Debra Farish's blog

Recapturing the Stetson Mansion

Living in Florida, I am always amazed to learn how the "Fathers of Industry" roamed our small towns which became homes to their winter retreats or hunting lodges.  

Growing up my family would kid about how living in Florida must have been miserable without central air conditioning.

Thankfully no one told hatmaker, John Batterson Stetson, who placed his mark on the town of Deland, Florida.  Through his philanthropic efforts, he was one of the benefactors of the private college known as Stetson University.   

It must have been Mr. Stetson's love of the natural landscape that influenced the construction of a home in 1886 in the midst of 300 acres of orange groves.

This 9,000 square foot estate was originally designed to be twice as large that was until Mrs. Elizabeth Stetson believed a smaller residence would be a better fit for her young family, while also having enough room for the occassional guest or two.  

Those occassional guests were none other than the "Who's Who" of the Gilded Age.  The likes of the Mellons, the Carnegies, the Vanderbilts, Henry Flagler, President Grover Cleveland, President Ulysses S. Grant, as well as Prince Edward (son of Queen Victoria) visited -- just to name drop a few! 

In fact, Thomas Alva Edison (another Florida winter resident) oversaw the installation of electricity to the mansion.  Since it was one of the first homes of its day to even have electricity, the building of a power plant was also necessary addition to the small town.  

Gothic, Moorish, and Tudor architectural influences highlight every inch of this estate, but the home's standout features are the exquisite parquet flooring and intricate hand-carved woodwork. Archways and window details are throughout the whole space and a feast for the eyes.  

Present day owners and residents, Michael Solari and J.T. Thompson, saved this 125 year old landmark in a span of three years and offer tours to the public. Our tour laughed that having your home open year round to strangers is one way to keep it picked up!   

Walking the halls and exploring each room is delightful.  Michael and J. T. have beautifully kept the home true to its first owner while making it highly modern with its necessary amenities.

During the tour, the guide tells Stetson family tidbits that have you believing that you actually know these Pennsylvannia residents.  John Batterson Stetson was married three times.  His third and final wife was Elizabeth, who was 28 years his junior. Elizabeth gave John B. three sons.

Mrs. Stetson was born in Ohio, but traveled to Philadelphia where John B. started his famous hat company.  Elizabeth was an accomplished pianist, and John B. that met her through being her music lesson benefactor.  Elizabeth, being a lover of culture and fine arts, must have shuttered when she first came to the mosquito ladden state of Florida.  

Believe it or not, the Stetson's also cared for some unusual and exotic pets like monkeys and alligators.  In homage to "Ponce" and "Leon" (the family's pet gators), one of the restoration designers has treated the walls in a third floor guest room with an unusal treatment (a faux finish of croc hide).

Trinkets are sprinkled throughout the house painting the story of man who was truly a master craftsman and retailer.  John B. was one of 12 children of a hat maker.  At a young age, he was diagnosed with tuberculosis and traveled westward to improve his health.  Out there, he dreamed of making a hat that would help meet the needs of westerners.  Discovering that beaver hide was naturally water resistant, Stetson's early hat designs met a new criteria for those living out west.  A taller hat would help to insulate the head in the winter as well as help with increased air flow in warmer weather.  A wider brim was necessary to shield the sun.  Finally, the Stetson hat was born and the rest is history!

More Beautiful Because You Lived

Every Christmas vacation, there is a list of day trips that I would like to take, so that I can explore with my camera.  It stems from family vacations with my grandparents.  Back then, we had no set agenda, just an atlas.  We would shout out "right" or "left" directions from the back seat as we traveled the interstate.

Back then my wish was to have a camera to document what I saw.  This is probably why I headed to photography school months after getting my first SLR camera.

The 2010 discovery trip was back to familiar family picnic area in Lake Wales, FL.  It's been like 30 years since I visited Bok Tower Gardens, but became intrigued with the mention of  "Christmas at Pinewood Holiday Home Tour."   I didn't remember any home at the park.  Turns out Charles Austin Buck, Bethlehem Steel Vice President built a winter estate in a neighboring community to the Tower.  His home is now open during Christmas season with each room decorated by theme.  Hello, I was so there!  

As we entered the main gate, we were greeted by Visitor Welcome Center where we watched a film about Edward Bok, the visionary who made this now-historic landmark part of the Lake Wales landscape. 

Mr. Bok, by profession, was a magazine editor, who concentrated on editorial integrity even down to his advertisers.  This Dutch immigrant took to heart the words of his grandmother to make the world more beautiful; Mr. Bok did just that as a noted philanthropist, lover of of architecture and botanicals, and a man of God.

Combine these three things together and you have Bok Tower Gardens.  

The Tower stands 205 foot high.  It's neo-Gothic and art deco exterior houses a 60-bell carillon, second only to those found in Mr. Bok's Netherlands homeland.  Mr. Bok hired famed architect Milton B. Medary, known for the Washington Memorial Chapel in Valley Forge, PA.  The stonework was sculpted by Lee Lawrie, best known for the free-standing bronze "Atlas" at New York City's Rockefeller Center.  The Great Brass Door at the base of the Tower is a masterpiece of Samuel Yellin, America’s premier metalworker.  The door depicts the Book of Genesis, starting with the creation of light and ending with Adam and Eve being ousted from the Garden of Eden.

