personal connection to her community,” Wilkerson stated. “She saw an opportunity to protect and share the story of a local treasure and she ran with it.”
Today, Seabrook hopes the walking tour will encourage others to slow down and notice the history surrounding them every day.
Whether it’s a historic building, an overlooked landmark or a weathered plaque along the Commodore Trail, she believes every site has a story worth preserving.
“Keep your eyes open,” Seabrook said. “History really is all around you.”
Nica Rosenberg is a rising junior at Ransom Everglades School in Coconut Grove. Nica is one of two high school students who will be on assignment this summer for the Coconut Grove Spotlight. If you have story suggestions for either student, please send them to [email protected]
