'Mobile Home'
A historic Milton landmark will soon find a new life and a new home in Bagdad.
The Mason-Allen home on south Elmira Street is scheduled to be relocated no later than the last week of November to Bagdad where it will be completely restored by its current owner, Christine Walsh.
Walsh originally agreed to purchase the 136 year-old house in 2003 when the county was seeking bids to have it demolished.
She says she bought it with the understanding it would be moved to Bagdad, however, talks began in 2006 about keeping the old home on site to be used as a heritage center.
Those talks continued as recently as August of this year, when the County Commissioners finally decided the Mason home had to go, citing economical reasons.
Sharp says, “We feel, obviously, Milton will be at a loss, but we feel Bagdad will gain a great deal by having the house come there.”
Walsh, who purchased the house for all of $400, will now invest several thousands to have it moved.
The home will be cut down the middle into two 25x52 foot sections, and transported by slow moving trucks traveling one behind the other.
The home was originally built by Sea Captain, Joseph Augustus Mason, in 1871 and was his home until his death in 1923.
The Captain immigrated to the United States from the Austrian Empire in 1858, and docked in the City of Tampa.
Nathan Woolsey, President of the Santa Rosa Historical Society, who is acting as a consultant on the restoration, says Mason built his home in the true manner of a sea captian, with beautiful hand carved wood and a generous supply of rich paint.
Woolsey says the house was built from the old growth pine, once found in abundant supply along the Gulf Coast, which he points out is termite resistant because they don’t like the sap content—a sound reason for the old structure’s remarkable condition.
“We’re going to restore it to as original as we can, “says Walsh.
“Basically, we would like the house to look its age and very much like people would have seen it when it was in use.”
Walsh says a final decision on what function the Mason home will serve in its new location has not yet been made, though she has said, “We would like it to be somewhat accessible to the public, something where people could come in and enjoy it.”
She considers the Mason home as a significant contribution to the on-going revitalization effort in the tiny village.
The house, Walsh explains, will sit on the corner of Simpson and Thompson Street in Bagdad, not far from where Mason’s sons moored their ship, the City of Tampa, so named in honor of their father’s first homeport in the New World.