Chinsegut Hill Virtual Reward 2.0 Virtual Cache
Hidden : 6/4/2019
Difficulty:
1.5 out of 5
Terrain:
1.5 out of 5

Size: Size: virtual (virtual)

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Geocache Description:



At the present time the manor house and grounds are open weekends only to visitors. All questions CAN be answered without entering the manor.


The Chinsegut Hill Manor House (also known as Mount Airy, Snow Hill, or simply The Hill) is a United States historic site approximately five miles northeast of the city of Brooksville, Florida on Chinsegut Hill. Begun in the early 1850s, the structure has remained relatively unchanged since.

Drawn to central Florida by the opportunity offered by the Armed Occupation Act, Colonel Byrd Pearson from South Carolina laid claim to 160 acres in what is now Hernando County. He named his plantation Mount Airy and began cultivating sugarcane with the use of slave labor. Pearson constructed a cabin on the site that is now the East Wing of the Manor. Pearson's cabin was completed just two years after Florida became a state. In 1851, Pearson sold the property to another South Carolinian emigrant to Florida named Francis Higgins Ederington. Between 1852 and 1854, Ederington constructed the manor house. In 1866, Colonel Russel Snow (also a South Carolinian) married Francis Ederington's daughter Charlotte and gained control of the plantation, renaming it Snow Hill. The Snows remodeled the third-floor attic into three bedrooms and a seating area.

Possibly the most historically significant period for the Chinsegut Hill manor house occurred during the stewardship of Elizabeth, Raymond and Margaret Robins. Elizabeth purchased the home for herself and her youngest brother Raymond. Following the purchase and before they had moved in, Raymond met and married Margaret Dreier. Upon their acquisition of the property in 1904, Raymond and Elizabeth renamed the property Chinsegut Hill and set out to improve the grounds. Over the years, Raymond and Margaret added a kitchen to the east wing of the house, a widow's walk and ventilator, the west chimney, an expanded study, and a music room. The Robins later added four bathrooms (1911), acquired additional land (1917), added the porte-cochere (1925), and added a fifth bathroom, electricity, and a well (1933).

In addition to their tremendous expansion of the property itself, the Robinses did much to improve the historical significance of the property through their involvement in politics. Raymond served as an advisor for all 7 US Presidents from Teddy Roosevelt to Franklin Delano Roosevelt. During the Russian Revolution, Raymond was appointed by President Wilson as the Commissioner of the American Red Cross Mission to Russia where he met with numerous Russian dignitaries including Alexander Kerensky, Leon Trotsky, and Vladimir Lenin. Raymond was the only American at this time to meet with Lenin and did so four times a week for five months. Margaret Robins, 18 year President of the National Women's Trade Union League, dined with President Calvin Coolidge in 1923 while her husband was being considered for a cabinet post. During their occupation of the Chinsegut Hill property, the Robinses also entertained countless prominent guests including Soviet ambassadors, Helen Keller, Jane Addams, William Jennings Bryan, Thomas Edison, James Cash Penney, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, Senator Claude Pepper, and U.S. Secretary of the Interior Harold L. Ickes. In 1928, Raymond was present at the signing of the Pact of Paris and was called upon to help plan the presidential campaign of Herbert Hoover.

The Wall Street Crash of 1929 left the Robins in financial ruin because they chose to give almost $250,000 of their money to keep the First National Bank in Brooksville from folding. Using his connections with Herbert Hoover and his administration, Raymond brokered a deal to donate the Chinsegut Hill estate to the government with the stipulation that the couple be allowed to live there until their deaths, free of property taxes. They lived in the Manor House until their last and are buried under a huge oak tree (the Altar Oak) a few hundred feet east of the manor house itself.

In the same year the University of Florida signed a four-year lease for the property, intending to use the site as a branch library utilizing Robins' 8,000 volumes.In 1958, the lease signed by the University of Florida expired and the university removed the books housed in the manor house, essentially abandoning the property. During the same year the University of South Florida obtained the manor house and surrounding property, signing a four-year lease as the University of Florida had previously. Under the governance of the University of South Florida, the Chinsegut Hill manor house has undergone several modifications and in line with the university's intention to utilize the site as a conference center. The university signed a 20-year lease in 1962 and has since expended vast amounts of time and money to preserve and restore the property. Alterations to the manor house include the removal of the widow's walk and ventilator due to rainwater leakage (1963), construction of several cabins (1972 & 1990's), a dining room (1982), a classroom (1986]), a maintenance shop (1986]), and a storage shed (1990). In 1982, the U.S. Department of Agriculture transferred the title of the Chinsegut Hill property to the University of South Florida once the previous lease had expired and the university had fulfilled its obligations regarding the lease.

On November 21, 2003, Chinsegut Hill was added to the United States National Register of Historic Places through a concerted effort by members of the faculty at the University of South Florida. The University returned the property to the State of Florida in 2008 at which time the non-profit group, The Friends of Chinsegut Hill, Inc. was formed to save the property and the dilapidated Manor. The Friends oversaw a $1.5 million renovation and has been operating the Manor as a Museum since 2015.


To confirm your visit you MUST email me the answers
NO ANSWERS NO SMILEY

1. In the fenced cemetery near parking Colonel Ederington and his wife Precious Ann are buried. What tree is depicted on their headstones.

2. What is visible through the upstairs bay window on the west side of the manor.

3.East of the manor you will find the Altar Oak. Beneath it Colonel Raymond Robins and his wife Margaret are buried. What Bible verse is depicted on this marker.



Virtual Rewards 2.0 - 2019/2020

This Virtual Cache is part of a limited release of Virtuals created between June 4, 2019 and June 4, 2020. Only 4,000 cache owners were given the opportunity to hide a Virtual Cache. Learn more about Virtual Rewards 2.0 on the Geocaching Blog.

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