The George & Annie Gibbons Residence at Umatilla
The
Gibbons Residence of Umatilla
Track laid down in 1879 by St. Johns
& Lake Eustis Railroad, by 1910, began skirting the front lawn
of the residence of George & Anna Gibbons. But visit the Gibbons
homeplace site today, as I did while searching for Umatilla resident and Mount
Dora developer, “Mrs. George A. Gibbons (widow)”, and instead of
railroad track, you will find two State Road 19 southbound traffic lanes. And where
once stood the historic Gibbons home, you will see instead bungalows gracing the
east shore of Umatilla’s charming Lake ENOLA.
“Enola
Hill, (Oregon) since time immemorial, has been a place
utilized by American Indians from all around the northwest for vision quests,
ceremonies, and medicine gathering.”
From the book, Orlando Lakes:
Homesteaders & Namesakes (2019) by this author
A driveway exists today where the Gibbons Home was located from 1910 until 2003
Intending to feature developer Anna Gibbons and
her Umatilla residence, it was disappointing, at first, to find her home no
longer existed where it was supposed to be. It would certainly not
fit the narrative of this series about existing monuments to remarkable pioneers had there been no
such monument.
Fortunately, Karen Howard, City Clerk of the
town of Umatilla, came to my rescue in follow up to a lead from one of my Facebook
followers. The lead came in the form of a request for ideas on to learn more
about a Umatilla home that, wrote the follower, had been moved to its
present site. That was when I emailed the city - and Karen Howard quickly replied,
“I remember the houses being moved over to Mebane Street.” Bingo!
So now, by extraordinary coincidences, I present to
you the story of a historic Umatilla residence I have dubbed, The
Gibbons Residence of Umatilla (see photo above). [Note: Front porches
of both Umatilla houses shown in this post were enclosed after the homes were
built in 1910].
Beginning at the Beginning:
According to an Orange County 1879 survey, the St.
Johns & Lake Eustis Railroad was shown to have laid track from Astor,
on the river, south to Altoona, but that grading for the track had been completed
into the town of “Umatilla”. The Umatilla Orange County Post Office had opened
on the 24th of April 1878 with Nathan J. Trowell serving as the
first Postmaster. Several town plats of Umatilla were filed during 1885,
one being by John & Gertrude Mitchener (at times spelled Mitchenor) as an “Addition”
to the Town of Umatilla. The plats were filed with the Clerk of Court at the
Courthouse in Orlando, because Umatilla was at that time part of Orange
County.
Mitchener’s plat showed lakefront lots on Lake ENOLA
but also available lots on the east side of St. Johns & Lake Eustis
Railroad track, parcels on Lakes UMATILLA and TUTUOLA, the latter
likely meant as TUTUILLA, for Tutuilla in Umatilla County, Oregon.
Not many Mitchener lots sold prior to Florida’s Great
Freeze of 1894-95, so in 1897, unsold lots, including “Lots 3 and 4
of Block A”, fell into foreclosure. The Mitchener’s, like many Citrus-Belt Floridians,
suffered financial losses because of the freeze and departed central Florida.
View across Lake Enola toward back
of Lots 3 &4
George & Anna Gibbons then arrived at Umatilla, coming to Florida from Lee’s Summit, Missouri. They bought two vacant lots identified as “3 and 4 of Block A of Mitchener’s Subdivision”. George and Anna closed on their purchase October 31, 1907. Three years later, in 1910 according to Lake County Property Appraiser records, two residences were built on these two adjoining lots. (The second smaller home was likely built as a winter residence for the parents of George, who continued as residents of Missouri. Snowbird William H. Gibbons, the father of George, died at Umatilla in 1917.
George & Annie Gibbons became active in Lake County development, including re-platting an adjoining Umatilla subdivision that had been laid out in 1885 by one of the two town founders, Nathan J. Trowell. The husband and wife Gibbons developer team apparently did well during a period of renewed interests in Florida properties, for three years after building their Lake Enola residence, George also registered a brand new 1913 Ford Model T Touring Car with the State of Florida.
George and Annie may have even enjoyed old-fashioned
Sunday afternoon Lake County drives, much as my CitruslandFL of Lake County
group does with a new post each Sunday.
