404:. He began amassing the land for the estate which come to be known as Goodwood, purchasing about 640 acres (2.6 km) of the Lafayette Land Grant in 1833. His younger brother, Bryan Hardy Croom, made similar purchases. Bryan first began living at Rocky Comfort Plantation in Gadsden County, on land the men's father, William, had purchased. Bryan was married to Eveline Hawks, and the couple had no children. The brothers had some 60 enslaved people from their North Carolina plantations transported down to Florida, and throughout the Croom years, purchased many more slaves to operate their cotton, corn and other row crop plantations.
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awarded the Smith family much of the estate in 1857. The issues were two; was Hardy a resident of North
Carolina at the time of his death or of Florida where his large plantation interests were? The laws of the two states differed. The second question was whether Hardy himself or someone in the maternal line died last in the shipwreck. The Florida Supreme Court decided Hardy was a North Carolina resident when he died. The Court also decided, based on his last letters, that he had not intended to establish residency in Florida when he boarded the
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his death, was also built by slave labor. According to
Richard Shine, the prominent Tallahassee builder and businessman who oversaw the construction, it was finished around 1850. A financial depression, yellow fever epidemics and a banking crisis it likely delayed its completion. The reason the plantation was named Goodwood is unclear, but it was known in family letters by that name in the 1840s. Contemporaneous newspaper articles refer to Goodwood in the 1850s.
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died in 1978, Major Hood began planning for the restoration of
Goodwood as a house museum and public park. He established the Margaret E. Wilson Foundation in her memory. Hood died in 1990, having resisted calls to sell or donate Goodwood to allow it to be torn down for development. After his death the Margaret E. Wilson Foundation, which he created, and its operating agent Goodwood Museum and Gardens, Inc. assumed stewardship for Goodwood.
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461:, but had decided to relocate his family to Charleston, South Carolina, where he had rented a house. Witnesses who survived the shipwreck testified that they saw his son clinging to a spar in the ocean after all the other Crooms had perished. He, a descendant of the maternal line, was the last surviving member of the family.
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She sold
Goodwood to Florida State Senator William C. Hodges. He and his wife Margaret entertained lavishly at Goodwood, inviting politicians artists, writers and public figures. Hodges died in 1940. In 1948 Margret married Thomas Milton Hood, a West Virginia native and Army Air Corps major. When she
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with
Georgian columns. She renovated three other antebellum structures: the original kitchen, the original small house and a building whose original use may have been a storehouse or a place where bricks were made or other plantation industries occurred. These buildings still stand. Mrs. Tiers added
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Bryan Croom moved to
Alabama. Mrs. Smith did not live at Goodwood but sold the estate in1858 to Arvah Hopkins. He purchased 1,576 acres of land and 41 enslaved people. Hopkins operated a large store downtown and also made money selling on commission. He continued small-scale farming operations at the
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A small home had already been framed in at the
Goodwood site when Hardy died and Bryan's enslaved workers completed it. He ordered construction of a long-planned 10,000 square-foot mansion some years later. The house, whose Italianate design with ornate burgundy railings Hardy may have chosen before
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by the United States
Congress. This tract was called the Lafayette Land Grant and encompassed over 23,000 acres. Lafayette never visited his property but designated an agent to sell parcels of it on his behalf. Hardy Croom purchased 2,400 acres from the Lafayette Grant and built Goodwood Plantation
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After
Frances Hardy's death her relatives, primarily her mother Henrietta Smith, fought what became a landmark court case. Who would inherit when an entire family perished in a common disaster without a will? Bryan Croom won in lower court proceedings. But the Florida Supreme Court ultimately
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The 1850 U.S. Federal Census Slave
Schedule listed Bryan Croom as owning 129 enslaved people. However, at that time he also controlled some 40 enslaved people who were owned by his mother-in-law, Ann Hawks, who lived with Bryan Croom. In 1858 Arvah Hopkins bought the plantation and 41 enslaved
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In 1885 an Englishman, Dr. William Lamb Arrowsmith, purchased Goodwood and 160 acres (0.65 km) surrounding it. When Arrowsmith died about eight months later his wife and her companion, Martha Dykes, lived on the estate for more than twenty-five years.
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adjacent to Goodwood. She spent only the winter months at Goodwood. She entertained lavishly, many of her wealthy friends coming from the north to enjoy North Florida's warm winters, so she remodeled the house to a Mount Vernon style and replaced the
433:, a hurricane. About 30 people survived but approximately 90 people drowned, Hardy and his family among them. No will was found, so his brother Bryan assumed he had inherited his brother's Florida plantation property and proceeded accordingly.
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a water tower, replacing the wells, cisterns and pumps that supplied the plantation. She built an amusement hall, guest cottages, servant quarters, a heated swimming pool, tennis courts and a carriage house.
