Instructions:
1....Print this file.
2....At its end, click on "rules" to see a copy of the trail rules, print it, and then click where indicated at the end of the 3-page rules and patch order form to get back to the list of Florida trails.
3....If you want a hand-drawn map showing the locations of all of the sites, send a self-addressed stamped envelope to Steve Rajtar, 1614 Bimini Dr., Orlando, FL 32806.
4....Hike the trail and order whatever patches you like (optional).
WARNING - This trail may pass through one or more neighborhoods which, although full of history, may now be unsafe for individuals on foot, or which may make you feel unsafe there. Hikers have been approached by individuals who have asked for handouts or who have inquired (not always in a friendly manner) why the hikers are in their neighborhood. Drugs and other inappropriate items have been found by hikers in some neighborhoods. It is suggested that you drive the hike routes first to see if you will feel comfortable walking them and, if you don't think it's a good place for you walk, you might want to consider (1) traveling with a large group, (2) doing the route on bicycles, or (3) choosing another hike route. The degree of comfort will vary with the individual and with the time and season of the hike, so you need to make the determination using your best judgment. If you hike the trail, you accept all risks involved.
The Board of Trade pushed for a tourist hotel to be built in Bartow, resulting in the formation of the Bartow Hotel Company in 1902. It built the Oaks Hotel in 1904-07, and hired J.T. Stapleton as its first manager. During the 1920s, it was remodeled into the New Oaks Hotel. It closed for good on April 1, 1971, and was torn down in 1974 to make room for this city parking lot.
The stained glass windows were made by Empire Glass in 1925, and this sanctuary was completed the following year at a cost of $85,000. It is located in the South Residential District one of three National Historic Districts designated in Bartow.
Jacob Summerlin built a 25 x 40 foot frame two-story school building here in 1867. With the help of a $300 grant from the Peabody Fund, the school on the first floor was successful. In addition to the usual academic subjects, the institute offered surveying and astronomy. The second floor was used as a masonic hall.
A new institute building was erected in 1887-88 for $20,000. In the cornerstone were placed coins, postage stamps, a photograph of Jacob Summerlin and newspapers of the day. In 1915, a new gymnasium was made possible after a donation of money by Leon Hebb. The institute was eventually merged with the high school.
When the building was demolished, the cornerstone was left to be a monument to the school. On the night before the monument was to be completed, vandals stole the articles that had been placed in it in 1888. This monument is built from original bricks of the institute.
The present school is Bartow Academy, a magnet elementary school. It was erected in 1930.
This home was built in 1905 at 320 S. Florida Ave. by Mr. and Mrs. Hair. After Mr. Hair died, Mrs. Hair moved it to the northeast corner of Parker St. and Wilson Ave. She then sold it to newspaper editor Mr. McBride. He sold it to Mrs. L.B. Epperson, a milliner, who sold it to Laura Roche. She and R.C. "Bob" Hatton moved the home to its present location. Its style is Frame Vernacular and features a high pitched roof and wraparound porch.
This home was built for Mrs. Torrey, who lived in the house with her son and daughter. Later owners include G.P. Freeman, A.T. Mann and H.L. Owen, Jr. This was built during the 1870s with a Frame Vernacular style, and the addition in the rear was constructed in about 1900. The siding is made from heart pine and the second-story porch has now been enclosed. This may be the oldest surviving home in Bartow.
In 1897, this house was built by R.W. Faulkner, who was Bartow's railroad depot agent. Later, Judge Preston lived here until his death in 1922.
This house was built in 1895 by James Hardin, an early Bartow postmaster. It was later owned by Agnes and Lois Phillips. It has a Frame Vernacular style and a two-story central brick chimney. The two-story porch is supported by four square columns.
This Frame Vernacular style home with carved woodwork along the roof line was built in 1890 for J.O.C. Blount, and later was the residence of the T.L. Marquis family. It was originally surrounded by porches, which have since been enclosed. Later owners include Gerald Conners.
Also at this intersection was the National Hotel, which was built in 1887. In it, on September 3, 1894, Gen. E.M. Law opened the South Florida Military Institute, which shortly after erected its own building. The hotel was torn down in 1905.
