Capping a 13-year quest to purchase and preserve Melbourne’s landmark Green Gables estate for future generations, Marion Pellicano-Ambrose made a surprise announcement to about 35 volunteers gathered for a cookout outside the “living history museum.”
“We closed today,” Pellicano-Ambrose said from a back porch, eliciting cheers and applause as she helped unfurl a commemorative banner that will be displayed to U.S. 1 traffic.
Pellicano-Ambrose is president of Green Gables at Historic Riverview Village Inc., the nonprofit that has stabilized the six-bedroom, 1896-vintage American Four Square/Queen Anne house at 1501 S. Harbor City Blvd., just south of Hibiscus Boulevard.
After soliciting donations and pledges for years, the nonprofit bought the home and greenspace overlooking the Indian River Lagoon on Monday from its founding family for $965,000, Treasurer Annita Full said.
“It’s a relief. I feel relieved, because we’ve finally done it,” Full said, sitting in the historic home’s main parlor after Monday’s announcement.
“At one point, no one believed we could do it. We’ve had a lot of people in the community that would like to donate — but they wouldn’t because we didn’t own the house,” Pellicano-Ambrose said.
Key development: In June 2022, the Florida Division of Historical Resources awarded a $482,500 matching grant to cover 50% of the purchase price. The nonprofit, which secured the state grant on its second application attempt, had to contribute the remaining $482,500 in donations.
“Melbourne needs Green Gables and its grounds because virtually every other significant element of the early built environment has been obliterated in the development associated with the Space Age,” the nonprofit said in its May 2021 grant application.
“If the property is not acquired soon, Melbourne will lose all ties to the culture of its early development. The Green Gables house and grounds are in immediate danger of being sold for development,” the application said.
“The property is located on prime commercial real estate fronting on both U. S. 1 and the Indian River. It is still owned by descendants of the original owners who are retired and anxious to sell. While they have been very patient so far, the recent deaths of two of the owners puts great pressure on the remaining family to realize the capital locked in the property,” the application said.
Nonprofit officials made Monday’s surprise closing announcement during a backyard cookout and brief meeting for Green Gables volunteers. Attendees enjoyed a champagne toast.
Next, Pellicano-Ambrose and Full said the organization will conduct a ribbon-cutting ceremony this summer with the Melbourne Regional Chamber and Greater Palm Bay Area Chamber of Commerce. The group will also expand its tour offerings and educational programs for students and seniors.
A gala “huge dressy event” will occur in January or February to kick off a new capital campaign for house repairs. Per terms of the Division of Historical Resources grant, an architectural-engineering study will be performed to assess the structure.
Pellicano-Ambrose said structural repairs are required for the home’s distinctive octagonal porch and cylindrical tower.
Green Gables was built in 1896 as a winter home by industrialist William T. Wells and his wife, Nora, who was the niece of the founder of Stanford University. The pioneering couple donated the land for Wells Park and built Melbourne’s first library, high school and auditorium.
Atlantic Beach resident David Fletcher, a Wells family descendant, attended Monday’s cookout. His grandmother, Pearl Mitchell, married Stanford Wells in April 1934. The couple lived at Green Gables until Stanford died in September 1971.
“I can remember coming down here as a kid. Of course, you didn’t have the television and the phone and the tablets and computers and laptops, all of that stuff,” Fletcher recalled, standing in the shaded backyard overlooking the river.
“We sat out on the octagon — that’s what we called it — and played board games and card games. We’d go to the beach, come out here and play hide-and-seek. Stanley built a treehouse here,” he said, gesturing at a nearby oak. “We’d eat sandwiches and lunch there.
“It was just good times, good times. And I’m sorry that kids today don’t have them,” he said.
Tours of Green Gables are available Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Cost is $10 per person. Reservations are not necessary.
Timeline of Green Gables events
- 2004: Hurricanes Frances and Jeanne pummel the riverfront property.
- 2010: The nonprofit Green Gables at Historic Riverview Village Inc. debuts.
- 2014: Melbourne City Hall officials issue a demolition permit so the owners could raze the house — but demolition does not occur.
- 2016: Green Gables is added to the National Register of Historic Places.
- 2018: The Florida Trust for Historic Preservation includes Green Gables in its list of “Florida’s 11 to Save” — the most threatened historic properties in the state.
- 2022: The Florida Division of Historical Resources awards a $482,500 matching grant to buy the home.
- Monday: Nonprofit officials close on the $965,000 property purchase.
Rick Neale is the South Brevard Watchdog Reporter at FLORIDA TODAY (for more of his stories, click here.) Contact Neale at 321-242-3638 or [email protected]. Twitter: @RickNeale1
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