The Dutton Mansion was built in 1911 making it at this point 93 years old and counting. Not one of the oldest mansions in DeLand but certainly this is the most prestigious looking out of all the historical homes in the area. The entire house is made out of mahogany wood. I cannot say I ever seen a home such as this since three sides of mansion are surrounded by upper and lower terraces or another wards porches. This Neo Classical Greek revival structure was supposed to be demolished by a wrecking ball in 1992 when a couple saved it despite the terrible termite damage the mansion suffered over the years. Currently the mansion is being restored at an estimated cost of over $350,000 dollars as rumor has it they have plans to convert it into two libraries here. I believe that many of the locals and volunteers from all over Florida have come together to help restore this monolithic piece of history and at one time even tours were given to students and teachers.

John Wesley Dutton was a wealthy lumber magnate and ran a turpentine business here in DeLand. He had the house built for his family until he traded it for another house in 1924 for reasons unknown. Then the mansion for quite sometime was used as a funeral home eventually in the 1940s it was converted to apartments hence the fact that some rooms have numbers on them. After this I do not know what became of this house. But its quite possible it was used a sorority or frat house of some kind. I do know the house for many years was abandoned probably a place where the daring would go to party, vandalize or even hang out at. There are signs of this as a few peace signs are spray painted on the walls of one of the rooms.

Now there is another story that ties into the house as well this one is quite puzzling. But in 1902 Warren C. Jackson SR. and his wife Catherine McMillian Jackson moved here from a turpentine camp across the St. Johns River. It is quite obvious Dutton owned it at the time. After the building of the Dutton house Jackson become the director of the Tomoka Land Company and the vice president of the First National Bank Of Deland. They also call this the Jackson house. I do believe that besides the Dutton family that lived here the Jackson family also resided here. It is quite possible that John Dutton Married Warren Jackson's daughter and the two families resided here. After all this mansion was very large as it was three floors high and even had a basement which is quite rare for Florida houses.

I read about a little on this place I honestly thought it was demolished as many places in DeLand have been. Sometimes all that remains are foundations, a few trees and grass. But to my surprise while out bike riding I passed this eerie mansion stopped in front and said wow what a great investigation this would be for my members to read about. Like any old house there are dangers involved here such as weak floors, falling debris, dust Etc.. But as Ghostbuster it is something you just cannot forget about. I mean the main foyer and grand stair case alone are enough to give you shivers as you stand there in the dark. But to be able to explore all the various hallways, rooms, twist and turns really was excited.

Are there ghost here? Well of course there is much energy from the past perhaps John Dutton himself haunts these halls. But since it was a funeral home at one time and I did not even know it I can imagine many different ghost haunt the mansion. I would like to return at least one to two more times to capture some apparitions for those that love old historical haunted houses but that all depends on how fast restoration occurs. From our first visit here I felt cold spots in certain rooms some of them moving, banging sounds, footsteps and captured some orbs one of them which I seen with my own eyes as the flash went off. So lots of history and haunts to go with one of DeLand's most beautiful mansions.

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Rick-AngelOfThyNight