Oakholm

Completed in 1864, for Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811-1896) and her husband, the Rev. Calvin Ellis Stowe (1802-1886). Harriet personally oversaw its construction from 1862 having purchased the plot two years previously. It was on the Park River near her sister Isabella's house which was also within the Nook Farm neighborhood. It was designed by Octavius Jordan who used the abundance of trees on the land to build the large, eight-gabled Gothic-Revival villa. It was Harriet's dream home on which she spent the majority of the money she made through her writing, but after some bad publicity her book sales plummeted and in 1869 the Stowes retreated to their Mandarin House in Florida until the storm blew over. They sold Oakholm in 1870, a decision that was made easier by the steady encroachment of industry upon its once bucolic gardens....