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Local Historic Landmarks |
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The Boone
House
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The 1910 Boone House is an important early example of masonry construction and a fine example of Colonial Revival Style architecture in St. Petersburg. According to a 1978 survey of 26 other single family houses built in 1910 or earlier, only the Willard and the Boone Houses are of masonry construction. The building is also significant for its association with the developer of the neighborhood, Benjamin Boone, who also played a role in the city's first construction boom. The Boone House was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986. The Boone House is located on the northwest comer of the intersection of Sixth Street and Fifth Avenue North in an area located just beyond the Revised Original Plat of St. Petersburg in 1890, which extended to Fifth Avenue North and Fifth Street. Later in 1891 the area to the northwest was laid out on paper as part of the Safford Plat, but saw little real development until Benjamin T. Boone purchased two blocks within the plat and two blocks to the west from James D. Crouse in 1910. In 1911 St. Petersburg experienced its first land boom, which rapidly gained momentum until the start of World War I brought it to a halt. The land boom originated when several early developers and speculators started actively buying and selling real estate. The city expanded its boundaries on several occasions during this time since the City Charter in 1913 created an easy method of financing for general obligation bonds for street and utility construction. The city law stated that if 70 percent of property owners in a neighborhood petitioned for street and utility improvements, they would be granted. This was accomplished in most cases since there was usually only one owner - the developer. The Boone House is a Colonial Revival Style single family house located on a corner lot. It is square in plan with a center hall. The Colonial Revival style is illustrated by symmetrically balanced windows and a center door. The roof is hipped with projecting eaves and wood soffits with decorative carved brackets which resemble beam ends. Although modest in size at 2,256 square feet, it achieves monumental scale with its formal symmetry and imposing entrance portico with four paired ionic columns. The entrance is located on the central axis of the 400 block of Sixth Street, and from this corner the house visually dominates the surrounding neighborhood. The Boone House was built in 1910. The foundation is a continuous footing of masonry four feet high; the exterior walls are all load bearing masonry that are crude early concrete block with occasional brick infill. The surface is covered with a concrete stucco in a sand finish. The south facade is the main entrance to the house facing Fifth Avenue and is divided into three bays, with the pedimented portico occupying the central bay. The pediment projects from the main roof, and its soffits are wood decorated with carved brackets to match those on the main house. A keystoned fanlight fills the center of the pediment. Behind the four cast concrete ionic columns, the portico floor has 8" square yellow and green patterned tile. A plain wooden cornice rests on the columns and continues around the exterior of the house. At the second level, a wood balcony supported by brackets hangs over the front door. The balcony railing is made of square balusters and posts. A double french door, with eight lights per door, leads from the balcony to the second floor hall. The house is named after Benjamin T. Boone, who was born in Mills Springs, North Carolina in 1865. After schooling, he worked in the mercantile business in Landrum, South Carolina. In 1906 he moved to St. Petersburg and devoted himself to real estate development. Boone served on the City Planning Board from 1910 to 1914 and was part of the group of early developers involved in the city's first real estate "Boom." He sold the house in 1920 but remained in real estate after World War I and was a director of the Ninth Street Bank until its failure in 1930. He returned to his hometown of Landrum, South Carolina in 1932 and died there in 1936. After being sold by Boone, the most significant person to reside in the house of this era was Alfred Lowther Forrest, AIA, who rented it from 1943 to 1949. Forrest was an English architect who designed many national and local register landmarks in Baltimore, Maryland before moving to St. Petersburg in 1936. His most important works in this area were the Pasadena Community Church and the St. Petersburg City Hall of 1939. Forrest maintained his office on the first floor of the house. |
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