Our Favorite Things: The Murphy-Burroughs Home

Things and places we love in Southwest Florida

In 1984, when friends of the Murphy-Burroughs home were putting together documentation for an application to the National Register of Historic Places, then-mayor Ellis Solomon said that he hoped the restored and protected house would stir interest about the part of town where it sat. The home, on the riverfront at 2505 First St., was one of the anchoring properties of a 1900s boom in luxury houses. But in the 1980s, it was in a section of Fort Myers now a little bit forgotten.

What a difference a few decades make. Today development is flourishing all around the Murphy-Burroughs Home and Gardens, as friends of the home reestablish its vibrant legacy in the 21st century.

(Burroughs Home, from floridamemory.com)

Before it became property of the City of Fort Myers, the 1901 Georgian Revival mansion was home to two families who loved and cared for it, the Murphys and the Burroughs. Managed by Uncommon Friends Foundation, the house and gardens are a beautiful reminder of the early years of the city.

“It’s one of the last opportunities we will have to experience what life was like then in Fort Myers,” says Marc Collins. Executive director of Uncommon Friends Foundation, he has been shepherding the house back to its full glory after it was damaged during Hurricane Ian in 2022.

Mr. Murphy Builds His Dream House

The house, commissioned by Montana resident John Thornburg Murphy, has spacious front rooms, a dramatic center staircase, and a wide veranda. (A “dancing porch” was added by the Burroughs after Hurricane Donna in the 1960s.)

Murphy was born Feb. 26, 1842, in Missouri. In his late teens he headed west, and the career he had after is almost identical to that of his best friend, Montana cattleman and Fort Myers winter resident D.A.G. Flowerree. Both men started as merchants in Gold Rush towns, then invested their money in cattle and sheep stock and mining ventures in Montana. Murphy’s 79 Ranch (est. 1879) on Sweetgrass Creek in Montana is still a subject for scholars of the west. (Fun fact: Both Kid Curry and the Sundance Kid worked there.)

(John T. Murphy, from ancestry.com)

The two friends landed at Fort Myers Hotel (later Royal Palm) in 1898 to hunt and fish. Both men were widowers, but Flowerree had remarried, and he had with him his wife and young son. Murphy brought his two daughters, Addie and Frances, who were 24 and 22.

Murphy bought riverfront land and sold half the parcel to Flowerree, and the two built homes next door to each other. Architectural plans came from George Barber’s firm in Knoxville, Tenn. Workers buzzed around the two homes, erecting, plastering, and painting them together. Murphy’s home cost $15,000 and Flowerree’s $20,000 when they were finished.

While Mr. and Mrs. Flowerree hosted lavish parties for Fort Myers society, neighbor Murphy held “stag” lunches and dinners for the town’s gentlemen, with beer, sardines, cheeses, cigars, and big stories in great supply. The weekly Fort Myers Press mentioned the “rich furniture, rare Persian rugs,” and sumptuous oil paintings at the home.

Murphy didn’t stay “stag” forever. He married Clara Cobb, 30 years his junior, on his 65th birthday in 1907. The wedding, called “one of the most romantic of the season,” was at the home of their friends Mr. and Mrs. John Dean in what is now Dean Park. Like the Deans, Clara was a native of Providence, R.I., and she frequently visited friends in Fort Myers. Her father attended the wedding; Murphy’s children did not.

For almost seven years, Mrs. Murphy was a popular hostess, welcoming the Ladies Circle for games and refreshments at her palatial home, and welcoming friends to the Murphy yacht for pleasure outings.

Murphy died in May 1914 in Helena, and Clara’s time in Fort Myers became rarer. She sent a cable to friend Walter Langford in February 1917 to say she had married John Rittenhouse in Boston. Langford, a banker, bought the house from her that year and kept it for a few months before selling it to a winter resident named Cole. Cole sold it in 1919 to banker and real estate tycoon Nelson T. Burroughs of Chicago.

