The Cornelius Home at Mount Plymouth

 

The Cornelius House of Mount Plymouth

George Martin Cornelius (1866 – 1946)

 

The “Gingerbread House”, as it is often called, is today an icon of Mount Plymouth. Designed and built by Chicago artist turned Orlando architect-builder Samuel Stoltz, the home was built in 1927 for George & Alice (Hooper) Cornelius. More formally known as The Cornelius, this architectural wonder served for a decade as the winter cottage for the Cornelius family of Indianapolis, Indiana, but also proudly stands today as testament to the enduring spirit of America’s incredible pioneers - especially the brave souls determined to tame the wilderness of central Florida.

 

Business Card of George M. Cornelius, Indianapolis, Indiana

 

A Rich Wayland

The Cornelius home was built on land that four decades earlier had been part of the homestead of Robert B. Rich. A deed of 120 acres, a portion of which bordered Lake Plymouth of today, included land which became Fairways 7, 8, 9 and 10, as well as homesites including The Cornelius residence. The homestead deed was issued to Rich on the 10^th of March 1883. At the time, a railroad had been proposed to pass this way, and while there was no such place then as Mount Plymouth, there was a nearby wayside called Lovejoy’s Mill – located where CR 435 and State Road 46 now intersect.

Present-day State Road 46 was, in 1883, an east-west dirt trail, a rugged trail used only by the most courageous of souls traveling between Pendryville on Lake Eustis and Sanford on Lake Monroe [If you think there are bears in that area today!]. 

Pendryville of 1883 was in the process of being renamed Eustis as talk of a train - The Sanford & Lake Eustis – was promising to run alongside the trail and greatly improve access to this far northwestern corner of then Orange County.

Settlers and speculators alike suddenly took interest in this remote area. One such speculator was David L. Way, Editor of the Sanford Journal. He acquired 566 acres, established a settlement of Wayland on the northeast shore of the lake now called Mount Plymouth, and waited anxiously for track to cross his land - thereby greatly improving his wealth. Mystery-man Robert B. Rich also staked his claim for a homestead adjacent to Wayland, but the proposed railroad of 1883 stalled out, and with no train – hopes for Lovejoy’s Mill and Wayland soon faded.

As explained in my 2015 book, Citrusland: Ghost Towns & Phantom Trains, the Orange Belt Railway of West Orange County crossed track laid down for the Sanford & Lake Eustis Railroad at the town of Paola. That however was in the year 1886 – five years after the train from Lake Eustis was first announced. (Citrusland: Ghost Towns & Phantom Trains is available thru Amazon). 

 

Superb architecture of The Cornelius - perfection seldom seen in new homes today

‘Tween a Rock and a High Place

Ten miles south of the Robert Rich homestead of 1883, Massachusetts investors and landowners likewise awaited a railroad to arrive at their new town of Plymouth. The Tavares, Orlando & Atlantic Railroad promised to connect Tavares with its county seat at Orlando as early as 1881. This train however also arrived years behind schedule.

But in 1891, the TO&A did deliver a distinguished lady arriving from New York City. Sarah (Carson) Pirie departed at the Plymouth, Florida depot, an 1880s Orange County town named for the historic Plymouth Rock of Massachusetts. Sarah likely stayed at the Standish Inn, on Lake Standish, each named of course for Miles Standish of the Pilgrims of Plymouth Rock fame.

Sarah and husband John Thomas Pirie lived in New York City. Their adult children managed the family’s Chicago department store Carson, Pirie & Scott. And mom wanted a ranch in sunny Florida where her family could come together during the winter months (This was 30 plus years before the Cornelius family desired space in Sunny Florida to do the same).

Sarah bought land on her first visit, then grew her family ranch to 320 acres, all on the outskirts of Plymouth. Sarah named her family ranch Errol after the couple’s birthplace in Scotland. Errol Estates of today occupies land Sarah Pirie originally acquired for her family's Florida Ranch.

