by Monica Chamness
Staff Writer
The old South of the late 1800s was known for its sprawling plantations and genteel hospitality. Few of these mansions remain, but one house has survived. The Francis Richard III house was built sometime between 1837 and 1848 and is the oldest continually occupied house in Duval County.
Mike and Laura Langton, the current owners, will open their home to guests tonight for a fundraiser for the Historic Snyder Memorial Capital Campaign. The festivities have been dubbed “An Evening at the Plantation.”
Prior to the construction of the house, the property which is located on Oak Haven Road near Empire Point, had been under the control of the Richard family ever since they acquired it by way of a Spanish land grant. Three generations later, the small farm house structure was erected.
“The grandson [Francis Richard III] was friends with Mr. Kingsley,” said Laura Langton.
“They each had relations with their slaves and produced children with those slaves. During the Civil War, they [the women slave and the illegitimate offspring] were sent back to Haiti for protection. One of his descendants is an African-American lady who works for the City.”
The Richards sold their interests to the Hulbert family, who added gingerbread trimming to “modernize” the house during the Victorian era. Twenty years later, possession changed hands again to the Holden family, who operated an orange grove on the grounds. Holden’s son was sent here to establish the family’s agricultural business. The Langstons then purchased the home from Holden’s grandson, George Holden.
Since the Langtons acquired the plantation in late 1997, they’ve been renovating the residence.
“It took us two and a half years to work out the plans,” recalled Laura Langton.
The couple studied blueprints with an architect, striving to balance their desire for a comfortable habitat with a need to preserve the building’s heritage. After they closed on the house, it was designated a historic landmark.
“We had restrictions to abide by so the plan had to be in those parameters,” explained Laura Langton. “We had to maintain it so if you looked at it from the river or the road, it looked like the original.”
Pleasing the family and meeting the approval of the historic commission evaluating the project required a careful remodeling strategy.
To stretch the 1,200 square-foot layout, the Langtons converted the two rooms upstairs to a master bedroom with connecting bath. The two rooms downstairs were converted into a living room, but a kitchen, extra bedrooms and a dining room had to be added. The pitched roof and the shutters demanded repairs, too. Construction spanned 13 months with only landscaping issues lingering.
Unique characteristics of the original structure include vertical siding and heart-of-pine wood flooring. The beams were all cut by hand.
Formerly residents of Avondale, the Langtons were determined to protect the value of the property.
“We spent a lot of money having it fixed,” she said. “We could have moved or torn it down. If we had leveled it and started from scratch, it would have been cheaper. But we wanted to restore it because our heart is in restoration. Plus, we knew it would be a good investment.”
Currently, Mike Langton is renovating the W.A. Knight Building on West Adams Street, which was built in 1926, into loft apartments.