A Lively New Life

Burroughs wanted to discover all that Florida had to offer. After trying a couple of different winter spots, he rented the Lozier mansion on First Street in January 1919, bringing with him his wife, Adeline, and his daughters, Jettie, 39, and Mona, 29. He was quickly keen on the future of Fort Myers and eager to snap up a home when the family returned the next fall.

After buying the grand “Murphy” home, the family became the center of society: “Burroughs Home is Scene of a Brilliant Party,” gushed the March 8, 1923, edition of The Fort Myers News Press. More than 150 guests had danced and socialized in the home’s gracious front rooms and sprawling gardens.

(A group on the lawn at the Burroughs home, floridamemory.com)

Mona flew the nest when she married at age 39, although she and her first husband, Joseph Wandrack, were frequent visitors. Jettie kept up the sisters’ social schedule. She hosted a benefit musicale and garden reception in 1932, assisted by a dozen “who’s who” of Fort Myers, including Mrs. Robley Newton (mother of James Newton).

(James Newton and N.T. Burroughs at the entrance to Edison Park, FGCU digital Uncommon Friends archives)

Nelson Burroughs died in Chicago in September 1932 of pneumonia at age 93, and his widow died the year after. Jettie returned to Fort Myers each winter and was active with garden clubs, Edison Park Community Congregational Church, and more.

After Wandrack’s death in 1945, Mona married twice again, and she and her third husband, Franz Fischer, settled largely in Fort Myers toward the end of their lives. Jettie Burroughs died in 1969, leaving her estate to her sister.

Mona Fischer died in 1978. She bequeathed the home to the City of Fort Myers, to be used as a museum, garden, school, or something similarly for the public good. One proviso was that the city could take possession only after the death of her husband, Franz. He lived another five years. During his last illness, it was clear that there were problems with the house, including a hole in the roof. Neither the city nor the inheritors of the rest of Mona’s estate had the authority to make repairs while Franz was living there.

A Grand Lady Saved

Franz Fischer died in December 1983, and those who had the home’s best interests at heart went into quick action. There was talk swirling that a redone Edison Bridge would be coming through the grounds; if the home were on the National Register of Historic Places, that possibility would be off the table.

In January 1984, the city council approved Mayor Ellis Solomon’s decision to apply for a place on the National Register of Historic Places, which was secured in August of that year. Preservation consultants found the house remarkably sound, particularly the original maple floors, and remarkably unaltered. With private fundraising for renovations ongoing, the home was opened for a garden party in 1986, the talk of the town. Visitors were frequent through the 1990s, and volunteers kept the place humming.

“It’s one of the greatest gifts ever given to the City of Fort Myers,” says Marc Collins.

To Be Full of Life Again

The home has had setbacks before. Hurricane Gordon damaged the roof in 2000, and just after mold remediation was completed in 2003, 2004’s Hurricane Charley caused damage to a facility where much of the home’s furniture was being stored. The city completed a renovation in 2006, and it was turned over to the Uncommon Friends Foundation to manage.

“It’s one of the greatest gifts ever given to the City of Fort Myers,” Collins says. And with Fort Myers’ history sometimes getting lost in its rapid growth, “It’s more important now than ever.”

After Hurricane Ian struck on Sept. 30, 2022, the staff and board had to cancel events that provided revenue for the upkeep and maintenance of the home. Since the hurricane, Collins has been asking the city for help with repairs to the carriage house, main house, and grounds. In April of this year, the city council approved funding of up to $2,225,00.00 for repairs.

Collins is particularly eager to get the grounds and the dancing porch completely restored, but he is already welcoming crowds back. Weddings and private parties are ongoing again. Collins and the staff and board hosted 180 people for Easter, with 800 eggs hidden around the grounds for children to find. The house also hosted a high tea recently, with a seating of 50, and more are planned.

(A table set for Adeline Burroughs High Tea, Mother’s Day weekend, 2024, courtesy Uncommon Friends Foundation)

Collins wants people to discover a place full of life, not a stuffy house museum frozen in time. That, he says, is the meaning behind the Burroughs’ gift.

“People enjoy being there,” he says of the home. “I think that’s why the Burroughs gave it to the city. We want to give everyone both the desire and the opportunity to see it.”