A man by the name of Samuel Frederic DeBary born in Germany migrated to NYC in the 1850s and started his own wine importing business for Mumm's Champagne and various French wines. Samuel Debary eventually traveled to the small town of Enterprise in 1870 and stayed a the a hotel called the Brock House which was a great winter retreat that others could stay at and locally go hunting or fishing. If you recall we investigated Enterprise Cemetery one of the only remnants of this ghost town.

Debary really enjoyed his stay here so he purchased 400 acres along with his son Adolph. They then built an 8,000 square foot mansion which would be used as a winter treat. At the time the mansion was near by Lake Monroe, The St. Johns River and pine forest great for hunting or fishing.  The mansion had 20 rooms and was an Italianate style hunting lodge. This also became one of the oldest standing structures in this area and boasted a care taker's shack, ice house, lightening rods, a wooden swimming pool Florida's first and even had an airplane strip with a hangar later in time when the use of airplane travel became quite abundant. But this estate was more then just your typical hunting lodge it was also very much like a plantation. 

Debary started his own citrus crop surrounding the mansion. He also planted pecans trees and eventually a decade later he started his own steamboat business right on the St. Johns River where his citrus grove could be exported to other near by towns. He called his steamship business the Debary Merchant Line. With this expansion the mansion property increased to 6,000 acres which would cover most of the town of Debary today and perhaps even Enterprise. 

But Debary Hall became a place of many well know visitors who would sometimes visit here for months at a time just to hunt and fish. The years that people would spend here at the mansion often found it well entertaining. Since Debary ran a wine business many large elegant parties were held here and empty champagne bottles would line the gardens, walkways as well as driveway.  The swimming pool was spring fed and many northerners would stay in the rooms upstairs which had an upper porch with a nice scenic view. Yearly the property was taken care of by many freed slaves from the civil war as well as others who farmed the land. 

This mansion was absolutely gorgeous as it boasted stained glass above the entrance ways as well as many other unique features. Over the years the mansion served the Debary family quite well. However in 1941 Debary's granddaughter died in a plane crash. It was said that it was there private plane that went down I do not have much information or where the crash took place but she was the last American heir to the Debary family. This put a cease to this vacation home and today it is now a historical site and museum of once 6,000 acres now to just merely 10 in acreage.

Today if you were to walk around the grounds you will find that it is a wonderful picnic spot as many large trees canopy over the grounds. If you were to walk inside the mansion all the old antique furniture from the 1800s still remains such as the grand piano or the Debary Family Crest. The entire mansion still looks like a plantation and the swimming pool, barn, care takers house and even a small cottage still remain. Many of the other out buildings no longer stand but at one time did exist when this farming and hunting lodge thrived. 

I believe that often we here the stories here about how great Debary Hall was but we never here the other side of it. Questions like hunting accidents, tragic deaths, rape, murder, abuse, and other things. We are not saying all those things have happened but it is apparent that the Debary family haunts its halls and grounds. A small abandoned cottage near by also part of the Debary Mansion has a very sinister feeling it almost feels like something horrible in nature occurred here perhaps because Debary Hall was more then just a hunting lodge but a place where giant elegant balls and parties took place. But it was also a place of romance and on a psychic level a place of tragedy for the Debary family as eventually this successful family was no more. I have looked at photos from Debary Hall and you can clearly see a black an white photo of the entire family now only a mansion remains of what use to be such a prosperous powerful family. 

©  By

Rick-AngelOfThyNight
http://www.debaryhall.com/

Updates:

A person has contacted me and told she once talked with the curator of the property. Someone who takes care the Hall and shuts it down later at night make sure the doors are locked things like that. She said that the curator told her that she hears ghostly parties, music, conversations after the place is closed for the night, and even once she put her keys upstairs only to find them downstairs by the door. This place is very haunted and just as I speculated them parties were pretty wild and it seems the residual energy from them still lingers.