This church organized on February 17, 1893, and its first pastor was Rev. A. Boone from Halifax, North Carolina. The first sanctuary was built on this site in 1896 with the name or Mt. Gilbert, changed to Mt. Gilboa in 1901.
This Mediterranean Revival style sanctuary was built of stone in 1928 by Wesley Garrett. An old pastorium built in 1909 was demolished in 1970 to make room for the present one completed later that year. The adjacent education building was added in 1975.
This home was built in 1884 by Lawrence Bernard Brown and was his family's residence for many years. It is one of only two Fold Victorian style structures in Bartow, and has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 2000.
Lawrence Brown was an African-American born in the little town of Archer near Gainesville, during the late years of slavery. This home features meticulously crafted gingerbread ornamentation and is believed to be the oldest structure built and occupied by a black person in all of South Florida.
His father, Peter Brown, was a plantation manager and his mother was named Catherine. Lawrence lived in several places and got married, and then at the railroad's urging, they moved to Bartow and bought a two-acre site here. A self-taught carpenter, he began building this masterpiece using the design and construction patterns which were familiar to him. The home is built upon pine logs which sit on poured concrete footers.
Lawrence was quite an entrepreneur who profited from Bartow's early growth. He divided his property and called it "Brown's Addition", which by 1917 had nine dwellings on it. By 1940, he held nearly 25 parcels of land in Bartow and several others in Lake Wales.
After his first wife died, Lawrence married Annabelle Burnette, who already had one child. Together, they had 10 more. Annabelle was a charming woman, loving mother and loyal friend. Lawrence was a soft-spoken, eloquent man who was credited with several occupations, including Bible salesman, book agent, cabinet maker, furniture repairman, mirror silverer and umbrella maker. Of course, he also built beautiful homes. A devout Christian, he was generous with his wealth and contributed about 20% of his rental income to the Mt. Gilboa Missionary Baptist Church. He was a leader by example and served his church as clerk, and encouraged the congregation with his generosity. He died on January 16, 1941.
Streaty Parker, one of the first settlers in this area, had his homestead here. He and his wife, Mary, arrived in Polk County in 1851 with her father, Readding Blount. By 1870, Streaty had become one of the state's prominent cowmen, and managed a herd of 5,000 cattle which extended into Brevard County. Later, this was the right-of-way for the railroad, which ran north and south between present Second and First Aves.
A Frame Vernacular style home with gingerbread accents was built in 1890 and was the home of T.E. Williams. It was replaced by a modern office building in about 2004.
The large peach-colored house with the steep gable roof was built in 1889, and is one of the two structures in Bartow identified as Gothic Revival style.
This congregation was organized in the courthouse in 1881. The stained glass windows in the present sanctuary date to 1925, when this Mediterranean Revival style church replaced the previous one, which had been built in 1886.
In 1895, E.R. Wharton designed and built this Shingle style home, named "The Gables", for Benjamin Franklin Holland. Notice the unusual curved faces to the sides of the large dormer on the second floor. This was the boyhood home of Governor of Florida and U.S. senator Spessard L. Holland. It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1975 and is part of the South Residential District, which we haven't left yet.
This home was built in 1908 by local builder M.M. Wilden for a local attorney. It has a Colonial style and opened as The Stanford Inn in 1995. It is known as the "My Girl" house, as it was used in the filming of a movie by that name starring Jamie Lee Curtis, Dan Aykroyd and McCauley Culkin.
This church was founded by Rev. W.G.F. Wallace and six members in February of 1882 and held its early meetings in the Hughes Opera House. They built their first sanctuary in 1886-87, with a design by architect M.M. Dunlope. The land had been purchased for $3,000 from William H. and Sarah A. Johnson. Rev. M. Waldo served as the first pastor, and was succeeded six months later by Rev. Samuel Hair.
