Flagler County Historical Society Holden House and Annex

Holden House

The circa 1918 Holden House was constructed by Samuel Merwin Bortree for his daughter, Ethel Lura Bortree and her husband, Tom Edward Holden. Holden was the town pharmacist and actively involved in local business, civic and political affairs

The Holden’s raised their two daughters, Altajane and Eleanor (called Tommie) in the house, and continued to reside there until the 1970's. The room to the east of the living room was used for their music room. The sun porch was added during the mid-1930's and Mrs. Holden had the floor of the porch painted in bright colors depicting the sun rising.

The kitchen is much the same except for the addition of a modern stove and refrigerator. The room off the kitchen was originally used as Mrs. Holden's sewing room and a play room for the children. The bathroom downstairs was added in later years. Upstairs, the house, when built, had one of the few indoor bathrooms in Bunnell and it boasted a tiled floor using the small hexagon shaped tiles such as the design used in the Holden Drugstore. The bedroom on the west side upstairs was Tommie’s bedroom and the room at the north side upstairs was Altajane’s bedroom. The upstairs front room was the Holden's bedroom and opened to a screened porch

When the house was built the front gable over the front porch was inset with pieces of apothecary bottles. When the sun porch was added the gable there was inset with antique colored glass, old pieces of dishes and even an automobile tail light or two thrown in for good measure. The house is partly furnished as it would have been in the 1920’s with the Society on a quest for additional period furniture having Flagler County connections.

In addition to managing the Holden House Museum, The Flagler County Historical Society operates a museum and a unique research library in an annex behind the house. The annex contains clothing, furniture and other artifacts of early Flagler County along with many fine collections including bound volumes of The Flagler Tribune, 1918-1980; copies of the Bunnell Home Builder, 1912-1918; early Florida, St Johns and Flagler County maps; over 125 matted and framed photographs of the early years; over 6,000 alphabetized obituaries published in area newspaper; individual files on early Flagler; individual files with information on Flagler places and organizations; and a searchable computer family data base of over 235,000 names from Northern Florida and Southern Georgia.

Exhibits

Our staff is looking forward to your visit on Museum Day!

History Annex
The History Annex has clothing, furniture and other artifacts of early Flagler County families along with many fine collections including:

Bound volumes Flagler Tribune 1918 - 1980, Copies of Bunnell Home Builder 1912 - 1918,
Early St. Johns and Flagler maps, Framed photographs of early years, Inventories of cemeteries in Florida & Georgia, Over 6,000 indexed obituaries published in local newspapers, and Individual files with information on Flagler places and organizations.

Participation in Museum Day is open to any tax-exempt or governmental museum or cultural venue on a voluntary basis. Smithsonian magazine encourages museum visitation, but is not responsible for and does not endorse the content of the participating museums and cultural venues, and does not subsidize museums that participate.