De Bary Hall
DeBary Hall is a historic site in DeBary, Florida, United States. It is located at 210 Sunrise Boulevard. On July 24, 1972, it was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places.
Frederick DeBary, a wine importer for Mumms Champaign, built DeBary Hall in 1871 as his hunting retreat along the St. John’s River in central Florida. The area offered various leisure activities such as swimming in the local springs, fishing, and hunting quail, deer, and alligator. DeBary turned his leisure site into a profitable enterprise when he planted over 10,000 acres (40 km2) of citrus trees and began a steamboat company for trade up the St. John’s River to Jacksonville. The DeBary’s used the hall as their family winter retreat until 1941, when the last American DeBary died suddenly without an heir.
The area attracted many guests, and those that stayed at DeBary Hall required a personal invitation. Several additions and renovations were made to the house to accommodate the numerous guests. The additions included a second dining room, a wrap-around porch, two extra bathrooms, and three extra guest bedrooms. The Florida springs, hunting, and warm climate appealed to people across the nation and internationally. Guests to Debary Hall may have included Presidents Grant and Cleveland, European Royalty, and General William Tecumseh Sherman.
The architectural features of DeBary Hall are as interesting as its purpose as a leisurely retreat for the rich and famous. Built in the South during Reconstruction, DeBary Hall features several advanced attributes atypical of Southern homes during this meager time period. The 8,000 sq ft (740 m2) hunting lodge included an elevator for guests’ luggage, running water through a 500 gallon tank in the ceiling, wall-fed electricity made onsite by carbonate gas, a wired call system throughout the entire house, and a lighting protection system that covered the roof of this amazingly advanced home. The site also included a water tower and Florida’s first spring-fed swimming pool, which used a pump to fill and drain the pool each day. These unique features kept the residents self-sufficient at the mostly remote estate. The unique architectural features of the home serve as the main significance for the National Register of Historic Places designation.
Read more about De Bary Hall: Frederick DeBary, The DeBary's in Florida, 1942–1990, Awards and Designations, DeBary Hall Historic Site
Famous quotes containing the word hall:
“Having children can smooth the relationship, too. Mother and daughter are now equals. That is hard to imagine, even harder to accept, for among other things, it means realizing that your own mother felt this way, too—unsure of herself, weak in the knees, terrified about what in the world to do with you. It means accepting that she was tired, inept, sometimes stupid; that she, too, sat in the dark at 2:00 A.M. with a child shrieking across the hall and no clue to the child’s trouble.”
—Anna Quindlen (20th century)