Gift Shop items were made by local artists, sculptors, crafters, musicians, and authors.

Our gift shop contains:

• Books and videos on local history

  • Click on either word to see an extended list and description and prices.  Books and videos can also be mail ordered, call for more details (386) 740-6813.

• "DeLand" items such as T-shirts and hats

• Authenic Vintage bricks from the Athens Theatre, built in 1921, $5.00 half of proceeds go to the restoration of the Athens.

• Watercolor prints by Francis Deeb-Loffman of the Volusia County Courthouse, City Hall, Athens Theatre, DeLand Artisan Inn, and two versions of The DeLand House, $10.00 each.

• Vintage and regular postcards

• Note cards

• Hand-painted china

• Wood sculptures

• Stained glass ornaments

• Painted lighthouses and other scenery

• Curios

• Vintage photographs

• Sachets filled with herbs from our Victorian garden

• Lue Gim Gong memorabilia

• Musical CD’s

• And much, much more!

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• Books

  • A Century of West Volusia County 1860-1960 - A collection of 800 photographs with captions depicting people, places, events, and buildings of our pasts.  $50.00 (plus tax)

  • Story of DeLand & Lake Helen Florida - Written by Henry DeLand's daughter, this book is a testimony to her father's efforts and struggles to make DeLand flourish.  She captures his pioneer spirit in what has been termed the most accurate account of DeLand and Lake Helen's infancy.  $20.00 (plus tax)

  • Wooden Fish Songs - A novel on the life of Lue Gim Gong.  Lue put his genius for plants to work in Florida, creating orange hybrids that earned him international recognition as a "citrus wizard."   This story is told through the three women who knew him best, his mother, mentor, and co-worker.  $15.00 (plus tax)

  • Don't Tell Mother - An autobiographical account of two young boys' lives in DeLand in the turn of the century.  It is an informative and funny look at the life of children in early DeLand.  $25.00 (plus tax)

  • Florida Cracker Cookbook - This cookbook not only gives you mouthwatering dishes to try but it also gives fascinating facts and information about DeLand and Florida history.  $3.95 (plus tax)

  • Sonnet Variations, Poets Fun with Forms - The classic sonnet is a rhymed, lyric poem of fourteen iambic pentameter lines.  Today there are literally hundreds of varieties of the classic formats.  In this book, four accomplished poets selected and experimented with some popular forms.  $5.00 (plus tax)

  • When Celery was King - The story of Carl Carlson, celery grower, during Sanford, Florida's reign as America's Celery Capital. $3.00 (plus tax)

  • I Got My Dress Tail Wet in Soda Water Creek - The Chronicles of a cracker girl in Lake Monroe, FL ca1917 to 1939.  $3.00 (plus tax)

  • Our Story of Orange City, Florida - A detailed look at the history and pioneer families of Orange City.  $25.00 (plus tax)

  • Historical Highlights of Volusia County - $5.00 (plus tax)

  • Echoes of Yesterday - A history of the DeLand Area Public Library 1912-1995. $20.00 (plus tax)

  • Florida: Beauties of the East Coast - A collection of photographs.  $7.50 (plus tax)

  • Along the St. Johns and Ocklawaha Rivers - This is a fascinating visual account of the steamboat era in northern Florida.  The images document both the remarkable vessels and the people who spent much of their lives on the St. Johns and Ocklawaha Rivers.  $18.99 (plus tax)

  • Ocklawaha River Steamboats - Pictures, facts, and captions about the Ocklawaha river, steamboats, and the people who were on them.  $20.00 (plus tax)

  • Plane books - SB2C Helldiver in action, SBD Dauntless in action, F4F Wildcat in action.  $5.00 each book (plus tax)

  • History of Volusia County Schools 1854-2000 - $5.00 each book (plus tax)

  • DeLand - A Walk Through Time- Published by Mainstreet DeLand, $1.00 donation.

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• Videos   * all videos are * all videos are $20 each plus tax *

  • Blue Spring, "Gem" of the St. Johns - Blue Springs is indeed the "GEM" of the St. Johns River.  It has been occupied for more than 2000 years.  First by the Mayaca Indians, then the Seminoles, and in the 1840's the first white settlers.  It's character has changed very little since Louis Thursby built his home on the shell midden in 1872.  Blue Spring is now a state park of some 2800 acres and the home of the West Indies manatee.   It is the only spring on the St. Johns where they winter in large numbers. 

