Table of Contents:
NOT SO ANCIENT.
SHOULD SEE ORMOND BEACH
HOLLY HILL
Dating from the late 1800s, this structure began as a hotel for affluent travelers.
ORMOND BEACH
Less than 20 minutes north of Daytona Beach is this hidden gem.
The Timucuan Indians were in the area for thousands of years before the first Wite person set foot on its shores. Their village, named Nocoroco, was located near today’s Tomoka State Park.
Juan Ponce de León sailed by in 1513, and Spanish captain DePrado wrote of Nocoroco in the late 1500’s. But no one was ready to settle in this area, yet. Unfortunately, by the 1700s, most European accounts did not mention the Timucuan Indians along the East Coast. By then, the White man and his diseases had killed many and pushed the others further inland.
Ormond Beach area 1800s
It wasn’t until circa 1800 that any Europeans were in the area. James Ormond I, a Scottish planter, became a Spanish subject to receive one of the land grants Spain was passing out. He received an area near what is today’s Tomoka State Park.
On the 2,000-acre land grant, Ormond established the Damietto plantation. In the early days, they would grow cotton and indigo. Unfortunately, the Ormond family’s time here was brief. Circa 1819, a runaway slave from a nearby plantation killed James, and Jame’s widow fled to Scotland.
Their son, James II, arrived a few years later. He grew cotton, and the plantation thrived until his death in 1829. James Ormond III, only 12 years old at that time, could not handle the large plantation. When the overseer quit, the family moved to the Carolinas.
Circa 1835, Damietto faced the same demise as all the plantations in the area during the Third Seminole War.
Not Always Known as Ormond Beach.
Around 1873, a group of settlers from New Britain, Connecticut, established a citrus industry in the area. They named the area New Britain.
After the Civil War, circa 1876, James III returned to see what remained of the Damietta Plantation. He found his father’s tomb and part of the foundation. He also found some people making camp on the land and befriended them. John Anderson and Charles Bostrum.
In 1888, John Anderson and his partner Joseph Price built the Hotel Ormond. He would later serve as Volusia County Tax Assessor, expanding the community and building the Santa Lucia Plantation. To draw more people to the area, he organized the first auto race on Ormond Beach in 1902.
Charles Bostrom and his brother, John, also saw the area’s potential. They turned their home into a boarding house and were instrumental in the development and the area’s hospitality industry.
In 1880. John and Charles were involved in the town’s incorporation and instrumental in naming it after their friend Ormond.
It was not until 1950 that they tacked “Beach” onto the name.
What to See in Ormond Beach.
Because of Seminoles with torches, hurricanes, and the general fragility of wooden structures in soggy climates, few pre-1900 structures remain. However, the ones that are, are worth seeing.
Ormond Memorial Art Museum & Gardens
The museum and Gardens are not from pre-1900, but bear with me.
Circa 1946, artist Malcolm Fraser offered a collection of his works to any town on Florida’s east coast that would establish an art museum honoring returning veterans. Ormond Beach jumped at the chance to commemorate not only the service of World War II veterans but also that of all who fought.
The city donated land, the citizens donated money, and returning service members donated manpower. They also cleared land for an adjoining Memorial Garden.
Since 1946, the museum has remained an incredible social hub, hosting many weddings in the museum and gardens.
But what does this have to do with pre-1900?
Historic Emmons Cottage
Dating from 1885, this two-story Victorian home, constructed from termite-resistant Heart of Pine, was saved by the Halifax County Garden Club in 1998. Not only did they refurbish the structure, but they also moved it to the gardens of the Ormond Memorial Art Museum. It’s one of the few remaining structures in the area from before 1900.
Talahloka
Dating from 1887, this private residence began as John Anderson’s hunting lodge on his Santa Lucia Plantation. It is the only two-story palm log structure still standing in Florida. It is on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places. It is a private residence and should be treated as such.
Hotel Ormond Turret Fortunato Park
John Anderson and Joseph Price opened The Hotel Ormond in 1888. They sold it to Henry Flagler two years later, who laid a spur from his railroad and increased the number of rooms from 75 to over 400. It was the winter playground for the rich and famous from up north. Reaching from the beach to the river, parts of the property were sold off over the years. Unfortunately, the remaining building was torn down in 1992. All that remains today is a single turret, fortunately rescued by the Omond Beach Historical Society. It sits in Fortunato Park on land once part of the hotel’s property.
Nathan Cobb Cottage
This 1897 cottage began as a three-masted schooner named the Nathan F. Cobb, which ran aground off Ormond Beach. The schooner was salvaged, and some of the cargo and wood repurposed to build this cottage. Today, the cottage at 137 Orchard Lane is a Florida Heritage site, maintained by the Ormond Beach Historical Society.
