Casa De Josefina

Casa De Josefina
Location Lake Wales, Florida
Coordinates 27°51′53″N 81°34′18″W / 27.86472°N 81.57167°W / 27.86472; -81.57167Coordinates: 27°51′53″N 81°34′18″W / 27.86472°N 81.57167°W / 27.86472; -81.57167
Built 1923[1]
Architect L.S. Acuff, Edward B. Stratton[1][2]
Architectural style Eclectic with Italian, Spanish, Gothic, and other elements[1]
NRHP Reference # 75000567[2]
Added to NRHP June 10, 1975
Irwin Arthur Yarnell and Josephine Yarnell

The Casa De Josefina (also known as the Irwin Arthur Yarnell House) is a historic home near Lake Wales, Florida.[2] It is located two miles southeast of Lake Wales off U.S. 27.[1][2] On June 10, 1975, it was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places.

The house is built of stucco-covered coquina in an eclectic Florida Boom style,[3] a blend of Spanish, Italian, and Gothic, and is E-shaped with a corner tower. A porch at the rear connects the rooms in the three wings.[4] The grounds comprise 18 acres.[5] Irwin Arthur Yarnell, a banker from Minneapolis who helped develop Florida communities including Highland Park, built it for $1.5 million in 1923 and named it for his wife, Josephine;[3][5] above the front door is a stained-glass window with her name in the grillwork, and there is a sculpture of her profile on a parapet.[4] There were originally gardens including 2,000 species of palms. The house was built by European craftsmen and furnished with antiques bought abroad, and the couple hosted lavish parties there until the Florida bust of 1926 and the stock market crash of 1929 ruined them.[4][5]

Irwin Yarnell died in 1936; Josephine Yarnell continued to live in the house until her death in 1967. She remarried to Clarence Tibado, an artist.[5] She sold antiques, jewelry, and much of the land.[4] Part of the house served at one point as the Ponce de Leon Hall for Convalescents, and it has also been a boarding house and housed a community center. From 1981 it was owned by the Louwsma family, who restored it; it has sometimes been mistaken for a hotel.[5] Josephine Yarnell believed the house to be haunted by the spirit of her husband; Jean Louwsma said in the 1980s that she thought it was also haunted by Josephine herself.[4]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "Polk County listings". Florida's History Through Its Places. Florida's Office of Cultural and Historical Programs. 2007-08-21. Archived from the original on 2010-11-23.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "National Register of Historic Places - Florida (FL), Polk County". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. 2007-08-21.
  3. 1 2 "La Casa de Josephina". Highland Park, Florida. Archived from the original on September 29, 2007. From Wilson, Robert H. (1987). The Story of Highland Park Club 1879–1987. Lake Wales, Florida: Women's Division, Highland Park Club. OCLC 50757063.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 Hupp, Susanne (June 13, 1986). "Love Story Sparks Ghost Story". Sun-Sentinel. Orlando Sentinel.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 Drumm, Sara (September 19, 2013). "32-Room Casa de Josefina Has Gone Through Many Transformations". The Ledger. Retrieved September 11, 2015.


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