DeLand’s First City Hall, Built In 1890

𝟏𝟗𝟖𝟖 Great age can make something more valuable, but age also can be a barrier to preservation efforts. Consider DeLand’s first City Hall. Built in 1890 on West Indiana Avenue facing what became Veterans Park (and later, the Volusia County Administration Center), it was moved to a lot on the corner of North Amelia and Michigan avenues and converted into a private residence. Stetson University eventually purchased the property.

Fast forward to June 1986. Stetson needed the land, and the West Volusia Historical Society needed an office and museum space. Stetson President Pope Duncan offered to give the Society the one-story wooden building if WVHS paid moving costs and the City of DeLand provided a new site. Unfortunately, no suitable lot could be found, and all did not end well.

Two years later (mid-May 1988) new SU President H. Douglas Lee notified Acting City Manager Hal Pyke that a professional house mover had deemed the building poorly constructed (it had two sections: the original main room and a kitchen/bathroom addition). Lee said that the age and condition of the original section made it doubtful that it could be moved successfully, and although he emphasized that Stetson shared with the city and the historical society a commitment to renovate historic facilities whenever possible and economically feasible, it did not appear possible to renovate the Old City Hall.

And then WVHS got a new offer. On May 16, DeLand City Commissioner David Disney told the city that two lifelong residents were willing to purchase a two-story historic 1886 house on West Michigan Avenue and donate it to the city to be used as a house museum and office for WVHS. City Manager Pyke reported that renovation costs would make it impossible to save the original city hall, so after the structure was documented, it was demolished. Not all preservation efforts end in success.

— SOURCES: THE DELAND SUN NEWS, Feb.7 and Sept. 26, 1986; and May 4 and May 17, 1988. The 1920s photo, from the Dreggors Collection in the WVHS Archives, shows a portion of the 100 block of West Indiana Avenue, with the first City Hall on the left and the Fire House, once the first schoolhouse, next door. A familiar downtowner, E.E. Ropes, is eating his lunch on the City Hall steps.