Stockton Broome House
1845 Elizabeth Place
Jacksonville, Florida 32205-9125

Henry John Klutho, 1914

Henry J. Klutho, the architect most responsible for introducing the Prairie style to Jacksonville, designed only five known residences in that style. Although this house definitely shows the Prairie School influence, it does not express the style as well as some of Klutho’s other buildings. The horizontal dimension of the house is emphasized by the broad overhang of the roof, the cantilevered entrance porch, the continuous stucco sill line below the second-story windows, the concrete base, and the sun porch filled with windows. But this is not the bold statement usually associated with Klutho’s Prairie School commercial buildings. The windows, with their ordinary panes and random groupings, are understated. The arched window by the driveway is out of character for the overall Prairie style design. Despite the lack of radical hallmarks one would have expected from Klutho in 1914, the house is nonetheless a handsome residence and is interesting for the subdued blending into the landscape. It featured Riverside’s first private swimming pool and was built for real estate promoter Stockton Broome, the developer of Elizabeth Place, who named the street after his daughter.

In the 1920s, Klutho designed a second house for Stockton Broome’s family in the front yard of this house in place of the swimming pool. This non-descript Spanish-style house blocks the view of the river for the original house and destroyed its dramatic riverfront siting.

Listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1985 as part of the Riverside Historic District.

Photos courtesy of Wayne W. Wood.