Annie Gibbons, the Mount Dora developer:
Annie continued living on Lake Enola and remained in the development business after the
death of George in 1928 - as evidenced by land deeds that include “Re-subdividing
Block 8 in the Town of Mount Dora,” a plat recorded by Annie in 1932
as “Mrs. George A. Gibbons (widow), the owner”.
Where in Mount Dora? Well, if Cuban food is what you
fancy, chances are you have dined on property owned in 1932 by Annie Gibbons. Las
Palmas Restaurant, at the southwest corner of 4th and
Donnelly Street, and Copacabana Cuban Café a just few doors south,
are both located on Block 8 lots once owned by Mrs. George A. Gibbons, widow. Goblins
Market and Olive Branch restaurants also occupy land Annie
subdivided in 1932. Another structure - a home - is squeezed between Barrel
of Books Bookstore (excluded from Annie’s site) and the Las Palmas Restaurant.
It is that residence, set back slightly and behind a tall privacy wall on 4th Avenue, that at first drew my
attention for this series.
While researching the Mount Dora home however I found it was built
in 1986 – too new for a historic home series. But while researching I also stumbled upon Mrs. George A. Gibbons of Umatilla.
Few businesswomen existed in the 1930s –
and even fewer fifty (50) years prior, when yet another Annie sold the first-ever
“town lot” - 30 June 30 1881 - after subdividing her “homestead” at what
is today the town of Mount Dora. [Her story, and much more about the town and its lake, is featured in Chapter 26 ‘MOUNT DORA: The Eastern Gateway’ of my latest book, Tavares:
Darling of Orange County, Birthplace of Lake County.]
From Mount Dora to Umatilla:
“Lots 5 and 6 of Block 8 in Mount Dora”, platted by Annie Gibbons of Umatilla, was conveyed to Henry Leon Drugg of Stowe, Vermont. Henry became the proprietor of a Mount Dora “Variety Store” according to the 1940 census, and following his death in 1945, the Drugg family sold to Vincent J. Fechtel, proprietor of Vincent’s 5 & 10 Cent Store, as shown below in 1951. Today, Las Palmas Restaurant occupies the building, said to be built – according to Lake County records, in 1925.
The 1925 construction date suggests Annie Gibbons of Umatilla owned the building as well at the time she recorded her plat in 1932.
Photo courtesy of Florida Memory
Project
Annie N. (George) Gibbons died in 1961 [yes,
her maiden name was the same as her husband’s first name]. After Annie’s death, her Umatilla
residence became home to numerous family’s over the next few decades until, in
2003, Dr. Louis & Shirley Radnothy acquired the home and property
and took careful steps to relocate both homes to side-by-side parcels across SR
19. Both homes were moved to Mebane Street – in Block E of the 1885 Mitchener subdivision. Moving both homes took place in late 2003.
Today, the current custodian of this magnificent 110
years-old structure has done an outstanding job in preserving a historical
monument to Umatilla pioneers George & Annie Gibbons. I am
quite certain that George and Annie would be pleased to see Robin’s refurbishment and
preservation of the home, a home built on the shore of Lake Enola in 1910.
A short train ride heading south out of Umatilla,
after first passing through depots at Fort Mason, Eustis and Mount Homer, passengers on the St. Johns & Lake Eustis Railroad would arrive at Lake County’s railroad hub of Tavares. An 1881 town conceived by two Orlando Attorneys, both lawyers built a residence at
Tavares. Only one of the structures has been memorialized by a visible plaque, so our next Lake County Historical Home will be the story
of the other residence – 139 years old now and still standing.
“To-day
Tavares stands up in the glory of forty dwellings…”
The Weekly Floridian, May
30, 1882
If you enjoy Lake County history, you will love my book,
TAVARES: Darling of Orange County, Birthplace of Lake County
Thank you, Diane, I am happy to hear you enjoyed my book.
GIFT GIVING MADE EASY - GIVE A GIFT OF HISTORY!
Thank you, Allison, very happy to hear you enjoyed my book.
Visit CroninBooks.com to view each of my central Florida books
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