Update! This is an update and reminder of our Cadillac & LaSalle Club event on Saturday June 18th
photos courtesy Doubledaves
Come join the Florida Suncoast Region on Saturday June 18 at 2:45 pm at the visitors center on the left of parking lot, as we visit one of the rarest sights in central and south Florida…the Gamble Plantation! The only surviving plantation house in South Florida.
For those members who would like to join a caravan of cars to the sight coming from the north. Drivers may meet up at the North Skyway rest area at 2 pm, this is the location of the Blackthorn Memorial. Drivers should depart at 2:15 to caravan over the beautiful Skyway Bridge.
Drivers will proceed to the first exit south on I-75, which is exit #224. Turn right off exit onto US-301 and proceed about 1 mile. The mansion will be on the right.
After our history tour of the Gamble Mansion, at approximately 4:30pm we will caravan about a mile up US 301 to Hickory Hollow BBQ. Robert and Donna opened the restaurant in Jan of 1984 using family recipes from the Chesapeake Bay area and North Carolina. They were rated 3rd in the nation in the “USA Today” for BBQ eateries. They feature pork, beef, chicken and fish and over 30 home made sides. The restaurant ONLY ACCEPTS CASH, so plan accordingly. There is an ATM nearby at a local bank.
See their web site for menu; http://www.hickoryhollowbbq.com/
The Gamble Plantation took six years to build. This antebellum mansion was completed by Maj. Robert Gamble in 1850 and served as his home on the surrounding sugar plantation. The columns in the front as well as the rest of the house are constructed of tabby, which is a mixture of locally available materials such as burnt oyster shells. Of note is that the walls are two feet thick! During the time that Gamble was at the plantation, he ran up a debt of $190,000 partly due to the drop in sugar prices. He sold the property in 1856 to satisfy the debt and moved to Tallahassee with all of the mansion’s furniture. He placed the furniture in a storage warehouse, and 13 hours later the warehouse burned to the ground!
After Gamble left, Capt. Archibald McNeill, a famous Confederate blockade runner, moved into the mansion. With McNeill’s help in May of 1865, the Confederate Secretary of State, Judah P. Benjamin, took refuge in the mansion following the fall of the Confederate States of America. He departed for England from the plantation’s landing on the Manatee River.
Following the Civil War, the mansion fell into disrepair, most noticeably by the early 1900’s. In 1925 the house and 16 acres were purchased by the United Daughters of the Confederacy and then donated to the State of Florida.
Tickets for a guided tour of the mansion at 3pm can be purchased in the visitor center. Price for the tour is $5.00 per adult, Children 6 through 12 $3.00; Children under 6 are admitted free. 3708 Patten Avenue, Ellenton, Florida 34222 Take I-75 exit #224…then west on US 301.
Check out the Gamble Plantation web page at
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