That church building was replaced in 1932 with this Tudor Revival style building, one of only five identified in Bartow. Initially, the front faced east and it lacked a steeple such as the one on the 1886 church. The exterior was bricked and Sunday school rooms were added in the back. The entrance was moved to the opposite end of the building in 1962. There are now stained glass windows where the previous doors were. This is one of the largest buildings in this area constructed during the Depression. A new sanctuary was added on the west side in 2000.
Originally, this was the site of the residence of Mr. and Mrs. Hair, later moved to Wabash St. This is a Neoclassical style building, one of ten of that style in Bartow. It was erected in about 1925.
This church was built in 1894, one of two in Bartow with a Gothic Revival style. It started out as the Holy Spirit Episcopal Church, then was sold to the Redeemer Lutheran Church. It was built in the shape of a cross by V.M. Hallman.
The public library was founded in 1897 at a meeting of the residents of Bartow. The first library building was the second floor of an office building in the first brick block in town, on the south side of the 100 block of E. Main St.
The library building was built by Logan & Townsend of Lakeland, and opened on March 16, 1915. It was demolished in 2000.
This cemetery founded in 1848 contains several Confederate graves and markers. As of May, 2003, it has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It is the first stand-alone cemetery to be listed for Florida, quite an honor for Bartow.
Jacob Summerlin and Confederate Maj. Gen. E.M. Law are buried here. The two-acre site was owned by William H. Pearce, who later sold it to a cemetery committee in 1894, and it was purchased by the city in 1962. Many names on the headstones mirror those on street signs across Bartow - Blount, Summerlin, Hooker and Stuart are a few.
Of the 505 documented gravemarkers, 412 date before 1953. Oaks are the most prominent tree variety, hence the name of Oak Hill. Linear alignments of mature cedar and oak trees is evidence of intentional planting of landscaping during the historic period.
Initially, the grave sites sold for $2.00 each, then the price was doubled in 1894. There are 27 blocks, each varying in number, for a total of 1,095 burying spaces. The earliest known grave is that of William Owen Parker, son of Streaty and Mary Parker. Twelve markers are from the 1860s, 137 from the 19th Century, with the most active period being the 1880s, with 56.
The Southern Cross of Honor is etched into the 1920 marker for Maj. Gen. Evander McIver Law. Based on the design for the Southern Cross of Honor, 42 cast iron markers are here to designate the graves of Confederate veterans.
One of the most heavily attended ceremonies in the cemetery happened in 1903 with the interment of Polk County's tax collector, Louis J. Marquis. He also helped build the Florida Southern Railway south of Bartow, served as postmaster under an appointment from Pres. Cleveland, and served for two terms as the tax collector. A train with 14 coaches arrived in Bartow for the funeral, and nearly 600 attended the event. It included the unveiling of the Marquis marker provided by the Woodmen of the World, a life insurance fraternal organization. It was made by the Bartow Monumental Works of Vermont marble in the shape of a tree trunk.
Another significant ceremony was the November 1920 burial of Maj. Gen. Evander McIver Law. He had been a resident of Bartow since 1893 and helped to organize the South Florida Military Institute. He also edited the Bartow Courier-Informant newspaper from 1903 to 1915. He was the ranking Confederate general in Florida and served as the commander of the Florida Division of the United Confederate Veterans. In his New York Times obituary, it was claimed that he was the ranking surviving officer of the entire Army of the Confederacy. Polk County businesses closed to observe the day of his funeral.
This Neoclassical style building erected in 1900 was the residence of E.W. Codington, and was called the Crystal Place because next door on the south was the old Crystal Ice Works. The home was later bought and remodeled by John D. Clark. It features a two-story porch and four large square pillars.
Sitting back fro the corner is a Frame Vernacular style building erected in 1895, which served as the home of the president of the South Florida Military Institute. It was later occupied by C.A. Boswell, Jr.
When the South Florida Military Institute was sold, the home was divided to form two houses. This was the left side of the building, later occupied by the M.D. Wilson family. The right side became the home of the Tharp family, and later burned down.
This school was founded in 1894 by Gen. Evander McIver Law. The following year, a two-story wooden classroom building was erected with a two-story bay on the north side. Law was a former Confederate major who patterned his institute on the curriculum and discipline of the Virginia Military Academy, the U.S. Military Academy, and The Citadel.