  • Florida's Giants, the Bald Cypress - Step back in time, when the Bald Cypress stood sentinel on the banks of the St. Johns River.   The Bald Cypress, reaching heights up to 150 feet and a diameter of 25 feet, grew from Delaware to Florida over Texas and up the Mississippi River to Illinois.   Lumbermen began to harvest the cypress in earnest in the 1860's.  Cypress is a hardy wood, resistant to insects and rot, used for many purposes, including water tanks for the railroads.

  • Ghost Towns of the St. Johns - St. Francis (Old Town, Crows Bluff, and Hawkinsville were located on the west bank of the St. Johns River.  These important river towns served the steamboat traffic in these early years.  But, when the train came to Central Florida from Jacksonville in 1886, taking commerce from the steamboat lines, these towns began to die, and in a few years they became "ghost towns" that hold many great stories of Florida's early beginnings.  

  • History is Alive - Join fourth-graders, Tom and Anna as a seemingly ordinary classroom lesson turns into an adventure in time travel!  Local historian, Bill Dreggors, dons the garb and persona of the founding father of the city of DeLand, Henry Addison DeLand, and takes the children on a journey to some of the historical buildings and places that have played an important role in Volusia County's past. 

  • History of DeLeon Springs - It is said that Ponce DeLeon came to Florida in search of the "Fountain of Youth."   It is also said that Spanish records show that he came up a large river that flowed to the north (St. Johns).  He passed through a very large lake (Lake George) and a few miles later came to another large lake (Lake Dexter).  A short stream connected it (Tick Island Run) with another large lake (Lake Woodruff).  Flowing into this lake on the north side was a large clear stream (Spring Garden Run).  He followed it to its source, and he found at least two springs (DeLeon Springs).  He drank eagerly of the water, but alas he grew no younger and another dream had vanished. 

  • Lue Gim Gong - The Citrus Wizard - Lue Gim Gong came to DeLand, Florida, in 1888.  He died here in 1925 and is buried in Oakdale Cemetery.  His Lue Gim Gong Orange was an early fruit that ripened in September, but could hang on the tree for four years and still be good.  This orange won him the Silver Wilder Medal from the department of Agriculture in 1911 - the only time it was ever given for citrus.  He conducted church services every Sunday in his orange grove; everyone was invited and many came.  Learn about this quiet and gentle man who was a true citrus wizard. 

  • St. Johns River - Steamboat Era - In 1866 settlers began coming to central Florida to homestead government property and by the 1880's, tourists, traveling mostly by steamboat on the St. Johns River, had found Florida.   The 1870's and 80's were the "Honeymoon Years" of the steamboats.   During this time, it was said that you could stand on the deck of a steamboat and see another one anytime of the day or night.  The coming of the train to central Florida in 1886 would end the steamboat era by the early 1930's.  Visit these fascinating years of the St. Johns and the steamships that helped build Florida. 

  • DeLand - As You Can Remember It - A video of DeLand and the close surrounding area during the war years of the 40’s, the town where you grew up or spent some of your young years...the way it was then and never will be again...the changes brought on by the war that touched us at our very 

  • The Founding of a City - Henry A. DeLand 1876 - Henry A. DeLand arrived in Central Florida on April 7, 1876, and made his first land purchase the next day. Describing the area as the most beautiful place he had ever seen, he purchased more land and laid out a city. The few settlers who were living in the area met and named the city for him, electing the first city officials in 1882.  Henry DeLand founded the "Academy" (later to become Stetson University) in 1883. He made DeLand a center of culture and learning and called it "the Athens of Florida."

  • DeLand - The Next 30 Years 1890-1920 - This thirty year period was momentous in the changes it brought. DeLand continued to grow both in its downtown area, as well as, in population. The telephone and electric were becoming more accessible to households in the area. DeLand experienced the worst freezes in it’s short history, in 1894 and in 1895. It was about 10 years before the groves made a comeback. Mr. Stetson died in 1906 and Henry DeLand died in 1908. Woodland Boulevard was bricked in 1916 and the road to Daytona was bricked in 1917. Part of the road to New Smyrna Beach was bricked in 1919 after World War I.

  • The Volusia County Fair - The First 100 Years - Circuses actually were the first type of entertainment to come to the area in approximately 1890. The first fair was held at the Aquatic Club on the west side of Blue Lake about 1914. The Fair Grounds on West New York Avenue, across from the DeLand Depot was built in 1924 and was in continuous use until the late 1930’s and again for one year after World War II in 1954. The City then sold the property and the Fair was moved to the National Guard Armory on South Alabama Ave. for the years 1955, 56 and 57. It was held at the old Naval Hospital site in 1958 and 59. Its next stop was on McDonald Ave. at the airport in 1966 and 67. The first fair on Hwy. 44 was held in 1968 and has continued to grow in this location

  • John B. Stetson in DeLand, Florida - Mr. Stetson came to DeLand in 1886 to escape the cold winters in Philadelphia. His friend, Henry DeLand, told him about this wonderful area. Stetson purchased several hundred acres of land, planted orange groves, built an electric plant, an ice plant, and put in a water system West of DeLand. His groves froze in the 1894-95 freezes and he built wood slat houses over them so they would never freeze again.  His electric plant was the first in Florida and the three street lights were the first in Florida. The generator he used was the fourth one made by Edison.