Post 1900 Ormond Beach
The Stout-MacDonald House
Built across E. Granada Blvd. from the Hotel Ormond, the Queen Anne-style home at #38 dates from circa 1900 when Margaret Stout came to town. She worked for her friends Anderson and Price at their hotel, managing the news and curio department. (Public Relations and Marketing Today) She hired architect Sumner Gove, of Daytona architecture fame, to design the house.
Billy MacDonald, a manager at NYC’s Astor and later Plaza Hotels, was brought by the Hotel Ormond to manage its tearoom in 1922.
In 1926, MacDonald purchased the building at 58 East Granada Boulevard, operating it as a drugstore with a soda fountain on one side and a restaurant, Billy’s Tap Room, on the other.
In 1939, he bought the house from Margaret Stout’s siblings for his family. The family sells it in 1964 to Ormond Hotel Casements Inc.
Finally, the City of Ormond Beach bought it in 1979, making it the town’s welcome center and the office of the Ormond Beach Historical Society.
Hammock Home
Joseph Price, of Hotel Ormond fame, built this colonial-revival style home on John Anderson Drive for himself in 1904. He named it the Hammocks, referring to the shady area created by the large trees on the property. Although it has been modernized over the years, it still retains much of its original elegance. Today, it is still a private residence and is on the National Register of Historic Places.
Rowallan
Dating from 1913, as a winter home for Alexander Lindsay, part-owner of department stores in Rochester, New York. The name comes from a castle in his native Ayrshire, Scotland. Built primarily in a Colonial Revival style, it shares many of the same traits of its neighbor, the Hammocks down the street. It is still a private residence and is on the National Register of Historic Places.
The Casements of Ormond Beach
Built in 1913 for a New Haven, CT, chemist-turned-Episcopal clergyman, in the Shingle Style with American Queen Anne touches. Sitting across the street from the Hotel Ormond, it has large casement windows.
It was sold five years later to its most famous resident, John D. Rockefeller, Henry Flagler’s partner in the little oil company they built, Standard Oil. He had been admiring it for years from his suite at Flagler’s Hotel Ormond. It would serve as his winter residence and the center of society until he died in 1937. The family would sell it two years later. The sale marked the beginning of a period of decline in Ormond Beach, a decline that was only reinforced when Flagler’s Florida East Coast Hotel Company sold the Hotel Ormond in 1949. Ormond Beach’s Gilded Age came to an end.
The Casements would have several owners over the next several years, including a stint as a girls’ preparatory school. By the 1960s, it had been abandoned, with only vagrants eating scraps where, 30 years earlier, Rockefellers, Fords, Edisons, and Firestones sipped champagne.
Fortunately, it did not go the route of the hotel across the street. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1973, and the following year, the city bought it. The restoration was not quick or inexpensive. Today, it is a cultural center, and tours are available. Click the orange link for the website.
Ormond Fire House
This Spanish Colonial Revival-style building, dating from 1937, was Ormond Beach’s first true firehouse. A WPA project, it served as a combined fire, police, and jail station. The structure at 160 E Granada still stands, and the coquina and brick structure is on the National Register of Historic Places. As of 2026, it was serving as a law firm’s office.
ORMOND BEACH MAINLAND
North Beach Street.
Anderson–Price Memorial Library Building
Ormond Yacht Club
Across the street from the Anderson Price building and on supports over the Halifax River is this 1910 structure, also on the National Register of Historic Places. Designed by local architect Sumner Hale Gove, it originally had a 300’ dock extending north along the river to a boat shed with stalls. Storms in the 1920s and again in the 1940s took out the dock. More of a social club than an organization of sailors, the Ormond Yacht Club is now a nonprofit corporation that takes care of the historic structure.
Dix House
Dating from 1878, this simple structure was built by Colonel Dix for his two sisters. The second floor had an open plan and became the settlement’s meeting room. In 1880, the colony of New Britain met here to vote on changing the settlement’s name to Ormond Beach. It is still a private residence and is on the National Register of Historic Places.
As of 2026, Volusia County has 108 properties or districts on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP)
Ormond Beach’s South Beach Street.
Lippincott Mansion
Dating from 1895, this house on S Beach Street belonged to two sisters from Amherst, NH. The structure features Romanesque Revival, Queen Anne, and classical architectural elements.
The Porches
Across the street from the Lippincott residence is this home, dating from 1884. It was the winter home of Union Army Gen Adelbert Ames. The simple design incorporated many porches and windows for cross ventilation, as air conditioning in homes was still 50 years in the future.
The original property ran down to the river. Later, the family gave part of it to the city, and it is now home to Ames Park. Both residences are private homes and are on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places.
North of Ormond Beach.
Tomoka State Park
Three miles north of Ormond Beach is this state park, once home to the Nocoroco village, inhabited as early as 5000 B.C. These early occupants were ancestors to the Timucua. Besides nature and numerous bird species, the park has historical remnants, including the Timucuan village of Nocoroco, the Tomokie Fountain, Mount Oswald Plantation, and Indian mounds.