The state purchased the school and renamed it in 1901 as the South Florida Miliatry and Educational Institute. The enrollment never reached what Law had expected, and he resigned at the beginning of 1903. The institute closed in June of 1905 and the state legislature merged it into the University of Florida and sold its property the following year. On July 24, 1972, the building was placed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Much of the site is now occupied by Bartow High School.
This was a planned community, approved at an election held on October 17, 1861, to be the county seat. Because of the Civil War, the plans never came to fruition.
The first school serving this area was a crude one-room log building erected near here in 1858. Dr. Daniel Waldron served as its first schoolmaster. Tuition cost $4 per quarter, with board and washing an extra $6 per month.
This house with fish scale roof shingles was built in about 1890 by Mr. and Mrs. Henry Cunningham. It was later sold to Mr. and Mrs. Bartow Smith. It is the only home in Bartow identified as of the Queen Anne style, and features a square tower.
This house was built for Mr. and Mrs. R.C. Hatton in about 1920. K.V. Davis was the builder. Later owners include R.O. Gray. Its style is Frame Vernacular.
This home was built in about 1937 for Laura Roche, the widow of Will Swearingen. Later, it was the home of Mr. and Mrs. R.C. Hatton.
This Colonial Revival style house was built in 1901 for the Conant family. It was renovated in 1957 and subsequent owners include the W.H. Stuart family.
Built in about 1920, this two-story Bungalow with a hipped roof was the residence of Spessard L. Holland after his retirement. He had served as the Governor and U.S. Senator. When people came here from out of town to visit him, they often stopped at the Conant Residence first, across the street from Holland's retirement home, as Conant's was much grander. The porches have arched openings popular in bungalows of the 1920s and 1930s.
Sol H. Page built this home in 1913. It was later owned by Mrs. E.M. Beach. It along with the L.B. Brown house are the only two Bartow residences which are identified as Folk Victorian in style.
A large structure (looking similar to the one across the street at 695 S. Broadway Ave.) was built by Harry Wear in 1911 as a residence. It was later converted to the medical clinic of Drs. Clyde E. and Tom A. Gibson.
This Frame Vernacular style home was built in 1908 by Allie F. Wilson. Later owners included the Gary family and then Reginald Garrett. What was an open front porch was subsequently enclosed, but you can still see the decorative shingle work at the roof peak.
A building at this site started out as the David Hughes Store, built in 1886 on the southeast corner of Main St. and Broadway Ave. It stood on stilts high enough to allow buggies and hacks to drive under the building, and the store was located on the second floor.
Gideon Zipprer, the stepson of Jacob Summerlin, converted the store into a residence. After it was moved to this location, one of its owners was Mrs. D.W. Hall.
T. Pasco Carpenter built this home in 1908. After he died, it was sold to Sam M. Clark, who once owned Kissingen Springs. Its style is Colonial.
This was the site of the three-story home of C.E. Earnest, a prominent early merchant. It was later owned by Harry Lindenfelser, and was razed to provide room for the church parking lot and educational building.
D.W. Stanley built this two-story Frame Vernacular style home with a tin fish scale roof in about 1895. He was a native of Virginia, and served as the Chairman of the Public Board of Instruction for Polk County, Bartow City Clerk and Secretary of the Summerlin Institute. After Stanley died in 1902, it was sold to Dan Wear. The second story was added in 1908.
The first area Methodist services were held in a tent near Peas Creek, and then in a simple log building erected by Riley Blount in southwest Bartow. It was used for all community purposes, including church and school. It was replaced by a frame structure which included the Masonic Hall.
The first church built for this congregation, one of the first two churches in Bartow, was dedicated on March 11, 1893, at the northeast corner of Church St. and Floral Ave. Lonnie Take was the builder, and its cost was $16,000.
L.Z. Tate erected a new sanctuary in 1906-11 with a Richardsonian Romanesque style. That style has been called the first truly American architectural design. Tate Hall was erected as a parsonage in 1920. The educational buildings were erected in 1948 and the parsonage was completed in 1954.
The sanctuary features an aeolian organ donated by Edward Bok in 1941, which previously had been in his home in Mountain Lake. The stained glass windows were made by Empire Glass in 1905.
A home was built at this corner in the late 19th century by Ziba King, and then became the Case Music Store. After his resignation from the South Florida Military Institute, Gen. E.M. Law and his family bought the home and moved it further back from the street.
Law had been born in 1836 in Darlington, South Carolina. He went to school there and completed his education at the South Carolina Military Academy, now known as The Citadel. In 1860, he founded a military high school in Tuskegee, Alabama, and then served with the Confederate army.
Capt. Law and his Alabama Zouaves helped seize the navy yard and forts at Pensacola on January 12, 1861, three full months before the attack on Fort Sumter marked the official beginning of the Civil War. Law was wounded twice during the war. When Gen. John Bell Hood was severely wounded on the second day at Gettysburg, Law took command of the division and led the assault on Little Round Top, which failed, but which could have changed the outcome of the war. By the end of the war, he had attained the rank of Major General.
After working in railroad surveying and farming for a time following the war, he returned to teaching in Alabama and South Carolina. In 1893, he moved his family to Bartow. Here, he founded the South Florida Military Institute and served as its first superintendendent until 1903, when he left to be the editor of the local newspaper, the Bartow Courier-Informant, a position which he held for ten years. He remained as a trustee of the Summerlin Institute until 1912, and was an organizer of the Bartow Public Library.
Law then served as the editor of the Courier Informant newspaper from 1906 until 1916.
Law died in 1920 at the age of 84 and this house was bought in 1924 by the Woman's Club, which used it for about 40 years as its clubhouse. The building was later bought by the First Methodist Church. The site was later occupied by Florida Federal Savings & Loan Association and, later, Wachovia Bank.
This is one of two Bartow buildings indentified as Italian Renaissance, showing heavily ornamented pedimented windows and ornate details along the roof line. It was built of red brick in about 1889, and marks a transition between two Bartow historic districts. Leaving the South Residential District, we now enter the Commercial District.
During the 1890s, Dr. G.H. Perine had his dentist office on the second floor. Downstairs was an ice cream shop. Later, Dr. Sutton had an office here, with two entrances, one for whites and one for blacks. This was built in 1887 and is Masonry Vernacular in style.
A brick busniess block was erected on this corner in 1887.
Jacob Summerlin sold the old fort buildings in 1865 to William T. Carpenter, who opened a general store. His store served as the community's unofficial post office from 1866 until 1869.
After the courthouse was completed in 1867, Carpenter built a new store to the west. To prepare the wood, Summerlin bought a steam sawmill in St. Augustine, shipped it to Tampa, and had it hauled by oxen to Bartow where it was set up at Carpenter's Pond.
The store here was later acquired by G.W. Smith. It and the entire business block was destroyed by fire in 1905.
In 1882, Dr. A.B. Brookins erected a building here, used in the 1890s as a land office. It also served for a time as a drug store.
A home was built here for Gideon Zipprer, the stepson of Jacob Summerlin. In about 1880, it was converted to the Blount House hotel, and was later called the Orange Grove Hotel. A later name for it was the Tillis House.
Shortly after the Seminole War, Riley R. Blount and his family moved here. They spent $40 for the squatter's hut that Capt. James Green erected here, and the surrounding 160 acres became the Riley Blount homestead. By August of 1858, he had opened a store and a carriage manufacturing shop. Jacob Summerlin bought the 160-acre homestead in 1862.
A fort was established here in 1853 because it was considered less vulnerable than the other early homesteads. The fort was a block house, with a first floor about 35 feet square, and the second projecting out about four feet on all sides. The early settlers used it as a place of refuge during the Seminole Wars.
During the Civil War, the fort was used by the Florida Volunteers militia unit.
The Central Hotel and Restaurant was built here in 1884. It was later renamed the Buchheit House, then the Mabbette House, the Towles House, Commercial House, and the Commercial Hotel. It was torn down in 1972.