Not at all reliant on the growing of citrus, the Pirie family was unaffected by the freeze of 1894-95. But after the freeze, John Pirie, Sr. took advantage of dirt-cheap land prices and expanded the family’s landholdings by thousands of acres. Much of the land purchases – including that of the abandoned Robert B. Rich Homestead, was acquired by paying off past-due property taxes.

Note the work of Artist Sam Stoltz above the fireplace. 

 

Home, Home on the Range

At the dawn of the twentieth century residents of both the Windy City and Big Apple shopped at Carson, Pirie & Scott Department Stores. Around the country butchers sold Errol Beef bred in Orange County on the Pirie family ranch north of Plymouth, Florida. For several months every winter, Pirie siblings joined their parents in sunny Florida, playing cowboys on horseback while checking their herds – free range grazing Pirie property stretching north from Plymouth all the way to Mount Plymouth of today. They likely camped out often on land that is today Mount Plymouth.

Family patriarch John Thomas Pirie, Sr. died April 24, 1913 at Errol Ranch in Plymouth, Florida. He was 86 years old. But during his lifetime he had achieved the American Dream, in large part thanks to the cities of New York and Chicago. Achieving the dream however had been no easy task.

John T. Pirie, Sr. had been fortunate to have survived his 1854 journey across the pond. With his long-time friend Sam Carson, the two departed Liverpool, traveling aboard the maiden voyage of the steamer “City of Philadelphia”. A fellow passenger later said, “the steamer ran against a sunken rock with a frightful concussion,”. All 600 passengers survived the shipwreck and make it safely to America.

Two years later, John Pirie and Sam Carson were dry goods merchants at Amboy, Illinois, and Sam returned to Scotland to fetch his sister Sarah and John’s sister Margaret. Partners married the other’s sister, but Sam Carson soon after fell ill and died. In 1864, John and Sarah (Carson) Pirie welcomed the birth of a baby boy, and they named their son, Samuel Carson Pirie.

At the time of John Pirie’s death in 1913, Samuel Carson Pirie was serving as Chairman of the Board of the entire Pirie family empire.

A most pleasant surprise awaits every turn once inside The Cornelius of Mount Plymouth 

The Roar of the Twenties

Americans celebrated the end of a pandemic during which one-third of the world’s population is believed to have been infected. Estimates of the world-wide dead from the pandemic of 1918 are upwards of 17 million. The Roaring 20s, having survived the pandemic, was a time to celebrate life - the good life in fact – even if that celebration meant going into debt!

After spending winter months in Florida, the Pirie family enjoyed their Sea Cliff residence out on Long Island during the summer. And to escape Indianapolis during the summer, the Cornelius family enjoyed “Windy Waters”, their family cottage on Lake Maxinkuckee in upstate Indiana.   

The good life however for many also meant owning a piece of land in “Sunny Florida”, land at the southern end of the newly christened Dixie Highway. Chicago, where gangster Al Capone was terrorizing the hometown of a second-generation Pirie family, was a Dixie Highway town. So too was Plymouth, in Orange County, Florida. A stretch of old Dixie Highway still exists in old Plymouth.

The name Pirie was known to Chicagoans for 70 years by 1925, explaining why others from the Windy City would follow the family to central Florida. Chicago was home to the acclaimed artist Sam Stoltz. In the mid-1920s, Sam was mentoring potential artists in the Windy City. Joe Tinker of baseball fame had already traded his baseball career and one-time Chicago residence for a new career as builder at new residence in sunny Orlando, Florida. Tinker Heights on East Colonial Drive in Orlando, as well as a small plat off Church Street in downtown Orlando, were among the first projects Joe "Tinkered with" after relocating to Florida.

Artist Samuel Stoltz, builder Joe Tinker, and numerous other Chicagoans – including Al Capone himself – followed the Pirie family to central Florida, where the Pirie's had been wintering for three decades.

