Price House

Benjamin Price, a Philadelphia architect and his wife Mary moved to Punta Gorda around 1914.  Price was ahead of his time and recognized that the religious fervor that swept the country was a business opportunity.  Price designed mail order churches that were sold and shipped by the thousands all over the country. Once a shipment arrived, the local parishioners could put up the structure.   Price's style is recognizable by its faux carillon and pointed arch facade. The Methodist Church on Marion Avenue is based on one of his designs.  Many of his mail order churches are now listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

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On the domestic front, Price didn't seem so successful.  Notice the doors that lead to the outside from every room.  It was first believed that this was for fire safety, but old timers soon corrected this assumption with the long-lived public knowledge that it was Price's wife who had to have quick and immediate access outside.  They said she was an insanely jealous woman who chased down the sound of any woman's voice that might be in the garden with her husband.

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Price didn't build this house from the ground up, but chose to buy two cottages, then attached them with a center structure.  It became a modern split plan with the bedrooms on one side and the kitchen and dining on the other. He also added a porch to the bedroom side of the shingled house.

This home has also been known as the Gilchrist Bed and Breakfast.  It was relocated to History Park in February 2005.  The relocation cost was over $80,000 and restoration work completed.