Jacob Summerlin donated 120 acres of land in 1867 to the county. It was divided into 40 acres for county use, 20 acres for a Methodist church, 20 acres for a Baptist church, and 40 acres for a school. The first courthouse was erected in 1867 by John McAuley at a cost of $3,800. The second was built in 1883-84 for $9,000. It was demolished in 1912.
In 1908-09, this third courthouse was built by Mutual Construction Co. of Louisville, Kentucky, at a cost of $83,890. The Neoclassical style building designed by E.C. Hosford of Eastland, Georgia, has Corinthian columns at the north and south entrances. Identical east and west wings were added in 1926 based on plans by Francis Kennard & Son of Tampa. It was transformed into a museum and library in 1989, two years after the present courthouse opened. In 1889, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places.
Capt. J.C. Wright built a boarding house here during the 1880s. In its time, it was one of the city's most fashionable and ornate lodgings.
The first church building was built in 1875 and dedicated on April 1, 1883, one of the first two churches in Bartow. It was replaced by another wooden building in 1900, which was moved in 1924 to make room for the present one, built in 1925. Its style is Neoclassical, and it was designed by J.E. Green of Birmingham, Alabama. S.J. Hargrove Construction Company built it for $60,000.
This large home was begun by Will Swearingen, but he died before it was completed in 1912 by William F. Hill, the building supervisor for Mountain Lake for 19 years. His widow, Laura Swearingen, occupied it until it was sold to S.P. James. Later owners include R.K. Smith. It is Neoclassical in style, and part of the Church Street Historic District. It was the first Bartow home to have central heating. The larger columns in the front of the house are built with brick and covered with cement.
John J. Swearingen, an attorney and state senator, owned this two-story brick Neocolonial style house. It was built in 1923 using plans developed by B. Clayton Bonfoey, which included an Ionic portico and a gallery across the first floor entrance facade. Later owners include Katherine Swearingen Langford and her husband, Richard. In 1982, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places.
Located here was the home of Dr. J.A. Garrard, a popular physician who opened his medical practice in Bartow in 1900.
This was built in 1909 with a Masonry Vernacular style. It served as the first auto garage in Bartow with a capacity of 30 cars.
Built in 1907 and restored in 2002, this Masonry Vernacular building was planned on the original Bartow survey, which was platted in 1866.
Capt. David Hughes owned an opera house on this site. It was torn down in the early 1900s and replaced by this two-story brick building. At that time, the second floor of the Florida National Bank building was converted to be the new opera house.
The Tremont Hotel was located here at the close of the nineteenth century.
In 1900, this was the location or Our Drug Store.
Sam M. Wilson and Henry B. Blount opened a drug store here in June of 1894. It was still in operation in the 1930s.
This brick block completed with a Masonry Vernacular style in 1906 was built of bricks made in Mr. Stuart's brick plant. An early tenant was Dr. J.A. Garrard, who had his medical office upstairs here.
A small concrete building was erected here in the 1930s for use as a police station, replacing the "station" which was merely a telephone bolted to an oak tree at this corner. Not long after World War II, the police headquarters was moved into the fire station and the building here was moved to another location.
The Polk County Bank organized in 1886 with Frank W. Page of Rochester, New York, as its president. It opened in the building on this corner which had formerly been the Lang Brothers' store. It became a national bank two years later when it was reorganized into the First National Bank of Bartow. It was later replaced with a modern building.
This two-story Masonry Vernacular style building was one of the first to be constructed with brick in the Bartow area. It was completed in 1890.
Its original business, Lovett's Grocery, occupied the building for 20 years. From 1913 until 1929, Lizzie Epperson's Millinery manufactured and sold hats here. In 1940, the first floor was divided in half.
In 1994, the Cool Shoppe was established, the only downtown ice cream parlor. In 2001, Chinoiserie Antiques became a renter. The owners of the Cool Shoppe, the Hanses, live upstairs and are the only residents in all of the historic downtown buildings.
(Continue south on Central Ave. to the intersection with Summerlin St.)(8.2)
This three-story Masonry Vernacular style building was completed in June of 1914 by E.C. Stuart. It was operated as the Stuart Hotel by N.E. Stewart.