A Florida Land Boom was underway as a second generation of Pirie’s prepared to take the leap into land development. And to do so in a big way! John Taylor Pirie, second son of John & Sarah, departed New York City on June 14, 1922. His passport application stated his destination was Errol, Scotland, his father’s birthplace. During his six months abroad, he also planned to tour the British Isles, France, Belgium, and other parts of Europe. And while John was overseas doing research, his siblings, under the guidance of the eldest brother Sam Carson Pirie, began formulating a plan, a plan it seems, meant as a memorial to their father.

Full page ads for Mount Plymouth began appearing in December 1926

A world-class golfing community was the Pirie plan, four (4) world class golf courses, with each course beginning and ending at the luxury 150 rooms hotel. Mount Plymouth Hotel, the first (and only) golf course of four planned, and a landing strip for private airplanes, all opened in 1926. Streets and avenues of Mount Plymouth memorialized the best of golf courses of the day: St. Andrews; Exmoor; Lochmoor; Prestwick; Oakmont; Pine Valley, Troon and Interlachen being but a few.

Airplanes at Mount Plymouth, courtesy Florida Memory Project

George M. Cornelius, on the 27^th day of February 1927, purchased lots 14 and 15 of Block 48. He bought these lots from Mount Plymouth Corporation, two lots fronting on the 10^th Fairway along Interlachen Avenue. The Cornelius deed stipulated that a dwelling had to be built on the lots at a “cost not less than $4,000.00”.

Fifty (50) days after Cornelius acquired his parcels, Artist and builder Samuel Stoltz, on April 19, 1927, signed a quit-claim deed to George M. Cornelius of Indianapolis, Indiana. This quit claim relinquished all rights the builder might have had in the property, suggesting Stoltz had completed construction of the new residence for Mr. Cornelius. As the Cornelius family was moving into their Mount Plymouth winter home, Florida's Land Boom was becoming Florida's Land Bust of 1927. The Stock Market crash of 1929 followed, next the Great Depression, and then World War II.

The Cornelius family wintered at Mount Plymouth from 1927 until 1937. During that time, Mount Dora Topic newspaper of April 26, 1934, reporting on the comings and goings of important residents, said “Mr. & Mrs. George M. Cornelius left their winter home at Mount Plymouth a few days ago for Indianapolis, Indiana”. George & Alice Cornelius sold The Cornelius, to Chester L Zechiel of their hometown in Marion County, Indiana, and again the Mount Dora Topic, of November 2, 1939, said why: “Mr. and Mrs. George M. Cornelius are in their lovely new home at Sylvan Shores.” 

George M. Cornelius died at his Sylvan shores residence in 1946. The Mount Dora Topic reported on this sad news as well: "Mr. Cornelius had been a winter resident of Florida for the past 20 years, having spent the last nine winters at his home in Sylvan Shores."

The newspaper went on to tell us more about the man who built The Cornelius at Mount Plymouth. "Such in part was his exemplary career. He achieved the length of days which so often is the reward of sound living and friendly attitude and spirit. A life like his is bound to confirm the poet's faith that really: "There is no death, What seems so is transition; This life of mortal breath, Is but a suburb of the life Elysian, Whose portal we call death." George Martin Cornelius was 80 years old.

The information contained above is NOT part of my book, Tavares: Darling of Orange County, Birthplace of Lake County, but Chapter 26: Mount Dora, The Eastern Gateway, does detail how the railroads of the 1880s influenced the evolution of West Orange County into Lake County. Chapter 26 also introduces readers the REAL Dora of Lake Dora. I hope you will check it out. And join me April 1st for another Historic Lake County Residence. 

 5 Stars: "A well-written book, heavily based on government records of land transactions. Very interesting and informative. Highly recommended for the locals and those with a family history in Lake County."

5 Stars: "Excellent book! Thank you so much for sharing your passion for local history and your exhaustive research on Lake County."

 5 Stars: "Great book. Lots of research went into it. Highly recommended."

TAVARES: Darling of Orange County, Birthplace of Lake County

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