Activities and Restoration
Kingsley Plantation currently showcases the remains of 23 slave houses out of 32 original cabins, located approximately 1,000 feet (305 m) south of the main owner's house. One of the slave houses has been restored to appear as it did in the early 19th century; others are in various states of repair or ruin. The kitchen house features a display about slavery on the island, and the barn and garden are also on display. The planter's house is unfurnished and currently closed for structural rehabilitation. Maintenance of the historical structures is the most significant work being done at Kingsley Plantation. The kitchen and owner's house were closed in 2005 due to severe structural damage caused by termites and humidity. The kitchen building was restored in 2006, but work is ongoing for the owner's house. Despite the durability of the slave quarters, they are vulnerable to vandalism, and each cabin shows evidence of damage. While there is no slated completion date for the rehabilitation of the owner's house, one room of the kitchen house is open and contains exhibits.
Since 1998 Kingsley Plantation has hosted an annual one-day event in October called the Kingsley Heritage Celebration that coincides with the Kingsley family reunion. Several relatives of Kingsley and Anna Jai are notable. Kingsley's youngest sister's daughter, Anna McNeill, participated with her mother in attempting to block Anna Jai from inheriting Kingsley's property. McNeill served as the model for her son, the artist James Whistler, in his Arrangement in Grey and Black: The Artist's Mother, popularly known as Whistler's Mother. Kingsley Beatty Gibbs' brother was George Couper Gibbs, a planter in St. Johns County, south of Fort George Island near St. Augustine. Former governor of South Carolina Duncan Clinch Heyward is descended from him.
Another branch of Kingsley descendants lives in the Dominican Republic near where John Maxwell Kingsley lived in Haiti. Kingsley and Anna Jai are the great grandparents of Mary Kingsley Sammis, who married Abraham Lincoln Lewis, one of Florida's first black millionaires and an original investor in the all-black American Beach. The Kingsley-Sammis-Lewis-Betsch family has been active in Jacksonville's black community for decades. Spelman College's first black female president, Johnnetta Betsch Cole, is descended from Lewis and Sammis. The Heritage Celebration was moved to Black History Month in February 2008; Cole was the keynote speaker of the 2009 Kingsley Heritage Celebration. Interpretive events such as music, storytelling, and ranger-led talks about history and archeology regularly occur during the Heritage Celebration.
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