More Casements

There are a few more photos from The Casements worth putting up here, mostly for historical interest.  I noted in my earlier post that Rockefeller's house sat across the road from the Ormond Hotel.  This hostelry claimed to be the largest wooden hotel in the country (or world), surpassing even Mackinac Island's Grand Hotel.  Regardless of its claim to fame, the hotel feel prey to termites and was demolished several decades ago.

An aerial view of The Casements (foreground) and the Ormond
Hotel (top left).  The hotel is gone, and much of the Rockefeller
home had to be demolished.  This photo is from the 1950s.

I noted, too, that the house had become heavily deteriorated when the City of Ormond Beach acquired the property and began renovation.  To see what shape the house was in, compare the photos of the living room in Rockefeller's day, in the 1970s, and today.

A view of the living room, probably in the 1920s.

The living room staircase in the mid-1970s.

And the same stairs today.  The banister is original, but has
been cut short by a run for the heating and air conditioning
system, which was unknown in Rockefeller's day.

It's difficult to appreciate how much hard labor goes into restoration of a building, especially one which is at death's door.  Members of the Presque Isle Township Museum Society spent several years rehabilitating the 1905 Lighthouse Keeper's Home, which appears to have been in better condition, at least structurally, than The Casements.  Historical restoration is a labor of love.

Finally, Ormond Beach is known as "The Birthplace of Speed."  In Rockefeller's day, daredevils set land speed records on the beach, sometimes pushing their cars past 200 mph.  Wealthy tourists, Rockefeller among them, would watch the fun from special chairs designed to shield them from the sun, but with little portholes on each side to give a good view of the action.

Mr. Rockefeller's wicker beach chair...

...and it is documented as such!

I feel reasonably certain no one will ever care that I happened to sit on a particular beach chair.  That honor is reserved to the robber barons of finance and industry. •••