BY DAN HILDEBRAN
Monitor Editor
KEYSTONE HEIGHTS— City and county officials dedicated a marker memorializing the Keystone Inn during a Nov. 5 ceremony.
Vice mayor Steve Hart said the city’s Heritage Commission was formed because of the inn’s demolition.
“I remember driving through town in 1995, and there it sat, and I remember thinking: what a beautiful building,” Hart recalled. “The next time I came through town, it wasn’t there.”
He said that following the structure’s demise, he, his wife LaDonna and a small group met in the kitchen of Phil and Christine Arnold to talk about the need for historic preservation in the city.
Hart added that before moving to the Lake Region, he was the vice chair of the Heritage Commission in Elgin, Ill., a Chicago suburb with a population of around 150,000.
“(It has) three historic districts, with beautiful, old homes,” Hart said of the town.
Hart said he later discovered Keystone Heights had a historic preservation ordinance, but the law was weak and was not being enforced.
“I said: If something’s going to get this done, they’re probably going to have to form a commission or some entity other than just a club,” Hart said, “so about a year after our kitchen cabinet, I proposed to the council that we start a heritage commission.”
Hart wrote the ordinance creating the commission in 2008 and served as its chair for the first three years. Cheryl Owen led the commission for one year and LaDonna Hart has chaired the panel for the last nine years.
Hart said that since its inception, the Heritage Commission has educated Lake Region residents about Keystone Heights’s history.
He added that around 10 years ago the commission hired a professional historian to catalog every house within the municipality that was 50 years old or older.
The commission also makes historical plaques available for homes over 50 years old and have met other qualifications.
“We have, I think, about 12 of them in town now,” he said, “and that program, I hope, will continue.”
LaDonna Hart read the inscription of the marker to the crowd.
“The Lawrence Developing Company built the three-story 38-room Keystone Inn at a cost of $50,000,” she said. “It was designed by architect G.M. MacDonough.”
She added that Lawrence hoped the inn would attract settlers to the Lake Region in addition to investors.
The facility’s grand opening was on Jan. 1, 1924.
The night before the grand opening, community leaders met at the inn for a dinner party, and from that gathering, the Keystone Heights Women’s Club and Keystone Board of Trade was formed.
The following day, around 150 guests attended the opening, including future Florida Gov. John W. Martin.
“The inn was the hub of activities and provided a meeting place for people and organizations,” Hart said. “It featured modern conveniences such as a large comfortable room, connecting baths with hot and cold running water, electricity and telephone service.”
Hart said the inn developed a reputation for fine dining, and as a place where guests could relax on its large veranda and look out onto Lake Geneva.
“The Keystone Inn’s ability to provide an attractive place for potential investors to stay helped fuel the economy and the community’s growth in the 20s,” Hart said. “In the 1920s, the inn served as headquarters for the National Federation of Women’s Clubs convention and hosted delegates from every state.”
She added that during World War II, pilots training at the Keystone Army Air Corps Field and the families of soldiers training at Camp Blanding stayed at the inn.
“The University of Florida football teams stayed here, and they enjoyed the amenities,” Hart said. “The coaches thought the guys would play a better game if they weren’t around the activities going on in Gainesville.”
Hart said that in the 1950s, due to the declining popularity of the inn, it was converted into a boarding house.
On Oct. 3, 1954, the third floor of the structure caught fire, and the smoke and water damage from the fire left the inn uninhabitable.
The city bought the property in 1999 and demolished the inn the following year, converting the land into a walking park.
