Babcock, Clarence L. House - Punta Gorda, FL
Posted by: 
crackergals
N 26° 56.936 W 082° 01.507
17R E 398243 N 2981191
The Clarence l. Babcock House was newly added to The National Register of Historic Places in February 2009.
Waymark Code: WM6GHP
Location: Florida, United States
Date Posted: 06/01/2009
Views: 6
The Clarence L. Babcock House, located at 25537 Shore Drive in Punta Gorda, Florida, is a one-and-a-half story Craftsman Bungalow style residence constructed c.1920. The house is a large example of its style and is constructed of stucco over wood frame and rests on concrete block piers. A cross gable-on hip roof covers the main block of the house. A full-width enclosed front entrance porch, covered by an extension of the hip roof, dominates the primary facade. A contributing c.1925 two-story vernacular style detached garage apartment is found at the rear of the property, and three contributing historic street lights dating from the 1920s mark the perimeter of the property on Shore Drive and Howard Street. The house and garage apartment were damaged by Hurricane Charley in August, 2004. A renovation of the house following the storm required following Federal Emergency Management Agency guidelines for the repair work on the main residence; however, the building still retains many of the architectural characteristics of the Craftsman style present when Clarence Babcock lived there. The garage apartment remains in its post-hurricane condition. Also found on the property is a noncontributing aluminum historic marker erected on March 14, 2007, to commemorate the creation of
Howard Homestead/Solana Plat in which the Babcock House is located.
The Clarence L. Babcock House is significant at the local level in the area Agriculture as the residence of Clarence L. Babcock who was responsible for the development of major lumber and cattle ranching interests in Florida during the first half of the 20th century. He and his brothers, Frederick and Oscar, founded the
Babcock Lumber Company in 1898 which grew into a world-wide profitable commercial lumber enterprise and is still doing business today. The company’s resources were comprised of saw mills, planing mills, lumber camps, railroads and a tremendous amount of timber land in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Tennessee, Georgia, and Florida. In the early 1900s, Babcock was the largest producer of hardwood lumber in the world. Clarence ran the lumber company’s operations in Florida and became a permanent resident in 1924, purchasing in 1929 the house in Punta Gorda that he lived in until his death in 1949. In the early 1940s, Edward and Clarence Babcock established the
Babcock Crescent B Ranch in Charlotte County, raising free-range beef cattle. The ranch was recently purchased by Kitson and Partners, LLC, a West Palm Beach-based development company. They have reached an agreement with the Babcock Family to preserve 90% of the ranch property in it's natural state for public enjoyment.
Although Clarence Babcock resided for a time in the communities of other states where he managed the family lumber operations, none of the houses in which he lived were considered permanent residences and none has survived.
The above information was taken from the National register of historic Places Continuation Sheet submitted for this location.