Thursby House

Originally posted on our homeschool blog, Benoit Academy.

We just had a surprise field trip for all of us. We found a park near our house that we spent lunchtime at having a picnic and playing. On our way home, we found Blue Springs State Park. We’ve heard of it but have never actually been there so the hubs drove in & paid the $6 to park to see what we could find!

As soon as we found the parking area we saw this gorgeous, enormous white house. Of course J13, the one obsessed with anything 1800’s, went crazy wanting to know what this house was all about. We walked over to it just to see…..This beautiful house is called the Thursby House (also known as The Louis P. Thursby House) and was constructed in 1872.

About the Thursby House:

Louis P. Thursby and his family settled on the inlet to Blue Springs, on the St. Johns river in 1856. Shortly after his arrival, he constructed one of the first steamboat landings and planted one of the first orange groves on the upper St. Johns River. His first residence was a log cabin that he built.

This house is 3-stories but was originally built as only 2-stories. It was built from three kinds of center-cut pine that had been milled in Savannah, Ga., and transported by boat to the site. In 1900, Thursby’s son added a third story and kitchen wing.

You can only tour the 1st floor & we weren’t able to walk into the kitchen so I had to take pictures through a glass door:

A Cypress water tank stood near the Northeast corner of the house. The tank have recently been removed from its supports:

Random Photos:

We had so much fun just walking around looking though the house! There are cabinets full of artifacts; birth/death/marriage certificates, stories about the family & life during that time, toys, etc.

Here is a few pics of us & notice J13’s face as we were leaving this gorgeous house: