The longtime lakeside home of the late couple for whom Palm Beach County’s historical museum is named has changed hands for a recorded $30 million
The children of the late Patsy “Pat” Johnson sold the five-bedroom, Bermuda-style house at house at 751 Island Drive on the west side of Everglades Island. Johnson died at 94 in July 2025, nearly 13 years after the death of her husband of 61 years, insurance and banking executive Richard “Dick” S. Johnson Sr.
The Johnsons had paid $2.44 million for the house on Everlades Island in 1994, property records show. In all, the house has with 5,550 square feet of living space, inside and out. Completed in 1988, it stands on about four-tenths of an acre with 110 feet of frontage on the Intracoastal Waterway. The property is the second house down from the southwest tip of Everglades Island.
The buyer is Palm Beach resident Kim B. Bepler, according to the deed recorded March 16. Bepler bought the house as trustee of a revocable trust in her name, the document shows.
Bepler is the widow of investments advisor Stephen E. Bepler and owns a house in Palm Beach on Via Vizcaya, which is listed for sale, according to the multiple listing service.
The Johnsons were active philanthropists. Both were natives of the are perhaps best known for having made the lead gift that helped preservationists save and restore the 1916 courthouse in downtown West Palm Beach. The building is now home to the Richard and Pat Johnson Palm Beach County History Museum.
The house had entered the market in early November, asking $34.95 million. That price never wavered before the sale closed March 13, the multiple listing service shows.
Premier Estate Properties agents Jim McCann and Christopher Hughes Bode were the listing agents. McCann and Bode could not immediately be reached for comment.
Broker Christian Angle of Christian Angle Real Estate acted on behalf of the buyer. Angle declined to comment about the sale.
Angle also holds for the $37.9 million listing for Bepler’s house at 9 Via Vizcaya. In the Estate Section, that property has seven bedrooms and 10,100 square feet of living space, inside and out.
Johnsons remodeled parts of house
At front of the house on Island Drive, projecting wings on either side created a courtyard entry. Foot traffic from the foyer flows into the living room and sunroom, which are central to the plan.
The living room is detailed with built-in cabinetry, stone floors and a fireplace with a carved mantel, while walls of French doors and windows in the sunroom open to the water-view terrace.
The Johnsons remodeled parts of the house after they bought it, according to an article published in December in the Palm Beach Daily News. When the couple refurbished the seawall, they added a dock with a boatlift,
One one side of the ground floor are the primary bedroom suite along with a guest bedroom suite that has been used as an office. The primary suite has a fireplace and French doors that access an awning-covered terrace with views of the pool and the waterway.
The first floor also has a formal dining room and a den, along with another bedroom suite and the two-car garage. French doors from the dining room and kitchen open to a second awning-covered terrace, also with Intracoastal views.
Upstairs is an additional guest-bedroom suite with a living room, kitchen, bedroom, bathroom and closet.
The late Stephen Bepler spent the bulk of his investment-advisory career at Capital Group, where he served as senior vice president and director at the company’s Capital Research Global Investors division, according to his 2012 obituary. He and his wife’s charitable giving included substantial gifts, through their foundation, to Fordham University in New York City.
In 1961, Richard Johnson Sr. founded and served as president and shareholder of the West Palm Beach insurance agency Cornelius, Johnson & Clark Inc. In 1976, Mr. Johnson founded Flagler National Bank where he served as chairman. He continued to serve on the bank’s board, following the sale of the instiution to SunTrust, until 2000.
He also founded Johnson Investment Group, where he worked with his two sons in real estate acquisition and development. He was a managing partner of Flagler Center, the waterfront office center.
After living in West Palm beach, the Johnsons chose their home on Everglades Island mainly because they liked being on the Intracoastal Waterway but they also appreciated how the house lived like a one-story home, sons Scott and Richard Johnson Jr. told the Palm Beach Daily News in Decmeber.
“They had several boats over the years, and traveled back and forth to the Bahamas,” Johnson Jr. previously told the Daily News. “They were very social and loved going out with their friends, and Mom would host a group of ladies for lunch and played bridge often,” he says. “We all, their grandkids and our grandkids, spent a lot of time with them.”
His parents were both natives of the county, Johnson Jr. said, and his father and grandfather’s business legacy continues today through Johnson Farms. “His father had a farm out in Pahokee that dad continued to farm, and now my brother and I — with our three sisters — run the farm, which grows sugar cane and veggies.”
In addition to Johnson Jr. and Scott Johnson, the other siblings on the seller’s side of the Everglades Island house were Patricia J. Sned, Catharine J. Flagg and Helene J. Austin, the deed shows.
Island Drive runs the length of Everglades Island, a manmade island three quarters of a mile long in the Intracoastal Waterway in the Estate Section. The island is connected to the rest of Palm Beach by a short bridge to Island Road.
This is a developing story. Check back for any updates.
Previous reporting by writer Christine Davis contributed this story.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Daily News: Waterfront home fetches $30M on Everglades Island in Palm Beach
Reporting by Christine Davis, Special to Palm Beach Daily News / Palm Beach Daily News
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