Full Transcript for Why a Future King Stayed at Florida's DeBary Hall

WEBVTT 00:00:01.199 --> 00:00:06.320 A future king of England in inland Florida at a hunting lodge above the St. 00:00:06.480 --> 00:00:07.440 John's River. 00:00:07.679 --> 00:00:11.279 It's not the type of sentence most people expect to hear. 00:00:11.519 --> 00:00:14.800 But that is the DeBerry Hall story. 00:00:15.039 --> 00:00:34.000 Not Disney royalty, not invented Florida glamour, actual European high society, moving through what was then a rougher, quieter, far less built-up stretch of the state, and stopping at a grand winter retreat in what is now DeBerry. 00:00:34.479 --> 00:00:45.119 The official history of the landmark says Frederick de Berry reportedly entertained the Prince of Wells here, the man who later became King Edward VII. 00:00:45.679 --> 00:00:54.880 And once you know what DeBerry Hall was, that story stops sounding random and starts sounding almost inevitable. 00:00:57.679 --> 00:01:00.399 This is the Gallivantor Podcast. 00:01:00.560 --> 00:01:16.799 I'm Chad, and this is the story of why a future king ended up vacationing at DeBerry Hall, and what that says about the version of Florida well-to-do people were already buying into during the 19th century. 00:01:20.959 --> 00:01:31.280 The first thing to understand is that DeBerry Hall was never some accidental farmhouse that later got a grand reputation attached to it. 00:01:31.519 --> 00:01:33.599 It was built to impress. 00:01:33.840 --> 00:01:42.000 Frederick DeBerry was a wine importer, specifically the American agent for Mom Champagne based in New York. 00:01:42.560 --> 00:01:51.840 In the early 1870s, he came to this part of Florida by steamboat, the only way to reach the interior of Central Florida at the time. 00:01:52.159 --> 00:01:58.400 And what he found on the north shore of Lake Monroe was exactly what he was looking for. 00:01:58.640 --> 00:02:02.879 He completed construction on his hunting lodge in 1871. 00:02:03.359 --> 00:02:18.639 The house was 8,000 square feet with a two-story veranda, tall columns, bay windows made of hand-blown glass, high ceilings, and the kind of design meant to signal leisure and status at the same time. 00:02:23.199 --> 00:02:25.599 It was a machine for hosting. 00:02:25.759 --> 00:02:44.879 A place where Northern and European money could arrive in the Florida winter, hunt in the morning, swim in the cool springs nearby, eat well, sit on the veranda, and spend a few weeks behaving as if the frontier had been domesticated for their convenience. 00:02:45.439 --> 00:02:52.800 As one relative of the family later put it, entertainment was a very simple matter at DeBerry Hall. 00:02:53.039 --> 00:03:00.000 Most guests were asked because they enjoyed the out-of-doors with swimming, hunting, and fishing. 00:03:00.240 --> 00:03:04.400 So the question is not really why a prince would come here. 00:03:04.800 --> 00:03:11.120 The better question is why wouldn't he, if this is the kind of circle he moved in. 00:03:16.000 --> 00:03:23.759 By the late 19th century, Florida was already being sold to affluent outsiders as a winter refuge. 00:03:23.919 --> 00:03:27.919 Not yet the Florida of theme parks and condo towers. 00:03:28.080 --> 00:03:32.560 Not even quite the Henry Flagler Florida most people picture first. 00:03:33.599 --> 00:03:49.439 This was an earlier luxury Florida, river Florida, reached by steamboat, shaped by private estates, hunting grounds, orange groves, and a social world where being remote could actually increase your appeal. 00:03:49.759 --> 00:03:55.919 DeBerry Hall's own reputation places it inside that larger story of tourism on the St. 00:03:56.159 --> 00:04:00.400 John's, orange fever, and steamboating. 00:04:00.800 --> 00:04:07.759 Frederick de Berry did not just build a house, he turned the whole landscape into a business. 00:04:08.000 --> 00:04:10.960 He planted orange groves on the estate. 00:04:11.199 --> 00:04:22.079 He started his own steamboat line in 1876, the De Berry Merchants Line, contracted to carry mail between Jacksonville and Enterprise. 00:04:22.319 --> 00:04:26.000 In 1883, that line merged with Colonel H. 00:04:26.079 --> 00:04:26.240 T. 00:04:26.399 --> 00:04:35.439 Baya's competing operation to become the De Berry-Baya Merchants Line, the largest and most successful steamboat line on the St. 00:04:35.680 --> 00:04:36.560 John's. 00:04:36.959 --> 00:04:40.720 DeBerry Hall was not isolated from the world. 00:04:40.959 --> 00:04:47.759 It was plugged into the transportation and business network that made elite winter travel possible. 00:04:48.000 --> 00:04:59.199 If you were rich, well connected, and looking for somewhere warmer, quieter, and more exclusive than the urban north in January, this worked beautifully. 00:04:59.360 --> 00:05:08.160 You could arrive in a place that still looked wild enough to be interesting, but was organized enough to serve you dinner. 00:05:09.040 --> 00:05:12.399 So why did a future king vacation here? 00:05:12.879 --> 00:05:20.000 Because DeBerry Hall offered three things well-to-do people of the era valued enormously. 00:05:20.319 --> 00:05:22.079 First, climate. 00:05:22.319 --> 00:05:28.079 A winter retreat in Central Florida was not a gimmick in the 1870s and 1880s. 00:05:28.319 --> 00:05:30.480 It was a serious luxury. 00:05:30.800 --> 00:05:42.480 Cold weather elites were already discovering that they could leave the Northeast, come south, and spend weeks in shirt sleeves, while much of the country was miserable. 00:05:42.959 --> 00:05:44.319 Second, sport. 00:05:45.120 --> 00:05:47.920 This was hunting country hospitality. 00:05:48.240 --> 00:05:53.439 The Berry Hall was not pitched as a courtly palace in the European sense. 00:05:53.600 --> 00:05:57.839 It was something more attractive to many elite men of the era. 00:05:58.240 --> 00:06:01.120 A sporting estate with prestige. 00:06:01.360 --> 00:06:04.079 The grounds were built around it. 00:06:04.399 --> 00:06:16.959 Quail, deer, alligator,