Bartow's seventh newspaper, The Cracker, began publication in 1902. It was purchased by the Bartow Publishing Company in March of 1904, which renamed it the Bartow Record. It was merged with the Courier-Informant in 1919 to form the Polk County Record. Its editor, J.G. Gallemore, had this two-story Masonry Vernacular style building erected here in 1922.
In the 1946, the Polk County Democrat, which had been started by S. Lloyd Frisbie in 1931, consolidated with the Record and moved into this building. It moved out in 1964 to a remodeled building at 190 S. Florida Ave.
At this location was a livery stable owned and operated by W.H. Lewis, U.A. Lightsey, and A.J. Lewis. They sold it in 1907 to T.G. Lockwood. In Joe B. Johnson's Garage, the South Florida Marble Works, and the office of the Record newspaper were located here.
In 1867, this community was named after Gen. Francis S. Bartow, the first Confederate officer to be killed during the war, in the first Battle of Manassas.
The first city hall was located on the second floor of the firehouse, which was completed in July of 1887.
This site was purchased in September of 1914, and Mark & Sheftall of Jacksonville was hired to design the new building. It was constructed by Howard & Wread of Sarasota for $17,500, and was completed the following year.
This Colonial Revival style home was built in 1922 by K.V. Davis, who also built many of the other grand Bartow homes. Long-time Bartonians enjoy telling the story of the city's effort years ago to chop down the oak tree which grows in the edge of the street on the Stanford St. side. Mrs. McLeod is reported to have sat beneath the tree with a shotgun in her lap, promising to use it on the first person to touch an ax to the tree. No one was willing to test her resolve - and the tree remains to this day.
A Guide to National Register Sites in Florida, (Florida Department of State 1984)
African Americans in Florida, by Maxine D. Jones and Kevin M. McCarthy (Pineapple Press, Inc. 1993)
Bartow, by Earl M. Hatton, Jr. (1964)
Century in the Sun: A History of Polk County, Florida, by Ed NcNeely and Al R. McFadyen (Polk County Centennial Committee 1961)
Dunnellon, Boomtown of the 1890s: The Story of Rainbow Springs and Dunellon, by J. Lester Dinkins (Great Outdoors Publishing Company 1969)
First Presbyterian Church, Bartow, Florida, by Freddie T. Wright (Bartow Printing Co. 1982)
Florida Historic Stained Glass Survey: Sites of Historic Windows in Public Facilities in the State of Florida, by Robert O. Jones (Florida Members of the Stained Glass Association of America 1995)
Florida Historical Markers & Sites, by Floyd E. Boone (Gulf Publishing Company 1988)
Florida's Fabled Inns, by Louise K. Frisbie (Imperial Publishing Company 1980)
Florida's History Through Its Places: Properties in the National Register of Historic Places, by Morton D. Winsberg (Florida State University 1988)
Florida's Peace River Pioneers, by Canter Brown, Jr. (University of Central Florida Press 1988)
Guide to Florida's Historic Architecture, (University of Florida Press 1989)
Historic Bartow, A Self-Guided Tour of the Grandeur of Yesteryear (Downtown Bartow, Inc.)
Historic Properties of the City of Bartow, Florida, by Sidney Johnson (Historic Property Associates, Inc. 1990)
History of Polk County, Florida, by M.F. Hetherington (The Mickler House 1971)
History of the First South Florida Missionary Baptist Association (1888-1988), by Altermese Smith Bentley (The Mickler House 1988)
The History of the Polk County Court System 1861-1995, by William J. Ruster (Associated Publications Corp. 1995)
Peace River Pioneers, by Louise K. Frisbie (E.A. Seeman Publishing, Inc. 1974)
The Pioneer Churches of Florida, by Daughters of the American Revolution (The Mickler House 1976)
Wish You Were Here: A Grand Tour of Early Florida Via Old Post Cards, by Hampton Dunn (Byron Kennedy and Company 1981)
Yesterday's Polk County, by Louise K. Frisbie (E.A. Seeman Publishing, Inc. 1976)
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