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Book: The Croom Family and Goodwood Plantation, Land, Litigation and Southern Lives, William Rogers and Erica R. Clark, published 2010, 320 pages, University Of Georgia Press
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But Hardy's time in Florida was to be short. On Saturday, October 7, 1837, Hardy B. Croom and his wife, two daughters, his son and a maternal aunt boarded the
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For a short period of time, at Goodwood's greatest extent, in the 1850s when owned by Bryan Hardy Croom, it constituted some 8,000 non-contiguous acres.
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Mrs. Arrowsmith sold Goodwood to an extremely wealthy widow, Mrs. Alexander (Frances) Tiers, in 1911. She was related by marriage to the owners of the
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Book: The Seasons Of Goodwood, the unfolding story of a treasured Southern Mansion as Home, Wallace Harper Beall, published 2017
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until 1865 and continued after the war, using formerly enslaved laborers as share-croppers and tenant farmers.
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The Leon County Florida 1860 Agricultural Census documented the following for Goodwood Plantation:
425:. Hardy's family was going to live in Charleston for a time before moving to Tallahassee. The
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623:", 2 photos, 5 measured drawings, 2 data pages, supplemental material
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From Cotton to Quail: An Agricultural Chronicle of Leon County, Florida, 1860-1967
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281:. It is located at 1600 Miccosukee Road. The plantation was added to the
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43:, a database which provides minimal and sometimes ambiguous information.
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Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Florida
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that grew cotton on about 1,675 acres (7 km) in central
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National Register of Historic Places in Tallahassee, Florida
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It is not known why no enslaved people are listed in 1860.
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In 1824, in recognition of his military service during the
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Goodwood Plantation, Tallahassee vicinity, Leon County, FL
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Goodwood Newsletters, numerous editions from 1990 to 2018
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Florida's Office of Cultural and Historical Programs
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429:sank off the coast of North Carolina during the
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49:of the information in this article by providing
501:Tower under renovation, as it appeared in 2010.
349:Cash value of farm implements/machinery: $ 600
686:Historic American Buildings Survey in Florida
604:. Gainesville: University of Florida Press.
396:. Hardy Bryan Croom, a planter and amateur
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316:that features original family furniture,
104:U.S. National Register of Historic Places
73:Learn how and when to remove this message
701:1833 establishments in Florida Territory
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16:Historic house in Florida, United States
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343:Unimproved Land: 625 acres (2½ km)
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532:"National Register Information System"
340:Improved Land: 1050 acres (4 km)
581:National Register of Historic Places
537:National Register of Historic Places
400:, brought attention to the now rare
286:National Register of Historic Places
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681:Plantations in Leon County, Florida
628:Goodwood Plantation, Girl's Cottage
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299:was granted a full township in the
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617:Historic American Buildings Survey
352:Cash value of farm animals: $ 3000
346:Cash value of plantation: $ 33,640
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661:Historic house museums in Florida
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635:Goodwood Plantation, Old Kitchen
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671:Museums in Tallahassee, Florida
651:Culture of Tallahassee, Florida
696:Houses in Leon County, Florida
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691:Cotton plantations in Florida
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493:View from the Carriage House.
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312:The plantation home is now a
308:Goodwood Museum & Gardens
161:Show map of the United States
96:Goodwood Museum & Gardens
85:United States historic place
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637:", 8 measured drawings
630:", 7 measured drawings
595:Goodwood Plantation History
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512:Plantations of Leon County
600:Paisley, Clifton (1968).
355:Number of slaves: unknown
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633:HABS No. FL-19-B, "
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619:(HABS) No. FL-19, "
232:Architectural style
656:Farm museums in Florida
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358:Bushels of corn: 2500
314:historic house museum
216:30.45806°N 84.25778°W
586:Leon County listings
577:Leon County listings
452:Arvah Hopkins (1866)
376:The Croom family of
361:Bales of cotton: 150
328:Plantation specifics
297:Marquis de Lafayette
263:Goodwood Plantation
221:30.45806; -84.25778
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136:Show map of Florida
47:ensure the accuracy
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474:Waverly Plantation
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444:Hardy Croom (1837)
431:1837 Racer's Storm
288:on June 30, 1972.
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185:Nearest city
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45:Please help
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394:Tallahassee
275:Leon County
219: /
195:Coordinates
189:Tallahassee
175:Leon County
645:Categories
518:References
423:Charleston
421:bound for
398:naturalist
372:The owners
235:Antebellum
207:84°15′28″W
204:30°27′29″N
318:porcelain
610:68009708
506:See also
386:Marianna
333:people.
247:72000334
171:Location
39:besides
279:Florida
179:Florida
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390:Quincy
295:, the
34:lacks
412:S.S.
606:LCCN
459:Home
427:Home
414:Home
392:and
283:U.S.
41:NRIS
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242:No.
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