Julia DeForest Tuttle (née Sturtevant; January 22, 1849[1] – September 14, 1898) was an American businesswoman who owned the property upon which Miami, Florida, was built.

In 1890, when her father died and left her his land in Florida, she sold her home in Cleveland, Ohio and relocated to Biscayne Bay.

[citation needed] Tuttle used the money from her parents' estate to purchase the James Egan grant of 640 acres (2.6 km2), where the city of Miami is now located, on the north side of the river, including the old Fort Dallas stone buildings, and the two-story rock house built by Richard Fitzpatrick's enslaved workers some 50 years earlier.

Where this tangled mass of vine, brush, trees and rocks now are to see homes with modern improvements surrounded by beautiful grassy lawns, flowers, shrubs and shade trees.”[4] Tuttle immediately decided to take a leading role in the movement to start a new city on the Miami River, but knew that decent transportation (in that time, a railroad) was necessary to attract development.

Tuttle tried to induce Henry Flagler to extend his railroad to Fort Dallas (Miami), and offered to divide her large real estate holdings if he would do this.

She wrote numerous letters to Flagler in this connection and finally made the trip to St. Augustine and in person repeated her offer.

The Great Freeze of 1894-1895 devastated the old orange belt of central and northern Florida, destroying valuable groves and wiping out fortunes overnight.

[citation needed] Under an agreement between the two, Tuttle supplied Flagler with the land for a hotel and a railroad station for free, and they split the remainder of her 640 acres (2.6 km2) north of the Miami River in alternating sections.

Tuttle died leaving a large amount of debt, partly the result of her altruistic land grants to Flagler.