A Morning at the Stately Gamble Plantation

Let’s get the controversial bit out of the way first. This state park in Ellenton is actually called Judah P. Benjamin Confederate Memorial at Gamble Plantation Historic State Park. I wish it had a different name, like Gamble Plantation State Park or Gamble Mansion State Park. But it doesn’t. Regardless of the state park’s actual name, it holds a remarkable amount of history – good and bad – and quite a few unique items on the grounds and in the museum which are worth seeing.

About Gamble Plantation Historic State Park

Gamble Plantation sits on sixteen acres which includes the mansion, the Patten House, a museum, an archives building, and smokehouse ruins. About a mile north lie the sugar mill ruins. More on those later. The mansion house is the only surviving antebellum plantation house in South Florida. It is only open for tours which cost $6 and are well worth the cost. The grounds are free to visit. Many professional photographers use them as a place to take photos with clients. The Sunday I visited, three groups with professional photographer in tow set up around the grounds to take photos, most of those in front of the mansion, at the gazebo, and in front of the stand of bamboo.

• Address: 3708 Northeast, Patten Ave, Ellenton, FL 34222
• Hours: Thursday through Monday, 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM
• Cost: Free. $6 for the house tour.

The History of Gamble Plantation

In 1843, Major Robert Gamble took advantage of the Armed Occupation Act of 1842. He, his brother, and a small group of workers and slaves sailed nine miles up the Manatee River until they ran aground on a sandbar. They cleared land and built log cabins in which to live. With an abundance of sabal palms, the cabins were likely built of sabal palm logs. Experts believe the slave quarters were constructed of palm logs into the 1850s when a form of tabby was used to build their cabins. Gamble Mansion took five years to build; construction began in 1845 and finished in 1850. The kitchen and skilled workers rooms were likely built first then the mansion which sits in front of those rooms separated by the customary dog trot.

Gamble Mansion

Construction of the mansion began in the mid-1840s and continued in stages. When it was completed, it stood two stories in the Greek revival style. Clay bricks, tabby bricks, and poured tabby were used in the construction. Tabby is a kind of concrete made with water, limestone, and sand, three ingredients found in abundance in Florida. The mansion has a cistern to the east, skilled worker rooms to the north, and wide wrap-around porches. Its design suited Florida’s climate. The home faces south. Wide windows on the east and west sides of the mansion allow the prevalent breezes to cool the rooms. The wide porch roofs and two-foot-thick exterior walls further helped to shade and insulate the house. It had a parlor, dining room, and office on the ground floor. On the second floor were two bedrooms and a dressing room. At the time, property taxes were levied (in part) on the number of rooms in a house. Large rooms without closets dominated interior design.

The mansion was occupied on and off through the Civil War. Afterwards, it remained empty for a number of years. It was sold for taxes in 1914 and fertilizer stored in it. The corrosive effects of the fertilizer coupled with years of decay and neglect took their toll on the building. Today, the only original parts of the house are tabby walls and the columns. Period furnishings help show how the house looked inside. Some additions, such as concrete floors in the skilled workers rooms were added for the safety of tour visitors.

Sugar Mill Operations

Gamble acquired nearly 3,500 acres for his sugar plantation. With his growing operation, he built a wharf to ship out sugar and molasses and ship in dry goods, a two-story sugar mill located a mile away beyond the plantation fields, slave quarters (archaeologists still don’t know where those were located), and smokehouses. Besides sugarcane for exportable goods and cotton for clothing and other household items, the Gamble Plantation grew all of the vegetables needed by the owners, guests, and staff. They also raised livestock for meat and hunted and fished.

Gamble installed the most up-to-date machinery for his sugar works. However, except for the milling and refining, sugarcane was cultivated with primitive equipment and was backbreaking work. In the 1840s and early 1850s, Gamble Plantation was the leading producer of sugar and molasses in Florida. The mill housed two steam engines. One drove the cane mill which used rollers that weighed several tons. The second ran the grist and saw mill, and supplied water to the boilers in the sugar refinery.

In 1848, two hurricanes hit the Tampa Bay area. Though sugarcane thrives in wet conditions, it dies in flooded conditions. Gamble’s slaves dug deep canals to drain the fields and prevent flooding in future years. In 1849, Gamble Plantation produced a bumper crop of sugarcane. As did all the other sugar plantations causing a large decline in sugar prices. Another disaster struck in 1849 when the sugar works burned. Three large wood-frame structures, they stood no chance against fire. The new mill (the ruins we see today) were built of fire-resistant tabby and clay brick.

In 1856, crippled by the costs of building his mansion and the plantation’s failures in sugar production, Major Gamble turned the property over to his major creditor and brother-in-law, Alan McFarlan. The plantation changed hands again in 1859 when it was sold along to a Louisiana partnership, Cofield and Davis. They purchased the property for $190,000. The deed included the names of 185 slaves.

History of Gamble Mansion During the Civil War

When the Civil War broke out, Cofield and Davis stopped making mortgage payments and shipped their slaves out of Florida. Gamble Mansion sat empty until Captain Archibald MacNeill, a Confederate blockade runner, took up residence in the house. He and his men used the Manatee River to ship sugar and molasses out of Florida to help fund Confederate efforts.

After the Civil War, Confederate Secretary of State Judah P. Benjamin escaped the North American mainland by way of Florida. Captains Leroy Lesley and James McKay guided Benjamin through the area. Tradition holds that he spent a couple of weeks to a couple of months at Gamble Plantation. From there, Captain Frederick Tresca and sailor Hiram McLeod took Benjamin to the Bahamas. He made his way to Cuba and escaped to England where he lived another 19 years and put his law degree to practice. England did not cooperate with American requests for extradition, possibly still a bit salty from the Revolutionary War.

Post-War History

Major George Patten purchased Gamble Plantation in 1873. He and his family initially lived in the mansion. Patten subdivided the 3,500 acre plantation into small farms and residential plots, selling those to help pay the expenses of running the plantation and maintaining the mansion. However, by the mid-1800s the upkeep of the mansion was deemed too expensive. A new frame home with modern conveniences was completed in 1898. The Gamble mansion never served as a residence again.

The mansion’s last private owner purchased it for taxes in 1914. They used the mansion to store fertilizer for several year. In the 1920s, community efforts saved the mansion from the bulldozer, and it was deeded to the State of Florida in 1925. It was heavily damaged by the hurricane of 1926. Renovation and restoration efforts started soon after and continue to this day.

Things to Do at Gamble Plantation

Gamble Plantation Historic State Park only takes about 30 to 45 minutes to explore and another 45 minutes to tour the inside of Gamble Mansion if you choose to take the tour. While at Gamble Plantation, be sure to see the displays in the museum. Take a walk around the grounds. And perhaps bring a picnic to enjoy at one of the designated picnic areas.

The Patten House sits at one corner of the state park. Although it isn’t open to the public at this time, it’s an excellent example of the type of architecture found in many homes of the late 1800s in Florida. Fortunately, a number of these homes survived and are owned privately or have been moved to places like Heritage Village in Largo and Pioneer Florida Museum in Dade City.

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