The commercial of the day—don’t let my store waste away, some of the things there might make your day and show the way good day.
A couple weeks ago I did a piece on off the beaten track in Florida and got some good reviews so here we go again.
DeBARY HALL is only a few miles off I-4 (exit 108 turn right and at Dirksen Dr right again along a road of marshy land and cabbage palms for 1/2 mile to Mansion Blvd.—follow the signs to the Mansion which is now open to the public. )
Fredrick DeBary (Baron) was a very international man, his parents were from Belgium, but he was German and he made his fortune when at 25 he became a representative for Mumm’s (French) champagne in North America. He lived in NYC but on an 1870 visit to Florida he liked what he saw and in 1871 built a house at this location rather than stay at hotels . DeBary went on to develop a river boat company that serviced the St. Johns River from Jackonville down to Lake Monroe. (See SAGA OF BARON FREDERICK DE BARY AND DEBARY HALL, FLORIDA by Brooks for a full story on this interesting man)
The house (originally a large, fancy hunting lodge was remodeled over the years by family members–who kept the great hall into the mid-20th century– and is now more steamboat architecture ) featured indoor plumbing, a wooden swimming pool and a collection of rare birds. Both Presidents Grant and Cleveland as well as writer Harriet Beecher Stowe, to name a few, were guest here.
It now belongs to the state and was once used as a home for the elderly, but it has been refurbished and restored to become a museum. What you see is what it was when DeBary entertained the rich and famous. I’ve been there more than once and it’s a great trip back to Florida’s past when millionaires not alligators roamed the bayous http://debaryhall.com/
What did you bring back from vacation? Ordinary chips from defunct casinos can bring in as much as $1,000 a piece (Antique Road Show).
This particular chip isn’t so valuable. In 2008: ” the chips were found … as a driveway was being taken out at the … Green Duck factory, which once supplied gaming tokens for cruise ships and casinos in Nevada and Atlantic City. Tens of thousands of chips from a long-closed Playboy casino came bubbling up, dropping prices for collectors of the formerly rare chips … ” (OUCH) http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/local-news/hernandos-chips-have-truly-come-in
“Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better. Samuel Beckett