The restored Gregory House sits on high bluff with a magnificent view of the Apalachicola River. In spite of being such an old cave bear at heart, sometimes I really do enjoy getting out and seeing the sights – or sites. Recently my best friend Gail and I had the opportunity to visit one of the rare gems in the award winning Florida State Parks system. This time the site was the Torreya State Park located on the high bluffs above the Apalachicola River north of Bristol, Fla., in the Panhandle.
Gail wanted to go to the Park because of the Torreya tree, a rare exotic tree that only grows in China, Japan, another foreign country called California and this part of Florida – and in Gail’s garden. I went to see the antebellum furnished house located at the top of the park.
The house was constructed in 1849 at Ocheesee Landing across the river by a plantation owner named Jason Gregory. After the Civil War the plantation folded but the family lived there for some time after. It gradually fell into a state of disrepair and was abandoned in 1935 when it was donated to the Civilian Conservation Corps. The CCC disassembled the house, supposedly numbering every piece, and transported to its current site where it was reassembled by a different crew. The restoration is immaculate and reasonably true to the period. Today the restored house is open for tours guided by a park ranger.
The park brochure says, “The house is currently furnished with articles from the mid-1850s when the house was occupied by Jason Gregory and his family.” Well, not exactly. The young park ranger who was our tour guide acknowledged she personally knew little about the furnishing and relied on information provided by the park. That information in turn was mostly supplied by the people who generously donated items for the house. But generosity does not equate to historical knowledge and some of the information was OK, some slightly off, some way off and some just plain dead wrong.
What was called Mr. Gregory’s office was certainly in line with a two-piece mahogany and cherry plantation desk on one wall and a hand-planed Federal-era drop-leaf table on another. Upstairs in the living quarters was another story, as you will discover by viewing the pictures and reading the captions.
Overall the Gregory House at Torreya State Park is a magnificent example of one type of 19th-century lifestyle. It is an inspiring treasure and I do not fault the park for its paucity of information. However, the entire experience of visiting a part of Florida’s and the nation’s past could be enhanced tremendously if the furnishings were correctly identified and put into context with the house, its inhabitants and the period of history. I have volunteered to help document and identify the furniture, but I have not heard back from the park.
Send comments, questions and pictures to Fred Taylor at P.O. Box 215, Crystal River, FL 34423 or info@furnituredetetcive.com. Visit Fred’s website at www.furnituredetective.com. His book How To Be a Furniture Detective is available for $18.95 plus $3 shipping. Send check or money order for $21.95 to Fred Taylor, P.O. Box 215, Crystal River, FL 34423. Fred and Gail Taylor’s DVD, Identification of Older & Antique Furniture ($17 + $3 S&H) is also available at the same address. For more information call (800) 387-6377, fax 352-563-2916, or info@furnituredetective.com. All items are also available directly from his website.
ADDITIONAL IMAGES OF NOTE
This was the condition of the house before being disassembled by the CCC in 1935.One of my first questions to the ranger was, “What is the oldest piece in the house?” The answer was a disappointing nod to a bookcase secretary that the notes said was from the 1700s. It was nice secretary but it was not quite that old. In fact, not even that century. It was an Empire piece with ogee curves, crotch-cut mahogany veneer and 19th-century cylinder glass. While it was contemporaneous to the house it was not the oldest piece there.What appeared to be the oldest item in the house was a country made schoolmaster’s or clerk’s desk with 20-inch-wide boards and mortise and tenon joints secured by trenails.The main parlor was certainly in the right period with a Rococo Revival marble-top table and two Rococo Revival parlor chairs in front of the fireplace, a late Empire couch in the center of the room, an Empire settee behind it and a Rococo Revival rosewood square grand piano to one side.One bedroom had a magnificent three-piece bedroom set in it. However, it was all quartersawn golden oak veneer with the applied molding from the turn of the 20th century. It was great set – for the Golden Oak period – but certainly missed the mark of “articles from the mid-1850s.The upstairs landing had what appeared to be a Late Classicism chest that would have fit perfectly in the period of the house. However, closer inspection revealed that is was an early 20th-century Empire Revival factory-made “Colonial” piece with machine-made drawer joinery.One bedroom had an unusual chair. It was made of spinning wheel parts, but the wheel itself, serving as the splat, was missing the spokes. The origin of the chair was unrecognized by the Park. A similar chair is illustrated in ‘Colonial Revival’ by Linquist and Warren, Wallace-Homestead. It is identified as a Colonial Revival chair circa 1880 paying tribute to women’s role in the home and a glorification of handmade objects as opposed to machine-made, one of the basic tenants of the Colonial Revival.Fred takes a closer look at a Late Classicism game table. The ranger did not know it opened up and swiveled to provide a playing surface.Most of the rest of the house was furnished with very nice examples of Renaissance Revival furniture that was certainly post-1850s. This walnut armoire was the only example of the form in the house.This well-done rosewood grain painting on the crest rails of a pair of Renaissance chairs was overlooked by the park.
