The Mannville Post Office and General Store (now known as Hale Real Estate, Inc.) is located in the West Putnam County community of Mannville, Captain William H. Mann, a Union veteran from Illinois, founded and laid out the town in 1883. He recorded a plat of the town with the clerk of the circuit court in June of that year. The development of Mannville closely coincided with the laying out of the Florida Southern Railway, which passed along the northern perimeter of the town.

Like many Florida communities Mannville was associated with the Florida citrus boom of the 1880s and 1890s. William Mann was a noted horticulturalist. He planted an orange grove at Mannville. He owned 2000 acres in the vicinity of Mannville, which he offered in 10-acre grove lots. The boom finally collapsed with the Great Freeze of the winter of 1894-1895. Following the Freeze the Florida citrus industry progressively moved to warmer locations in the southern part of the Florida peninsula.

In the later part of 1883, William Mann conveyed Lot 1 of Block 12 to Miles C. Spray. Spray constructed a general store on the lot shortly thereafter. One of the first descriptions of the community mentioned Spray as being in the general merchandise business. In 1885 Spray conveyed the property for $600 to Henry French. The sale was a considerable amount more than the original conveyance from Mann to Spray, indicating the construction of the store. French was described in state business directories of the time as being in the general merchandise business. French sold the property in 1887 to Philip T. DeVald, another merchant. DeVald sold the property to Maurice Willis for $800 in 1891. Willis owned the property until 1906 when he conveyed it to the partnership of Chauncey Butler and Henry H. Broad. Butler obtained full ownership the following year. In 1919 Butler sold the store to Arthur Mann, a relative of the town founder, William Mann. In 1928, Henry T. Mann, another family member, conveyed the property, including the store and its contents, to Richard J. Rash. During this period, Henry T. Mann served as a postmaster of Mannville.

The Mannville Post Office and General Store is one of the oldest buildings in Putnam County. It is an unusual example of vernacular commercial architecture. It was constructed as a wood frame commercial building with open bays on the first floor for displaying merchandise and an open loft on the second floor for storage. The original pier system was wooden stumps, another indication of an early date of construction.

The Mannville Post Office and General Store is an example of a rare Florida property type. Most historic wood frame commercial buildings in Florida have either lost to fire or demolished. Building codes in the early twentieth century often prohibited their construction. The Mannville Post Office and General Store is one of a handful of surviving examples in the state of this unusual property type.

HALE REAL ESTATE, INC. 

1023 State Road 20 (P.O. Box 233), Interlachen, Fl  32148

Phone: (386) 684-6110  --  Fax: (386) 684-6120

Web-site: www.halerealty.biz                  E-mail: hale@halerealty.biz

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