![]() Some say it was filled in during the 1920s. Marabanong lost its waterfront access when the property was subdivided and its wine cellar and stairway became under separate ownership.īut the mystery of the subterranean tunnel that reportedly connected the wine cellar to the original Perley house kitchen remains. Hurricanes, for example, have dealt a death blow to some of its tree canopy. ![]() The years, of course, have brought changes, though Empire Point has earned a reputation for stability. With Durkee only selling 10 lots a year, the subdivision slowly emerged, with only one way in and one way out. ![]() Also, I wanted buyers to build immediately so I offered a 10 percent discount if they started houses within 60 days.” “I wanted permanent residents, not people who were constantly changing. “I was very particular about who bought the property,” he told the Times-Union in 1980. In 1952 Joseph Durkee amassed 90 acres and platted 100 lots for a subdivision. The majority of Empire Point's more than 150 homes were built from the early 1950s to 1990. "It's really a piece of history, and it's incredible to live there," she said, adding that it fills her with a sense of awe when she pulls into the driveway. Joseph and Diantha Ripley are Marabanong's current owners. “I have very fond memories of Marabanong.” “It was wonderful growing up there,” Trout said. Several generations of contractor Tom Trout III’s family lived at Marabanong before selling the estate in 1983. Its residents have included a French doctor, a woman who invented a star-gazing telescope and her cousin, Grace Wilbur Trout, a novelist and influential suffragette, Wood wrote. The house was the Jacksonville Symphony Guild Designer Show House in 1980 and has been the scene of garden club tours and River City Band parties. It is lined on both sides by concrete benches and Venetian lanterns. Then there’s the distinctive swimming pool built in 1922 and fronting River Point. Supposedly the name is the Maori word for "paradise," though that’s yet to be proven. In the early 1910s several films were shot there, including a movie starring Ethel Barrymore. During the late 1800s and early 1900s, it served as a retreat for medical patients. At one point it featured a zoo with exotic animals such as crocodiles. One Times-Union writer described the house as looking like “a great Victorian steamboat come aground.”Īrchitecture aside, Marabanong has played host to an interesting cast of residents and guests. With more than 6,000 square feet, the house contains 21 or so rooms, five bathrooms and 121 windows. It also features a prominent two-story wraparound veranda, an octagonal tower with an unusual conical roof, a square cupola, a third-story balcony and detailed spindlework along the balustrades, according to its National Register nomination form. The three-story wood frame house has five levels, including the basement and attic. It is one of the most striking examples of Queen Anne architecture, Wood said. It is on the National Register for good reason. After it burned to the ground, Perley sold his estate to Thomas Basnett, an English banker and astronomer.īasnett built Marabanong around 1876 at what is now 4749 River Point Road. It featured a rare antebellum brick wine cellar built into the river bluff around 1858. Marabanong is on the grounds of a house built by physician Thomas Perley. Near the Durkee house is Empire Point’s showplace, Marabanong, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is often cited as one of the most historically significant houses in Jacksonville. ![]() His son, physician Jay Durkee, bought the Diven’s Empire Point house in 1905. It was Durkee who relayed the news of President Abraham Lincoln’s death to the War Department. Joseph Durkee, who played an interesting sidenote in U.S. By 1885 a ferryboat ran every half hour for only five cents, he wrote. And it was just a short boat ride away from rapidly growing downtown but free of the accompanying congestion. James Hotel or downtown, they chose to move to the southbank,” he said.Īfter all, there was plenty of room for an orange grove or tree farm. Nicholas to Clifton became an enclave for wealthy Northerners, Wood said. After the Civil War the southbank from St.
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