  • Hotel College Arms and Golf Course - The hotel was started by J.Y. Parce, brother-in-law of Henry DeLand, who called it the "Parceland Hotel". John B. Stetson bought the hotel in 1896 and changed the name to "College Arms Hotel". He completed the Hotel and added an 18-hole championship golf course, one of the finest in the Country. The top professionals, men and women, played here.

  • Stetson University, Its Early Years 1883 - Henry DeLand founded the DeLand Academy, later DeLand College and then DeLand University in 1883. After the severe freezes in 1885, Mr. DeLand’s finances could not support the University and he persuaded Mr. Stetson to take over the endowment of the University. In 1886, Mr. DeLand asked the Board of Trustees to change the name of the school to John B. Stetson University. The "John B." was dropped in 1951. The first football teams were started in 1884.

  • DeLand, WWI Era - From 1900 to 1920 DeLand experienced slow but steady growth. The County Jail was built on West New York Avenue across from the Court House. When a person was sentenced to hang, the hanging was carried out in that county. Here it took place in the rear of the jail. A new Post Office was built in 1917 on the northeast corner of Indiana and Florida Avenues. World War I ended in 1918 with six local men killed. Officers were trained at Stetson University’s ROTC program to serve in WWI. The "Downtown" had only one wood building left by 1920. Downtown was changing with new construction. Everything was located downtown. There were no shopping centers!!

  • DeLand in the 20's, "The Boom Days" - WWI was over and people had money to spend and the economy boomed.   Prohibition was passed and alcohol dried up until the bootleggers got geared up.   Gangsters, rum runners, bath tub gin, moonshine, and home brew was the order of the day.  Land prices in Florida went out of sight.  In Miami, land was going for up to $10,000 a front foot.  It all ended in 1926, when a severe hurricane hit Miami.   In 1928, the banks closed and the entire country was caught up in a deep depression.  DeLand was no exception, hard times hit here also. 

  • Depression Days in DeLand- The 1930's were tough years, financially.  Laborers, if they could find a job, were paid $1 per day.  These jobs were 10-12 hour days, Monday - Saturday.  Groceries were cheap, but most people had a garden, chickens, a pig, and some lucky ones had a milk cow.   Most boys and girls went to school barefooted.  When Dave Sholts, of Daytona Beach, became governor of Florida, he legalized slot machines which now paid for school books so parents did not have to.  The machines were removed after 4 years but books remained free.  Even if we were poor, most everyone else was too, so we did not really know it.  It was a wonderful time to grow up here.  During the  war years (1940's), DeLand bustled with the Navy boat works and a Glider factory. 

  • DeLand In The 1950's, "Post War Boom" - The 1950's saw new items in the stores. People had saved their money during the war and were ready to spend it. Throw out the old antique furniture and get new chrome and plastic. The first subdivision since the 20s and shopping centers were built. G.I loans were available and veterans took advantage of them. The City of DeLand gave free lots to any veterans living in the city with the stipulation that they had to build on them within one year. The economy slowed in the latter part of the 50's and every thing stayed the same for awhile.

  • DeLand In The 1960's & 70's, "Movin' On" - The economy began to pick up in the 60's and DeLand again showed new growth and more new shopping centers. The downtown business district showed a drastic change; grocery stores moved out to the shopping centers, as well as some of the retail businesses. Main street would not recover until the 1990's. home construction was now supervised by new county and city departments that were created for buildings permits. Inspectors were hired to check all work. Prior to this, you could build whatever-wherever. As you look back at life in the 1900's and compare it to today, there were more changes in this past century, than in all the previous years combined. Wonder what the next 100 years will bring?

  • Early Homes of DeLand - When northerners began to move to DeLand, they built homes similar to their places up North. They called their homes "winter cottages." Many of these beautiful old homes have been torn down to make room for "progress." Those that remain are treasures that we should preserve for future generations. These homes are mostly built of native "yellow pine"; base boards, door facings and built-in cabinets often were made of "curly pine." This wood was rare and this kind of lumber is no longer available. This is another reason to save these beautiful homes.

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