There are those who contend Florida was the first cowboy state. After all, its cattle-driving business was well underway by the 1830s. Some historians also say barbecue was first given to Europeans by the Timucua tribes that lived in the state for eons. What else would a cowboy eat?
But the Stetson? The classic American cowboy hat? — Did the world-famous headgear once worn in Wild West Shows by Buffalo Bill and Annie Oakley also have ties to Florida?
Come to DeLand, Florida, and behold the facts for yourself.
Not far from Stetson University, a grand old house rises into an envious sky. It still is clad in the ornate and extravagant patterns born in the Gilded Age of the 1880s.
The house was the winter hideaway where hat-maker John B. Stetson brought his young family to escape Philadelphia’s harsh freezes. In snow-free Florida, he continued directing the Pennsylvania-based business empire he forged from a hat design still instantly recognizable around the globe.
When finishing the house in 1886, Stetson even put a private school in the backyard — one that looks like an oversized Polynesian dollhouse. It was where his children took their lessons when they wintered with their father.
It is a real miracle that all of this pomp and panache still survives. To be sure, it is not a well-known place anymore. — Neglected in the worst way until quite recently. — In fact, Florida nearly lost this unique cowboy palace. It was only saved from ruin because two men sank a small fortune into this historic landmark’s salvation. The State should be grateful.
Current owners J.T. Thompson and Michael Solari renovated a structure that was in shambles when they bought it in 2005. They now pay for its pricey upkeep by arranging seasonal tours for Christmas from mid-November to mid-January. During this time, every room in the house is decked in Yuletide decorations as elaborate as the Victorian architecture that surrounds them.
At other times of the year, the house serves as a lavish venue for weddings or other gatherings. And guides also take visitors on tours that highlight the history of a house built when John Stetson’s social circle included Rockefellers and Vanderbilts. The architectural details alone are worth the ticket price.
There are sumptuous carved wood fixtures, fireplace mantles, columns, and sills throughout the house. Carefully restored parquet floors change patterns from room to room and are first-caliber artwork in their own right. Some have a trick-the-eye effect. — They seem to morph into different patterns merely from a change in lighting or because the visitor has stepped just a few feet farther into the room.
Outside, the design is eclectic High Victorian. There are prominent arches pointed in a Moorish fashion that direct the eye to Tudor details. The overall design suggests the Carpenter Gothic style often seen in wood-framed churches built in the Nineteenth Century.
The Stetson Mansion opens a rare window into an Old Florida that has all but vanished in the condo canyons that loom just to the east and the south. If you want to see what Florida looked like before modern tourism existed, this house is on the short list of must-see places.
Frankly, I am surprised that the State of Florida has not bought this incredible historic property to preserve it from the forces that nearly brought it down until Thompson and Solari arrived in 2005. Let’s hope Florida never again comes close to losing this historic treasure from the Golden Age of the Cowboys
Robert Craig Waters 