Landmarks Could Be History in Hot Real
Estate Market
By Anne Geggis
Staff Writer
Daytona Beach 's most famous ghost could be facing eviction. One of the oldest homes on the beachside -- and chief location for "Lucille" sightings -- is on the market for $2.3 million. That price tag -- and Lilian Place's riverfront location -- has some fearing the 122-year-old house on Silver Beach Avenue could soon fall victim to the city's rising condo fever that's leveled a number of East Volusia landmarks recently. "Someone might buy it and preserve it, but they won't want to do it at that price," said Laurence Baggett, who bought Lilian Place from a descendant of the original builder in 1985 and then sold it in 1997 for $215,000. Baggett said he doesn't expect much help preserving Lilian Place from the city: "Based on its track record so far, the city has been more focused on its tax values than the value of preserving its heritage."
So far, history hasn't been able to stop the wrecking balls or bulldozers from knocking down historically significant structures such as the oceanfront King's Mansion, McCrory's department store on Beach Street and Portledge, a riverfront estate. Area history buffs fear more will follow. Down the street from Lilian Place , Miss Pat's Inn -- a 109-year-old building -- is up for sale for $1.9 million. "Daytona doesn't preserve their history -- that's the bottom line," said Dusty Smith, who leads ghost walks, Haunts of the World's Most Famous Beach, combining local history with the paranormal in her patter. "For me, that's a really terrible thing," she said. "They tear down these historic homes and slap up a concrete condo. What are our kids going to have to look at besides concrete condos?"
Harold Cardwell, chairman of the city's Historic Preservation Board, is already resigned that Lilian Place and other valuable historical homes are destined to meet with the same fate as the Gamble property which once stood across the street from Lilian Place . The property, formerly owned by one of the founders of Proctor & Gamble, is now the Riverplace One Hundred condos. "You can't put a price on our heritage -- it's priceless -- but you can't match the people who are willing to pay $2.3 million," Cardwell said. He explained that other cities have foundations to raise money to purchase historically significant properties or ordinances to tie up new projects while concerned residents raise money to buy the endangered property, but that would be difficult in the city's current situation.
"We're caught in this market and that's going to affect preservation," he said. Hoping to preserve Lilian Place when he sold it, Baggett crafted a restrictive deed prohibiting the home from being torn down. The subsequent owner, Greg McDole, rehabilitated the house, which Laurence Thompson -- who came with Daytona Beach 's founder, Matthias Day, from Cincinnati -- built before a bridge connected the beachside to the mainland. Once McDole rehabilitated Lilian Place 's winding hallways and heart-of-pine floors, Baggett said he thought Lilian Place would be out of the range of any wrecking ball. Laurence Thompson's granddaughter, Pat Bennett, who inherited Lilian Place , assured the home's place in local folklore when she wrote a book from the perspective of "Lucille," the ghost inhabiting the home who, allegedly, has been spotted regularly on the widow's walk of the house. Legend has it that she was spurned by Thompson's ne'er-do-well son Harry.
Baggett's restrictive deed expired by the time Michael Riccitiello Jr. and his wife, Suzanne, purchased the house in 2002 for $524,900, intending to turn it into a bed and breakfast. Suzanne Riccitiello died in 2005, however, and her husband, who declined to comment for this story, put it up for sale recently. Bennett said she understands why Riccitiello wants to sell, but she and her daughter, Chesley Bennett, are heartsick that it might end up being torn down. "She's the last pretty thing you see when you're coming over the ( Orange Avenue ) bridge," Chesley Bennett said. The land that Lilian Place sits on is currently zoned to contain up to 18 units per acre. With the property measuring .9 of an acre, 16 units could go on Lilian Place 's parcel, said Steven Spraker, planning manager for the city of Daytona Beach . To zone up to the city's maximum density -- 40 units per acre -- a developer would have to adjoin the lot to another property and then submit a plan to rezone, which the city, the county and the state would have to approve.
Spraker said it's premature to speculate on whether the city would allow a high-rise condo to sit where Lilian Place does now. But Daytona Beach Commissioner Shiela McKay said she's already worried about Lilian Place 's fate. Her daughter was married there two years ago. "We haven't turned up any way to" save it, McKay said. "It makes me sick to think about it. It's a shame the city is being torn apart. There's no regard in the city for anything historic."
DID YOU KNOW?
Author Stephen Crane -- best known for his book "The Red Badge of Courage" -- stayed at Lilian Place after he survived a shipwreck offshore from Ponce de Leon Inlet in 1897.
· The wreck of the Commodore in January 1897 inspired Crane to write the short story "The Open Boat."
SOURCE: News-Journal archives