Old Haven

Old Haven

Capt. James Pritchard’s family, seen here in 1897, was instrumental in the development of the city of Titusville. POLLY SCHUSTER POLK

James Pritchard’s house harbors lots of history

Capt. James Pritchard was as unique as the house he built in Titusville. 

Born in New York City in 1836, Pritchard became a captain in the Confederate Army, while his father served as a colonel with the Union Army. After the Civil War — while on his way to adventure in South America — he stopped in Galveston, Texas, where he spotted Mary Haley Boye, a transplant from Key West. The story goes that Pritchard decided on the spot she was the girl for him. Three weeks later, they were married. 

With three children in tow, the Pritchards arrived in Florida in 1876 to grow sugarcane and citrus on land just north of where Highway 50 meets U.S. 1. Mary had inherited the tract, later known as Pritchard’s Landing, from her grandfather, Joseph Delespine. Less than a decade later, a hard freeze destroyed the crops and their dreams of farming — but not Capt. Pritchard’s entrepreneurial spirit. He packed up the clan and moved to Titusville, where he began selling real estate, organized the town’s first bank and built the town’s first electric generating plant — all within four years. He served as president of Indian River State Bank for nearly four decades, adroitly selling it in 1925, just a few years before the whole enterprise would have likely collapsed in the Great Depression. The electric plant was sold in 1914, eventually becoming part of Florida Power & Light. 

In June of 1891, Pritchard decided his family needed a house befitting their status. He purchased a lot from Mary Titus — wife of Col. Henry Titus, who supposedly won the right to name the town in a game of checkers — and started work on his Queen Anne-style home, constructed from heart pine. By October of the same year, the Pritchards were settled into their new home, smack downtown on Washington Avenue. Even though it was built within the now seemingly impossible timeframe of four months, the residence the captain built was so well constructed that it still stands as one of the city’s most charming attractions.

Painstakingly restored by the North Brevard Heritage Foundation, Pritchard House is a prime example of the fanciful Queen Anne style, popular during the Victorian era. NORTH BREVARD HERITAGE FOUNDATION

FANCY ACCENTS

Mary Pritchard proudly shows off her granddaughter, Mary, as the baby’s big brother, Boud, peeks around grandma. POLLY SCHUSTER POLK

The captain and his wife certainly exhibited good taste. Pritchard House is a prime example of an elaborate architectural style in vogue during the 1880s to early 1900s. A conical corner tower pleases the eye, as do the steep gables, veranda and second-floor balcony, as well as the fish-scale shingles and decorative scrollwork that blends shapes and textures. To tell the world he had arrived, Pritchard had a built-in light fixture on the newel post of the stairway leading to the second floor. The decorative accent made the news.

“A novelty in the large, roomy hall will be an electric light on top of the newel post,” noted the Florida Star newspaper on Aug. 20, 1891. The story also describes how the building was to boast the rarity of electric lights that could be turned off and on from either the first or second floors.

“The erection of a few more such dwellings as Captain Pritchard’s would improve the appearance of our town to such that northern visitors could not help regarding it as a desirable place for a winter residence … and would tie with Daytona, Deland and other such places for pretty residences,” the Star article states.

Titusville needed upstanding business folks like Pritchard to erase its former reputation as a boom town of dirt streets, rowdy saloons and cattle freely roaming the downtown. Pritchard continued to foster the town’s growth by purchasing a hardware store with his son, Boud. The family would run the store until its closing in 1981. 

While nearby homes fell to commercial development or storms, Pritchard House endured, thanks to the craftsmanship of its builders, as well as the love the Pritchards — and subsequent caretakers — poured into the structure. 

Docents serve sweets and savories during one of the teas at Pritchard House. NORTH BREVARD HERITAGE FOUNDATION

Tea events are usually sold out at Pritchard House. Docents Sandi Meyers, center, and Mary Morgan serve ladies dressed for the occasion at a recent tea. POLLY SCHUSTER POLK

SAVED

Roz Foster, president and founder of the North Brevard Heritage Foundation, gets into the Pritchard House spirit with clothing popular in the 1890s, when Pritchard House was built. NORTH BREVARD HERITAGE FOUNDATION

Today, due to the efforts of the county and the North Brevard Heritage Foundation, Pritchard House remains as it was when newly built. Step through the double front entrance doors with the letter “P” etched on frosted glass windowpanes, and the journey back to 1891 begins.

“Almost every part of the house is original,” said Roz Foster, president and founder of the North Brevard Heritage Foundation, which spearheaded the efforts to assure the home’s future. 

The family occupied the house for generations, until, at age 90, Mary Pritchard — granddaughter of the captain — sold the house she was born in, and where she had lived most of her life, to the county in 2005. It prevented the home, by then already situated on a prime commercial location, from becoming a victim of redevelopment.

“It would probably have been torn down,” said Foster.

With the help of the North Brevard Heritage Foundation, the county received a $350,000 grant for historical restoration of Pritchard House from the Florida Historical Commission in 2006. An additional $80,000 from the county and $40,000 from the city made possible the stabilization and restoration of the structure. The county would later transfer ownership of the house to the City of Titusville.

Volunteers from North Brevard Heritage Foundation helped restore the home, scraping, painting, repairing and re-installing. Volunteer docents from the group now conduct tours, host teas and other special events, arrange special exhibitions and maintain the Family History Gardens: distinct garden areas sponsored by descendants of families who, like the Pritchards, were instrumental in the early years of North Brevard.

“Pritchard House has a great connection to the development of Titusville,” Foster said.  

Teatime was always a special time for the Pritchard ladies. POLLY SCHUSTER POLK

MEMORIES

Dressed in period costumes, docents Meyers, in a red and black dress, and Donna and Les Tyree greet guests from the steps near the lighted newel, a novel feature noted in the newspaper when the house was built. ASHLEE NEAL

Mary Pritchard’s daughter and a member of the North Brevard Heritage Foundation, Polly Schuster Polk, remembers fondly growing up in the home. “I grew up with my grandparents living there, so there were three generations of us,” she said. “I treasure living with them.”

She recounts her grandmother and the church-quality organ she had installed in the parlor; the meals everyone was expected to attend punctually; the elaborate holiday celebrations; how the house swayed during storms, yet never failed; and the fact that she and her siblings could walk to downtown in a few minutes, where every store held a friend. She also remembers being the envy of her peers.

“All my friends thought I lived in the coolest house in town,” she said.

Docent Sandi Meyers agrees. She became involved with the house after watching the results of the restoration. “The docents love the house,” she said. Visitors come from around the world for the tours, thanks to favorable TripAdvisor reviews. Although all tours are by appointment, the house is open year around. “We literally have no days we’re closed,” Meyers said.

Each tour is tailored to the group, as docents assess the audience. “Are they interested in the family or the architecture or both,” Meyers said. The scheduled teas are geared to guests eager to enjoy proper high tea served by attendants nattily attired in period costume. Vintage silver, china and napkins add another layer of authenticity. The house is also available as rental for weddings, meetings, reunions and other special events.

Pritchard House presents visitors with a peek at interesting architecture, but also serves as a time capsule of Brevard life long ago and a portrait of a family instrumental in shaping the land. 

“It’s a real gem,” Foster said. 

Pritchard House

Where: 424 S. Washington Ave., Titusville

Reservations for tours or special events: 321.607.0203

Website: pritchardhouse.com

See the original article in print publication