Dummett Plantation Mill Ruins
Just north of Tomoka are the few remaining ruins of the 1825 Dummett Plantation Mill.
Colonel Thomas Dummett, a British Marine officer, bought the plantations of John Bunch and John Addison, creating a plantation of almost 2,000 acres.
He added a sugar mill and also ran a rum distillery, using the first steam-powered can-crushing mill in the area. In 1825, he sold it to the McRae brothers, who had it until 1836, when all the plantations went up in smoke. Today, the few ruins are fenced off, and you can only view them through chain-link fencing. There are no facilities.
Ormond Tomb Park
Almost three miles north of Dummett, squished between two subdivisions, is this small 9-acre park on land that was once part of Captain James Ormond’s 2,000-acre Damietta plantation. Besides having a playground, it is also the final resting place of James Ormond II, the Captain’s son. A historic plaque is near Dixie Highway at the park’s entrance. The grave marker is north (left as you enter) of the playground under the trees.
Bulow Creek State Park
A minute north of the Tomb Park, this state park is on the right. Its claim to fame is the Fairchild Oak, which stands over 70 feet tall and has a trunk with a circumference of almost 24 feet. Estimates place the tree between 400 and 600 years old. Legend says James Ormond died under this tree.
But the park, on what was once part of the Ormond family plantation, contains remnants of the plantation’s foundations, a 1915 land office, and wells along its nature trails.
The Bulow Woods Trail is a 6.8-mile one-way path that starts at the Fairchild Oak and leads to the Bulow Plantation Ruins Historic State Park to the north.
NOTE: Trail maps are only available at the park office of Tomoka State Park.
Bulow Plantation Ruins Historic State Park.
Although this is officially in Flagler County, the 7-minute drive from Bulow Creek Park and the $4-5 per-car entrance fee make it well worth it. Established in 1821 by Charles Bulow, it was a prosperous sugar, cotton, and indigo plantation until the Second Seminole War. Then it was a spectacular fire. However, unlike Dummet plantation ruins, there are more that survived here, and you can walk among them.
Holly Hill, an Added Bonus.
Between Daytona Beach and Ormond Beach, on the mainland, is this little hidden jewel.
Holly Hill Public Market building
Just north of Mason Street, where N Beach Street becomes Riverside Dr, is this historic structure, dating to 1941 and a product of the WPA. Built with local cochina stone, it was to be the city’s farmers’ market forever. Unfortunately, by 2012, supermarkets closer to home and the beginning of food delivery services signaled the end of the market. Today, the U-shaped structure houses boutiques, offices, and a restaurant.
The “Real” Bill McCoy home.
Bill McCoy’s house sits at 1090 Riverside Drive, across from the river. This was a great location because Bill and his brothers built boats there. Their shipyard was across the street, where Sunrise Park is today. The house dates from 1897, but that’s not why it’s famous. Bill was a good boat builder, but that’s not what he’s most famous for.
During Prohibition, Bill began “importing” high-quality alcohol from the Bahamas. He would bring his 90-foot schooner to three miles off the coast of Florida, where it would transfer to smaller, faster boats. Bill did not waterdown his liquor, which was a practice at the time. He soon had a reputation for quality liquor. Less scrupulous bootleggers began passing their watered-down products as McCoy liquor. Bill put an end to that by signing every bottle of liquor he sold. If the bottle had his signature, you knew it was the “Real McCoy.” Today, the home is a vacation rental.
Holly Hill City Hall.
Another structure from the WPA era is this public building, designed by Daytona architect Alan J. MacDonough. Also built with local cochina stone, it originally housed City Hall, the police force, and the fire department. Today, this historic landmark at 1065 Ridgewood Ave. still houses City Hall and the Holly Hills Police Department.
Merci Train Car
To the right of City Hall, next to the tennis courts, is a wagon that almost looks like a circus wagon, under a metal cover. This train car was the “Florida” car from the Merci Train.
The what? In 1949, France sent the Train de la Reconnaissance française (Gratitude Train) to America. Being Americans, we gave it a nickname, the “Merci Train.” It was in response to the 1947 Friendship Train, which grew to more than 700 boxcars and crossed America, filling itself with foodstuffs that would eventually reach the war-worn people of France and Italy.
The Merci train consisted of 49 French war boxcars, each capable of carrying 40 men or 8 horses. Why 49? For the 48 US states and the Territory of Hawaii. The cars were laden with various treasures to show France’s gratitude for its liberation. Of the original 49 cars, 44 still exist—many of them are in front of American Legion Posts or in train museums.
Ormond Beach Summary.
Less than 20 minutes drive north of Daytona Beach, this beach town is worth a visit.
Although time, history, and the elements have not been kind to its historic structures, there are still enough to give you a glimpse into its past.