ABOUT THE HOUSE
Very little information is available about this historic house that was built in 1910. It is a two-story Classical Revival style house with a brick chimney just to the right of the center of the house. There are four tall columns supporting the second story porch roof.
ABOUT THE FAMILY FOR WHOM THE HOUSE IS NAMED
"John Godfrey Kilkoff owned a successful tea and spice business in Philadelphia.
But like many others from the North, he sought a warmer climate and a chance to capitalize on the burgeoning population in Florida.
Kilkoff and his wife, the former Eva T. Dreka, took a steamboat down the St. Johns River and heard about DeLand, an up-and-coming town.
That's where the journey would end -- and where another would begin, according to Volusia: The West Side.
While Kilkoff was away, he asked his brother-in-law, George Augustus Dreka, to watch after his business in Philadelphia. But after his visit to Florida, Kilkoff would convince Dreka that he should also venture south.
Dreka did, and in November 1878 the two purchased a mercantile shop owned by J.B. Jordan and stocked it with goods they brought from Philadelphia. The Dreka name would grace downtown for more than a century.
By 1882, Dreka owned the entire business and moved his store to a two-story building on the southeast corner of New York Avenue and Woodland Boulevard. More people were coming to DeLand, and three years later he added two stories that included the Carrolton Hotel.
During the early-morning hours of Sept. 27, 1886, however, it looked as if Dreka's good fortune would come to an end when fire broke out downtown.
Firefighters were worried it would spread to Dreka's store. They used bucket brigades to put water on the building, but it still caught fire. While portions of Dreka's store burned, it was still standing when the fire finally was extinguished.
In 1909, Dreka built the first "fireproof'' building, replacing the wooden structure. Because it was constructed on the same site, he moved the merchandise to another store until his was ready.
In all, it had four floors. Dreka sold merchandise including groceries, crockery, feed, grain, clothing and furniture.
The business continued to thrive through the land boom in the 1920s, but then came the rough times of the Depression. Dreka died in 1936 and the store closed in 1938.
Jerome Godfrey Dreka, G.A. Dreka's son, and his daughter, Betty Dreka, opened a women's shop that same year. It would also prosper at its Woodland Boulevard location.
But with chain stores and malls gaining ground in the early 1980s, Betty Dreka decided to sell. Bob Sharff bought the store and kept the name. He kept Betty Dreka on staff until she died in 1986.
Like Betty Dreka, Sharff also found women's apparel a tough sell, and closed in 1998. With that ended more than 100 years of the Dreka name atop a sign in downtown DeLand."
-- Source