Steamboats, champagne and quail hunting are part of the history of this Central Florida country estate.

Story by Michael Zimny
Photos by Eric Dusenbery

Looking past the picket fence guarding its entrance, the spreading verandahs of DeBary Hall seem an anomaly. How did this grand, columned house find its way to what was once the Florida wilderness near DeLand? The story of this wedding-cake-like beauty, now restored to its former grandeur, begins with the waters of the St. Johns River. In the first years after the Civil War, northern travelers began to explore the interior reaches of Florida, thanks to the steamboats that plied the St. Johns. These puffing riverboats brought visitors 200 miles up the St. Johns from Jacksonville to the resort town of Enterprise on Lake Monroe, romantically described by one visitor as "weird, wild, luxuriant nature."

This exotic image of Florida caught the fancy of Samuel Frederick deBary. Born in Germany in 1815, deBary came to New York City in the 1850s where he started an importing business for Mumm's champagne and other fine French wines. In 1870 deBary came to Enterprise where he stayed at the Brock House, a long-gone rambling hotel known for its amenities and access to area hunting and fishing.

DeBary liked what he saw and decided to carve his own winter hunting estate out of the Central Florida wilds. In 1871 he bought 400 acres and built DeBary Hall, a 20-room Italianate style hunting lodge. Ten years later he started a steamboat service on the St. Johns, the DeBary Merchant's Line, which brought more tourists to the area and helped him transport citrus that he had begun to grow on his estate.

As Frederick deBary settled into his new winter home, the house (or mansion as it came to be called) became a revolving door of sorts for its many northern visitors. Guests came by steamboat and frequently stayed for weeks or months at a time in its upstairs bedrooms during the winter season. Here, during DeBary Hall's heyday of the 1880s, they enjoyed Frederick's famous parties, where so much champagne was often served that its empty bottles became decorative borders for the driveway and gardens. For a different kind of entertainment, guests could take a dip in DeBary Hall's spring-fed swimming pool or hunt game in the estate's piney woods.

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