The Summerlin Residence at Tavares

 

The Summerlin Residence at Tavares

 

Southeast corner of Rockingham Avenue & Alfred Street

A law practice today occupies a Tavares residence built 140 years ago by two Orlando Attorneys. The year was 1881, and the two lawyers – founders of the city of Tavares that year, each built a personal home as well, two historic Lake County residences that are still standing today.

“On the 1^st day of January, not five months ago, a woodman’s axe sounded in the primeval forest, and the foundations of the first houses were laid among the wild-place.”

The Weekly Floridian, May 30, 1882

Among the first structures built in what was then a new Orange County town, the Summerlin Residence at Tavares, occupying the southeast corner of Alfred Street at Rockingham Avenue, has long remained submerged in mystery, and for good reason. The “other’ 1881 residence, the home of Alexander St. Clair-Abrams at Alfred Street and New Hampshire, is not only well-known today, but adorned with a plaque to identify the residence as well.

“Rockingham nee Summerlin”, the title of Chapter 9 of, Tavares: Darling of Orange County, Birthplace of Lake County, gives clarity to the primary cause for a Summerlin mystery with this statement: “The St. Clair-Abrams and Summerlin Tavares partnership dissolved within 14 months of being established. Having purchased property for their planned town in 1880 and 1881, the partners ended their association November 15, 1882.”

In order to appreciate the origins of Tavares, one needs to know more about the Summerlin and St. Clair-Abrams relationship. Robert L. Summerlin, an 1876 graduate of University of Georgia Law School, was the eldest son of Florida’s famed “Cattle-King”, Jacob Summerlin. Robert’s father had relocated his family to Orlando in the early 1870s, and during the summer of 1875, Jacob and Robert both attended Orlando’s Incorporation meeting. Robert then married in 1876. 

Robert L. Summerlin (1857-1926)

Jacob Summerlin, in 1874, subdivided his 200 acres adjacent to and east of the Village of Orlando, setting aside two lakefront lots for residences, one for himself as well as a parcel for son Robert.

Alexander St. Clair-Abrams and Robert L. Summerlin were partners in an Orlando law practice when, in 1878, central Florida pioneer George C. Brantley died at New York City. Brantley had gone to New York to buy iron rails for a railroad he was building from Lake Jesup into downtown Orlando, a railroad that planned to cross the 200 acres Brantley had sold to Jacob Summerlin.

St. Clair-Abrams & Summerlin representing Ella A. (Speer) Brantley 

George Brantley’s widow hired the law firm of St. Clair-Abrams & Summerlin to handle her deceased husband’s affairs, an estate that included land at Lake Jesup, Clay Springs, and acreage on the south shore of Lake Eustis. Partners St. Clair-Abrams & Summerlin purchased the latter property – present day Tavares - from the Brantley estate.

St. Clair-Abrams, the more ambitious of the two partners, was familiar with this far corner of Orange County because he and wife Joanna had homesteaded on Lake Joanna in 1875.

So, in 1881, Alexander St. Clair-Abrams went right to work platting a town, gathering investors, building a hotel, and planning railroads. Surveyor Mustoe B. Given (Chapter 2: Not simply Any Given Street) was hired to design Tavares. Planned roadways were named for prominent central Florida promoters, although some were named for family members of the partners. Joanna Avenue, Alfred Street, Irma (Main) Street, and St. Clair-Abrams Avenue were named for Alexander’s family.

Texas Avenue was named for Robert’s wife, Texas Blount (Parker). Ruby and Maude Streets memorialized the two Summerlin daughters, while Summerlin Avenue paid tribute to Robert’s family. The latter avenue name however began a series of changes immediately after the two partners split in November 1882. 

1890 Sanborn Insurance survey shows existing (1) Summerlin Residence; (2) St. Clair-Abrams Residence, and (3) Union Church, all three still in use today. [source: Library of Congress]

 

The Summerlin Residence of Tavares is described today by Lake County’s Property Appraiser as built in 1881 and located on “Lots G&H of Block 20, Plat Book 1, Page 64.”

A 40-page partnership dissolution agreement of 1882, in which St. Clair-Abrams assumed all assets and debt in exchange for buying out Robert L. Summerlin, itemized each asset. The agreement listed town lots, including: “Lots G & H of Block 20, beginning at the Southeast corner of Alfred Street and Summerlin Avenue.” Ownership of the Summerlin’s residence remained with Alexander St. Clair-Abrams and the rest of the Tavares venture.

Robert & Texas Summerlin divorced. Texas returned to her Bartow home with both daughters, while Robert departed both Orlando and Tavares for parts unknown. (Robert L. Summerlin, thanks to present day research available, was since found. He had relocated to San Antonio, Texas first, then to Los Angeles, where he died in 1926. His photo above is courtesy the man’s California family.)

 

Alexander St. Clair-Abrams transferred his Tavares assets to a corporation, The Peninsular Land, Transportation & Manufacturing Company, and on April 22, 1884, Peninsular sold “Lots G & H of Block 20 in the town of Tavares, on the Southeast corner of Wescott (formerly Summerlin) Avenue and Alfred Street”. The deed specifically stated Summerlin Avenue had been changed to Wescott Avenue. The buyers were two Orlando businessmen, E. P. Hyer and T. J. Shine. (Leo P. Wescott was also an Orlando businessman and friend of Jacob Summerlin. Wescott Hotel was located in downtown Orlando in the early 1880s, and Wescott built a home on Jacob's property in downtown Orlando. By 1884, Leo Wescott had begun working with St. Clair-Abrams in developing Tavares).

Alexander St. Clair-Abrams, admitting in an 1886 affidavit that he had failed to record a town plat as required, formally filed an official Tavares Plat that year.

Then, two months before Lake County was established in May 1887, owners Hyer and Shine sold The Summerlin Residence at Tavares parcel they had acquired in 1884. The deed issued stated: “Lots G & H of Block Twenty in the Town of Tavares, a map of which is on file in the office of the Clerk of Court.” A street name was not given on the deed, but the official plat referenced showed Block 20 as located on the Southeast corner of Rockingham Avenue and Alfred Street.

An earlier January 1886 newspaper article explained the changes, reporting that three roads were made “in compliment” to a New Hampshire investor who had become a new business associate of St. Clair-Abrams. Frank Jones of Portsmouth, Rockingham County, New Hampshire, was honored with names of two Tavares Avenues, both of which are still known by the names today. A third street was named in honor of Orlando Land Agent John G. Sinclair, who become associated with St. Clair-Abrams. (Each street has a dedicated chapter in Tavares: Darling of Orange County, Birthplace of Lake County).

Find out more on the St. Clair-Abrams and Summerlin venture, Tavares, and much more on how Lake County in my 5 Stars rated book by two verified purchasers. And next week, this Historic Lake County Homes series travels to Leesburg.

 

         “To-day Tavares stands up in the glory of forty dwellings…”

The Weekly Floridian, May 30, 1882

 

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