By Dickie Anderson
Architectural Treasures of Amelia Island
Amelia Island offers a unique opportunity to experience history. Fernandina Beach’s Historic District is a living museum. Like sleeping beauties, the island’s Victorian-era homes have been frozen in time. Each offers a story about the people and events that shaped the history of Florida’s northernmost barrier island.
Once a month, we will feature a home located in Fernandina Beach’s Historic District.
Villa Las Palmas
One of the grandest homes in Fernandina Beach’s Historic District, Villa Las Palmas, is architecturally eclectic. Design elements include elements of Art Nouveau, Colonial and Mediterranean Revival. The 12,000-square-foot home has massive proportions and a dramatic wraparound verandah. The interior offers large, spacious rooms, a second-floor ballroom, and a basement. A winding stairway leads to the roof to a “widow’s walk.” Windows wrap around the second floor of the home. The front entrance has dramatic Palladian windows above the door. The house is sited on what was originally the gardens of the David Yulee home. The Yulee home no longer exists, a victim of termites.
Villa Las Palmas is one of Amelia Island’s “brides’ houses.” Nathaniel Borden, a successful lumberman, fell in love with 17-year-old Florence “Flossie” Reynard from Brooklyn, New York. There was a 26-year age difference; Borden was considered too old for such a young bride. Her family did not approve. They eloped to Cuba in January 1907. He was 45 and she was 19. Borden has strong ties to Cuba, was close to Jose Marti, the Cuban poet, political philosopher, and revolutionary hero.
Quite the character, Nathanial Borden received vice consul appointments for Spain, Norway, Sweden, the United Kingdom, Uruguay, Brazil, and declared himself consul to Cuba. He built a house worthy of his perceived importance. His ongoing support of Cuba earned him the honorary title of Colonel. He enjoyed wearing official badges and was considered a “natty” dresser. The couple were devoted to each other. He called her “Flossie” and she called him “Honey.”
Borden was a councilman, mayor of Fernandina, and an active member of the Board of Trade. There are many stories about the couple, and especially Flossie. One describes her outing in what was the first automobile on the island, and she managed to hit the only other car on the island, driven by island physician Dr. Waas. She outlived her husband by many years and ended up living with a son in Washington, D.C. She left instructions that when she died, she wanted to be buried in a beloved grandfather clock that remained in Fernandina. Unfortunately, her wish could not be honored as at her time of death, she did not fit!
The house remains a remembrance of the glory years of Fernandina when the port bustled and elegant houses were built and lived in by the leaders in the community.