Are you talking about the big white house with the turret, like a castle, that has a long  pool out front (4749 River Point Road)?  If so, that's known as "Marabanong," a New Zealand Maori Indian word for "Paradise."  I had the privilege of touring that home many years ago when it was the Designer Showhouse.  The Trouts bought it in 1914 and members of the Trout family (Trout Real Estate) continued to own it until 1983, when it was sold.  It was during the Trout rein that I toured it. 

 

The big white house with the turret, like a castle, that has a long  pool out front (4749 River Point Road)?  If so, that's known as "Marabanong," a New Zealand Maori Indian word for "Paradise."  Dee toured that home many years ago when it was the Designer Showhouse.  The Trouts bought it in 1914 and members of the Trout family (Trout Real Estate) continued to own it until 1983, when it was sold.  It was during the Trout rein that I toured it. 

Construction of Marabanong began sometime around 1876 on this site, where a previous home that had stood for 20 years had been burned to the ground.  The owner of the burned one, Thomas Basnett, was a noted astronomer from England.  Basnett is the one who constructed this mansion.  Basnett married Eliza Wilbur, an internationally known scientist from New York.  Both of them were prolific authors of scientific articles, books and magazines.  She patented a large astronomical telescope while she lived there and was designing an airplane at the time the Wright brothers made their first flight.  After Thomas died, Eliza married a French physician who was a throat and lung specialist.  When he was there, he advertised their home as a resort for folks needing special attention and offered them free transportation to his home/resort via steamboat from downtown.  He died in 1914, and that's when the Trouts took over.

 

While the Trouts were there, they maintained a zoo including crocodiles, pheasant and peacocks, which delighted their many Northern visitors.  Marabanong's once-spacious riverfront property is now divided with a number of single-family residences.  It's two-story veranda is Jacksonville's most impressive porch.  The house is 6,000 square feet, with 21 rooms, 5 baths and 121 windows.  It's most intriguing feature is a brick structure built into the bluff in front of the house (on the river side).  Thought to be a wine cellar, it was built before the Civil War and was once connected to the kitchen by an underground passageway.  It is the only part of the original 1850 construction that survived the fire almost 130 years ago.

 

There's a big house with columns at 4915 River Point Road.  It's not brick, though, it's wood, but you may have thought it was painted brick. In 1850 the first circular steam sawmill in Florida was built at the mouth of Pottsburg Creek.  After the Civil War (in 1876), the old Empire Mill site was sold to Alexander S. Diven, a general in the Union Army and Congressman from New York.  Apparently, he was just one of many Northerners who settled along the southern bank of the St. Johns River after the War.  The house was built around 1877, and the property contained 34 acres at that time.  The timbers used to construct the house are huge, some 10" by 12".  They were taken from the log pond next to where the old mill had been.  The foundation and chimney are made from bricks that were made at the claypit one-quarter mile from the homesite.  General Diven started a grove of 700 orange trees on this site, with their own irrigation system.  This grove continued until 1952, and the last of these trees was killed by the Christmas Freeze of 1983.  I don't know if you were in Jacksonville then, BJ, but it snowed and school was out for days due to power outages and icy streets.  Major Joseph Durkee, another Union officer, was County Sheriff, State Senator, and railroad executive.  His son, Dr. Jay Durkee bought this home in 1909 from General Diven's son.  in 1952, Major Durkee's grandson developed the adjacent 90 acres into a subdivision and named it "Empire Point," after the area where his old family home still stands.

 

Another old home with not such a colorful history is at 1231 Glengarry Road.  It was built around 1872.  It's site was originally 18 acres.  A congressman from New York, commander of Union troops, and Minister to Japan from 1866 to 1869, Robert Van Valkenburg bought this site around 1871.  He and his wife decorated it with furniture they had collected in Japan.

 

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Arlington Area 2 miles  The north end of the trail begins on University Boulevard North at Floral Bluff, just south of the Boys Home and JU.  You may park your car in the large lot across from Floral Bluff which is between Angelo's Italian Restaurant and The Cottage Consignment.

 

This is a delightful, quiet residential neighborhood trail with some twists and turns and a few hills.  Be careful at the foot of the hill at  Arlington Road.  There's a stop sign there, where the boat ramp is!  Then there is an uphill grade on the other side of Arlington Road.  Lots of trees and interesting mid-century homes on the river side.

 

At the end of two-miles, on the southern end of the trail, you will find yourself in the parking lot of the Compass Bank on University Boulevard, near the exit to Arlington Expressday.  You may also choose to begin your ride here, but I would pick a time when the bank is closed!

 

Dee

 

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Arlington Area 2 miles  Arlington AreaThis trail winds through an area that used to be known as "Arlington Bluff."  John Sammis, a New York ship builder, bought 6,000 acres in this area in 1839.  If you try this trail, don't miss the two-story home built in the 1850s at 207 Noble Circle West.  This was the first home on the bluff.  Can you imagine the view, unobstructed by the other homes that have since been added?  John Sammis lived here with his wife, Mary, and their children for 20 years.  Mary was the younger daughter of Zephaniah Kingsley, of the Kingsley Plantation.  Her mother was Kingsley's African wife, Anna Jai.  Sammis and most of his family are buried in the small cemetery at Magnolia and Garrison, which you will see on your ride.  In 1873, the Sammis family moved to Mandarin, and the house was sold to a church colony, which used it as a resort for its members and added a large two-story wing containing guest rooms.  The church colony folded in less than a year, and the property was bought by William Matthews (the Matthews Bridge), a real estate developer.  It continued to be used as a hotel for many years.  In 1909 Matthews' granddaughter married and they took over the residence.  They remodeled it extensively.  The hotel addition was removed in the 1950s.

 

Other historic homes that can be seen in this area are: