DeBary Hall

DeBary Hall. Victorian Style on the Frontier. Welcome to DeBary Hall Historic Site - once the winter retreat of a wealthy New York wine merchant. European-born Frederick deBary (who used a small d while others capitalized) built this house in the 1870s, acquired thousands of acres, and tried his hand at orange growing and steamboating. But above all, his estate was known for sport hunting and hospitality. “Entertainment,” said one relative, “was a very simple matter at DeBary Hall. Most of the guests were asked because they enjoyed the out of doors with swimming, hunting and fishing., Interesting as it is, DeBary Hall also offers glimpses of larger things, America’s romance with special Florida places, a nineteenth-century tourism and settlement boom, orange fever and steamboating in the St. Johns valley. Without the river and its chain of lakes, Frederick DeBary would not have been here in the first place., The house you see today was saved and restored through the efforts of many individuals, the nonprofit DeBary Hall Inc.; and public bodies including the Florida Division of Historical Resources, the Florida Park Service, the County of Volusia, and the City of DeBary. Owned by the State of Florida, this site is managed by Volusia County., Inside, you will find an introductory exhibit and several rooms with period furnishings. Thanks to grants from the Florida Humanities Council and the state’s Bureau of Historical Museums, we will continue adding interpretive helps throughout the house and grounds. We welcome your questions now, and hope to see you visiting again. There’s much more to this story., (caption) , (Above) – A nineteenth-century drawing of DeBary Hall, colorized to show what may have been the early paint scheme. Mustard, brownish red, and gray-green were among the first colors, but when people’s tastes changed, the house became white for most of its life. , Illustration (based on an earlier stereoview) from Florida (1885), published by Adolph Witterman at New York. Courtesy State Achieves. Conjectural color view by Alan Hester.