Mount Dora Historic Inn (1910)
Part 1: The House Ivan Built
A recent social media request by the keeper of a
charming Inn at 221 E. 4th Avenue in Mount Dora asked if anyone knew
of the history of their Inn? While I did not know of its story then, I do
love just such a history challenge, and aware of how fascinating the story of
Mount Dora is, I decided to see what all I could learn about an historic Inn in
Block 1 of downtown Mount Dora.
The most historic building among several at the Inn was
built in 1910 according to Lake County records. The date built appears
accurate, for a home appears at this location on the 1920 Sanborn Insurance
survey of Mount Dora, and the year built is supported too by several curious deeds
that year for a parcel known today as 221 East Fourth Avenue, Mount Dora,
Florida.
1920 Sanborn Insurance Survey of
Mount Dora
Right and above the "4th" in 4th AV. above is
'The House Ivan Built in 1910'
A young Mount Dora carpenter had become a proud father
of a baby girl on November 27, 1909, so, it was perhaps the birth of Clara V.
Franklin that prodded the father to build a family home. The father, Ivan A.
Franklin, married Grace Leach September 2, 1908, five months after Mount Dora learned
of the death of their town founder, Annie (McDonald) Stone-Donnelly.
Annie’s death complicated Ivan’s dream of building a
family home. Three years before Annie’s death, she and husband John Donnelly
had buried Annie’s only daughter, Nellie (Stone) Griffith. Soon after, Nellie’s
husband left town, so when John P. Donnelly became a widower in 1908, he also
became the guardian of Annie’s three grandchildren, youngsters who in turn
became half-owners of all unsold property in their grandmother’s town of Mount
Dora.
On March 1, 1909, John P. Donnelly, guardian of minor
children Lila K. and Charles D. Griffith, was granted permission by the Probate Court to sell Mount
Dora town lots. And on July 5, 1910, he deeded “all of two thirds of one-half undivided
interest” in a parcel described as located in Block One (1), the legal
description of which matches the parcel where the residence at 221 E. 4th
Avenue now stands. Annie J. Griffith, the oldest of Annie Donnelly's grandchildren, at that time residing in Gainesville,
signed “all of her one-third of one-half undivided interest” on June 29, 1910.
John P. Donnelly, on 5 July 1910, then conveyed to Ivan Franklin a deed for his
one-half interest, giving full ownership of the "East half of the Southwest
Quarter of Mount Dora’s Block One" to Ivan & Grace Franklin.
During the summer of 1910, house carpenter Ivan A. Franklin (1881-1949) proceeded to build his family home at 221 East Fourth Avenue in Mount Dora. Grace (Leach) Franklin (1886-1963) died at Orange County. Clara V. Franklin Doster, the first child to occupy the Franklin residence, relocated to Winter Park in 1970, where she died 20 November 1985 at the age of 75.
The New England Connection:
The Franklin’s sold their 4th Avenue home
May 16, 1913. The buyers, snowbirds turned full-time Mount Dora residents, were
Charles A. & Ella J. (Brierly) Geer. The Geer’s however already owned a residence
at the northeast corner of 4th and Hawley Street, and so the house
that Ivan built at 221 E. 4th Avenue became a rental cottage,
occupied during the winter of 1916 by an Ohio family – the very winter Charles A.
Geer laid dying in his home just a few doors east.
As explained in my Mount Dora book;
Hawley Street became Tremain Street
Woodland Avenue became 3rd Avenue
Mount Dora: The Lure. The Founding. The Founders.
A history of Mount Dora by Richard Lee Cronin
The second Geer residence also appears on the 1920 Sanborn Insurance map above. Locate again the house Ivan built, above and to the right of the "4th", now look to the right, across Hawley Street (now Tremain), and you will see the Geer main residence they purchased from the Tremain's. This historic home still stands as well.
A New England connection with the 4th
Avenue house Ivan built however was not about to end, nor was the intriguing
story of the structure that was to become the appropriately named, Mount Dora
Historic Inn.
This
history will resume Wednesday, May 18th with Part 2: Mattie’s Place.
Have you ever wondered about the history of your Lake County home? Perhaps I can help! I will be the Tavares History Museum, in the restored train station at Ruby Street and St. Clair-Abrams Avenue, from 10 AM to 2 PM on Thursday, May 26, 2022, as they celebrate the museum’s first Anniversary. Plan to tour the museum, look over my Tavares and Mount Dora history books (perhaps even buy one or two), and be sure to ask me about how to research your home’s history.
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