Trabue Land Sales Office

 

In 1884, Colonel Isaac Trabue, an attorney from Kentucky, bough the waterfront 30-acre homestead of James and Sarah Lanier, had it surveyed and platted into lots for a town he named “Trabue”.  Col. Trabue and his wife, Virginia, arrived in 1885, and took up residence in a cabin vacated by the Lanier’s and built this building for use as his office.

 
In December 1887, those who lived in the town of Trabue gathered around a billiards table in the Hector House, drew up and signed the articles incorporating the town.  Trabue was not invited.  Those signing the articles named the town after a point of navigation that had been on the earliest maps since the 1600s, Punta Gorda meaning “fat point” by Spanish speaking fishermen.

The construction is board-and-batten:  boards set vertically side-by-side, with a smaller board, called the batten, covering where the two boards meet.  

The floors are only one-board thick, the boards rest directly on the joints.  You can still see the original “wavy” glass in some of the windows.  

Although Col. Trabue and his wife Virginia never lived here, it was remodeled, a kitchen added and rented to winter visitors.  
Bob and Norma Henry donated the Trabue Office to the Historical Society.  It was moved from its original site on Cross Street (41 South) to a site beside the Post Office at the corner of Marion Avenue and Nesbitt Street.  In November 2000, it was moved to the Park and restoration work was completed.