There used to be a big fine house on the shores of Lemon Bay across from where Englewood Bank is today. The large parcel of bayfront property that went with it consisted of 116.5 acres.

The land was purchased from the state in 1878 by Mr. William E. Loper. Technically, it was government lot No. 2. township 41 South, range 20 east. But I find another description of it more interesting.

"Beginning at a stub on Lemon Bay, 12 1/2 links north of a cabbage palm hacked twice on the north side, and run east 292 feet to a point 100 feet south of a certain barn: thence north 208 feet: thence, west to tide water on Lemon Bay: thence southeast following meander line of tide."

Many of the early Florida land sale delineations, such as this one, although now almost amusing, were usual. If you stop to think about it, surveyors must have had incredible difficulty in those days with virgin property such as Loper's. They had no landmarks such as roads, bridges or other surveyed properties with which to work.

The price of the Loper property, hacked palm tree and all, is not recorded. We know William Goff, credited with being Englewood's first pioneer, paid $90 for his 60 acres of bayfront property the same year. Using that price scale, Mr. Loper probably paid something like $200.

Although they built one of the area's largest houses at an early point in Englewood's history, almost nothing has sifted down over the years about the Lopers.

One record indicates Mr. and Mrs. Loper built the large two-story house in 1897 as a winter residence. But a member of the Goff family remembered differently.

Ellie Goff was born here in 1885. In later years she recounted how her mother would take her, while she was quite young, to visit the Lopers. They would walk south from their cabin at the end of what is now Dearborn Street to the Lopers' farm.

This changes the origin of the house, making it a little older and a working farmhouse instead of just a winter residence.

In 1903, the widow Eudora Stevens bought the Loper property and adjacent land that extended south to Point-of-Pines. In 1920, she deeded eight acres of her property, which included the house, a gardener's cottage and several farm buildings to her son-in-law Dyer O. Clark. He was described as being from Pennsylvania, the president of the Southern Pacific Railroad and a wealthy stockbroker.

Mr. and Mrs. Clark became early snowbirds. They were well-known socialites in Pennsylvania. Their visits here were looked forward to by many local residents, as they evidently added quite a bit of gaiety to what little social life then existed in Englewood.

After Mr. Clark's death, Mrs. Clark continued wintering here until 1943, the year she died. By this time the house had taken their name. Until its demise, it was known, first, as the Clark Farmhouse, and then, like Cinderella became a princess, the farmhouse became known as the Clark Mansion.

Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Stroh were the next owners of the property. In 1951, they had the big house moved to where Englewood Bank's drive-through teller is today.

In 1972, First Federal Bank bought the property and wanted the area for their parking lot and drive-through windows. The Clark mansion was demolished.

Time had run out for what was probably the oldest building in the Charlotte County part of Englewood. The farmhouse that grew up and became a mansion was no more.

Discuss this article on the forums. (0 posts)