Just like the importance of the Tower, Mr. Bok cared about the Gardens and hired Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr., who is known for this wildlife and conservation efforts.  A Presidential dedication from Calvin Coolidge made this a gift to the American people in 1929, one year prior to Mr. Bok's death.

Sitting on one of the garden benches reading a park pamphlet, Steve and I talked about how Mr. Bok's culture was probably no different than today's.  It was the height of the Depression, and yet here is a self-made man giving back with something he was passionate about.  I am sure comments about the extravagance of this undertaking must have been in question by many of that time.

It takes a special person to rise about the idle talk of others and press through what God has placed in his or her heart.  You can't thwart passion nor God's plan. 

Enjoying the natural surroundings and listening to "Angels We Have Heard on High" from the Tower's Carillon, I wondered about Mr. Bok's belief in the Creator and the belief of the circles that he moved within.  Would today's culture and master craftsmen appreciation a faith like Mr. Bok's?  Or consider him a sentimental man who had nothing better to do with his money? 

Psalm 145:9-11 (The Message)

God is good to one and all; everything he does is suffused with grace.  Creation and creatures applaud you, God; your holy people bless you. They talk about the glories of your rule, they exclaim over your splendor,

Lesson of Wood Glue

Sunday, February 8, 2009 at 10:21pm

It was the year of my sister’s wedding to Rob that I discovered a valuable lesson, building something with wood glue is a process.

When Dana moved out of our family home to start a new life, I wanted to use the extra room as a place to showcase my three-story Victorian dollhouse that had been in the garage. 

Since the dollhouse had been abandoned for more than 10 years, it was what you would call a "fixer-upper." Renovations began with an industrial size of Elmer's wood glue. I began to link all the broken pieces of the roof and porch with the glue. The pieces remained where they were placed for just a moment, until their collapse. It wasn’t Krazy Glue that I was using; it was glue that needed time to set. Only then, as one piece would dry could another be added.

Last weekend as Steve and I celebrated our 7th wedding anniversary, I was reminded about the wood gluing process.

Back then we had no money when we married. If we didn’t borrow it, we charged it. Even the honeymoon was a deal worked out between my sister’s workplace and the Amelia Island Plantation staff.  We were given a 5 day, 4 night stay on the beach.

Let’s just call me a recovering romanticizer, and the honeymoon was just one facet of my over-inflated expectations. I pictured my new husband strolling with me to out-of-the-way shops as we would find the perfect souvenir that would encapsulate the honeymoon to be later passed down as a family heirloom.

Okay, I stole the idea from my second cousin, Sharon, who bought a clock on her honeymoon in an antique store. I remember seeing it on her mantle when we visited her Charleston home when I was 16.  I was after the same type of story to tell.

After finding the perfect thing, I would also purchase something personal just for me because I needed to commemorate the trip with a fitting charm to go on my bracelet. After all, I loved the silver cable car that Dawna found when she and Matt honeymooned in San Francisco.  I needed to have something like that which said Amelia Island on it. My first week of marriage instead ended in a harsh reality that my expectations were too high to meet. Steve and I fought on the way home because I was unwilling to let go of what I believed the true keepsake of what our honeymoon was.

Being married to an event coordinator is tough for my husband, but this was his year to plan the anniversary celebration. We left home around noon and drove until we figured out where to go. After a stop at the "Golf Hall of Fame," we drove another hour to the same beach location we did seven years earlier.

That night at dinner, I gushed how this was so perfect – better than what we did for year number six (read that blog entry entitled, Anniversary Iron and Golden Beets. We chose to have dinner at the same restaurant we did on day two as a married couple. There we were -- in the same room, marveling about this and that, when Steve and I discovered something surprising. The food was still horrible! We were so caught up in the reliving the moment that we forgot how we didn’t like this seafood place then or now.  After our bad dinner, we found the only store open after 8:00 on a Saturday night was a jewelry store.

As we walked in, there were two store clerks and another couple. My eye caught this brown pearl and diamond journey slide on an Omega chain until the price revealed for the pendant alone was $1700. I laughed to myself as the clerk told the other couple how Valentine's Day was just around the corner. Steve started talking to the other clerk, who was all but happy to show a Callaway putter with diamonds drilled into it. They said that anyone can "add bling to their swing" for $1800.

As the other browsing couple left, their sales clerk turned to me pulling out lovely items that I had no intentions of trying on, let alone purchasing. Even motioning me over to the 50% off case didn't intrigue me that much. But I was being polite and commented on some of the earrings that I saw. She pulled out these amethyst drop earrings from an estate sale. Right then, Steve came over and said, "We’ll take them."

Not that I was shocked at Steve’s generosity, but I wasn’t expecting a purchase like that. But I was very happy to have my new earrings. The next morning, I was still reflecting on how God gave me this treasure along with a new story to tell.

When I try to force the pieces together, like my broken dollhouse, they don't stand for long. But when I waited to build as I go, then it is better than I could ever imagine. I was trying to force years of memories into one week rather than waiting seven years. I wanted it fast, rather than allowing fragmented pieces to cure. I didn't permit Steve to add the new pieces to our starting point. The day after our anniversary, I sat on the balcony and read Psalm 40.

v.5  

Many, O LORD my God,
Are the wonders you have done.
The things you planned for us
no one can recount to you;
were I to speak and tell of them,
they would be too many to declare.

I can’t forget that God’s wonders are that He has plans for us. Luckily, last weekend mine was a do-over along with some spiritual wood glue that will hold my brokenness together!