Safety Harbor Historical Site: 136 4th Ave. N. Safety Harbor: "The 1908 Gingerbread House"

Safety Harbor Historical Site: 136 4th Ave. N. Safety Harbor: "The 1908 Gingerbread House". . Commissioned by original owner B. Rhett Green in 1908, this house is classic Victorian style sporting traditional gingerbread in the peaks of the roofline, original hardwood floors, and original walls. The home's builder was William Fletcher Belcher, who later became the first Mayor of Largo, Florida. It is one of the last homes of its kind in Pinellas County. In 1910, this home became a popular gathering place for neighborhood women to bring their laundry and scrub boards to wash their clothes in a big cast iron kettle of boiling water. This house reportedly had the best well in town since other nearby wells were highly sulfurized., Electricity, fueled by a coal burning plant located on Iron Age Avenue, was added to the house in the 1920s. Use of electricity was limited to the hours of 8:00 am to 10:00 pm. Originally a one bedroom house, a second bedroom was added in the 1920s. A closet space was converted into a bathroom when plumbing was installed in the 1930s. During the 1960s, the original clawfoot bathtub that had been added 30 years prior fell through the floor, where it remains under the house to this day. After significant reinforcement of the floor boards, a newer, yet still antique, clawfoot bathtub has since been installed in the same place., Fritz Kirsch purchased this house in 1976 and has carefully restored the home to its historic splendor.