{"id":365852,"date":"2026-08-08T02:19:14","date_gmt":"2026-08-08T02:19:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/365852\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T02:19:14","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T02:19:14","slug":"for-the-first-time-in-over-a-century-central-floridas-historic-bannon-island-is-for-sale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/365852\/","title":{"rendered":"For the first time in over a century, Central Florida\u2019s historic Bannon Island is for sale\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bannon Island, a storied pioneer island in the middle of Polk County\u2019s Lake Marion, is now on the market for the first time in over a hundred years.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Located at\u00a07950 Bannon Fish Camp Road<\/a>\u00a0in southeast Haines City, the 20-acre island\u2019s first known resident was Echo Emathla Chipco, also known as the Seminole tribe\u2019s Chief Chipco<\/a>, who maintained a camp on the island until the 1880s, according to the\u00a0Lakeland Ledger<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A few years later, the island was purchased for $1.25 an acre by an Irish-born Catholic man from New York named Partick Bannon. Despite being a well-known carpenter who was reportedly recruited by Thomas Edison to build phonograph cabinets<\/a>, Bannon and his wife Annie Marie Ryan decided to head south to Florida following a bad bout with pneumonia, says the publication.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

In 1887, Bannon began construction on a two-story, cross-shaped home with an octagon-style roof<\/a> in the center. The home, which was built from cypress and pine lumber shipped from Tampa, included a classroom to homeschool his six kids. It also served as the\u00a0first site of Catholic mass<\/a>\u00a0in Polk County in 1895, celebrated for Bannon\u2019s family and nearby railroad workers.<\/p>\n

Over the years, Bannon worked a 10-acre citrus grove and a profitable fish camp on the island until his death in 1942.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Today, Bannon Island is designated as a \u201cCentury Pioneer Family Farm<\/a>\u201d by the Florida Department of Agriculture, which recognizes continuous original ownership for 100 years or more. The estate is currently owned by Bannon\u2019s descendants, the O\u2019Learys, who built a restored version of the original home in 2003, designed by architect William H. Philips.\u00a0<\/p>\n

If you want to own a piece of Florida pioneer history, it won\u2019t be cheap. Bannon Island is currently asking $12 million. The listing agent is Lisa Kleine of Red Bird Realty.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Bannon Island isn\u2019t the only Central Florida island on the market. Over in Lady Lake, the 50-acre\u00a0Bird Island<\/a> has been up for grabs for quite awhile, with a $2.2 million price tag.<\/p>\n

This story first appeared in Creative Loafing Tampa Bay.<\/p>\n

Every house has a story, and our mission is to tell Orlando\u2019s story through the lens of our community\u2019s most exceptional and historic homes. Orlando Weekly\u2019s real estate features are not ads and are assembled by our editorial department. But we love public input. Do you know of a unique Florida home we should highlight? Let us know, and email\u00a0cgreenberg@orlandoweekly.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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\n\tRelated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bannon Island, a storied pioneer island in the middle of Polk County\u2019s Lake Marion, is now on the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":365853,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[1623,148466,15673,1626,79050,139,141,140,8990,1627,1628],"class_list":["post-365852","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-apple-news","tag-bannon-island","tag-florida-history","tag-florida-real-estate","tag-historic-florida-homes","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-orlando-real-estate","tag-rare-florida-homes","tag-slideshow-gallery"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365852","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=365852"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365852\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/365853"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=365852"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=365852"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=365852"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}