1897, Carpenter Gothic style

This house was constructed by Leonard Eaton, Crescent City’s most prominent architect and builder, for Lee Benham in 1897. Benham came to Crescent City in the early 1880s from Jacksonville and opened the first documented general store in the community. His store, located at 11 S. Lake St., is now the 3 Bananas Restaurant. The house remained in the Benham Family until the early 1940s when it was purchased by Margaret Mann. It is significant for its association with the residential development of Crescent City during the late nineteenth century. The current owners are Michael and Tracy McKeown.

Carpenter Gothic, a peculiarly American version of the Gothic Revival, is a distinctly Victorian style found on many of Florida’s surviving nineteenth century churches. A prime example is the Episcopal Church of the Holy Comforter. It was popularized nationally in the writings and architectural pattern books of Andrew Jackson Downing, Alexander Jackson Davis, and Richard Upjohn, published in the mid nineteenth century. The hallmark of the style are steeply pitched gable roof and the extensive use of ornamental wood vergeboard, brackets, and spindlework.