Justin Nylander wrote in beautifully illustrated Casas to Castles in 2010. This magical book explores forty historic Mediterranean revival homes located in Florida. It includes nearly 400 images of the interiors and exteriors of these homes. Architects featured include Addison Mizner, Maurice Fatio, Marion Sims Wyeth, John Volk, James Gamble Rogers II, Richard Kiehnel, and John Elliot. Houses in the book range from typical family-sized homes to palaces. Donald Trump’s infamous Mar-a-Lago estate is even featured. Maggi Hall’s gorgeous, Spanish Revival home “Smith Hall” is featured as well.
The Florida Boom and Bust
Florida’s first real estate bubble happened between 1920 and 1925. During these years, Americans were traveling to Florida to invest in real estate. Unlike travelers before them, these were families looking for homes and communities. This helped lead to the Florida Boom. The population nearly quadrupled during this five-year span but this did not come without its problems. The demand for housing was so high that the cost of rent skyrocketed. Because the speculators had inflated the economy many of the Americans who had migrated to Florida could no longer afford to live there and were writing home warning others to stay away from the state. This eventually contributed to the land “bust” of 1925.
Spanish Revival Homes
With all of these land developers coming to Florida, they wanted to create something unique in this new land. The architectural style tended to be Mediterranean Revival. Why? Florida was seen as a stand-in for Southern California and the European Riviera. Designers drew inspiration from Florida’s warm climate and outdoor ways and ended up building homes in the Spanish or Mediterranean style.
Spanish Revival homes share some of the same traits. They almost always include curves and arches, stucco exteriors, painted tiles, terracotta roof tiling, tower-like chimneys, balconies, and courtyards. And interestingly enough the majority of the interiors replicated the colonial style of architecture and furnishings. Maggi and Ron Hall’s “Smith-Hall” contains most of these architecturally interesting elements.
What is Unique About Maggi’s Home?
Maggi Hall is the first to admit that her 1926 home is unique and that is what she loves about it. There is no internal or external wood anywhere in the house except yellow pine for the flooring. Instead, the walls are made of terracotta blocks which are made from a porous red clay and are hollow. Her only complaint is that picture hanging is no longer an easy feat!
The Hall’s home is also unique as it is one of the few buildings in the area to sport a three-room basement. The living room has a cathedral ceiling with stained arches and its original plastered walls and ceilings. The yellow pine for the hardwood floors was grown and milled in DeLand. In fact, old growth yellow pine was such a popular product in the late 1800 and early 1900s that it was milled almost to extinction. The house sits atop a small hill on two acres adjacent to Stetson University’s campus and has had only four owners in its long history – all Stetson University graduates.
It took the Halls two years to restore their house to its present condition. Fencing the entire acreage was a top priority for Maggi’s dogs; then came the planting of more than 4,500 trees and shrubs. The home boasts giant camellias and a magnolia tree planted decades ago. It also has the tallest water oak in DeLand planted in the late 1800s when the city fathers wanted more trees in their developing town. They “bribed” citizens to plant water oaks with the city reimbursing them at $25 per tree.
The most bizarre incident in the history of the house comes straight from the former resident, Volusia County Judge Uriel Blount, Jr. (1926-2001). According to him, “I was pulled out of retirement to handle the Aileen Wuornos murder trial. Known as the “interstate Killer” Wuornos murdered seven men in a crime spree that put Florida on edge. She went on trial January 14, 1992 (oddly enough Maggi Hall’s birthday) and was found guilty January 27th. She died by lethal injection October 9th, 2002 at the Florida State Prison in Bradford County.
Judge Blount used the money he was paid to build a patio, patio walls, and install awnings over his new project. When the Halls purchased the home in 1999 “Bunky” as he was lovingly nicknamed, informed the Halls that they were standing on Eileen’s patio!