Just before he died, a famous Seminole Indian chief gifted an island to an Irish immigrant whose descendants have made it their home for 150 years.
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Now, for the first time, Bannon Island and its exquisite residence are being offered for sale, priced at $12 million.
“I have a lot of memories there [and whoever buys it] should work on developing theirs,” said Dr. Patrick O’Leary, who owns the 23-acre island in Polk County’s Lake Marion. “They can take what we have experienced, but they need to put their signature on it.”
O’Leary is now in his 80s and remembers going to the island to visit when he was little. Back then, there was no electricity or running water. Electricity finally came to the island in 1996.
The house was built by O’Leary’s grandfather, Patrick Bannon, a carpenter who immigrated from Ireland to New York in the 1880s, then came to Florida and died in 1948.
“He developed some lung disease, probably tuberculosis, and they said that he would probably benefit from a warmer climate,” O’Leary told GrowthSpotter. “He got as far down to Orlando by train and then probably took a wagon on down here into Haines City.”
Bannon befriended the Native Americans who were living in the area and on the island, one of whom was Creek Seminole Chief Chipco.
“My grandfather developed a relationship with some Indians and received in this friendship an island, and he decided to build a house on it.”
Bannon built the house in 1890 in the shape of a Celtic cross, with four rooms coming from the octagonal living room in the center. A talented woodworker, he used the native cypress for the walls, floors and ceilings.
O’Leary’s grandfather, Patrick Bannon, built the original home – including the octagonal living room with stairs leading to a loft bedroom. He hand-cut all of the wood, including the cypress beadboard cladding the walls. O’Leary added his own touch, a pineapple newel post finial on the staircase. (Photo by BlueBird Property Media)
The intimate music room showcases the family’s heirloom Steinway piano. (Photo by BlueBird Property Media)
The octagonal structure provides 360-degree views of Lake Mariion. (Photo by BlueBird Property Media)
“Each piece of wood was hand-cut, and it was beaded boards and tongue and grooved, and then it was mounted on the walls at a 45-degree angle,” O’Leary explained. “To try to think of how that was done with no power tools and you had to match up every bead on the wall going up, it was an enormous achievement by an individual.”
Recently all of the original house was “restored pristine to its former glory” by O’Leary’s son, a contractor. The process took three years.
Dr. O’Leary is a retired surgeon and academic who practiced and taught around the United States, returing to Florida to be one the founding executive deans for Florida International University Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine in Miami.
At some point, an additional structure, a 2,698-square-foot duplex O’Leary calls the “Dog Trot,” went up on the property. Each unit has two bedrooms and two bathrooms.
Eventually, he and his wife of 62 years, Mabel “Sam” O’Leary, bought out the other relatives who were partial property owners. In 2003, the couple decided to build an addition to the historic house, bringing the living space to 5,034 square feet.
It’s a combination of old and new with wood dominating the historic part and huge glass windows letting the light into the new. The addition has a chef’s kitchen, an elevator and a three-car garage.
“We have indoor connectors from the historic house into the L’Orangerie, which is the eight-sided center structure in the new house,” he said. “It’s where I’m sitting right now looking out over the lake.”
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That octagonal structure has a huge chandelier the O’Learys commissioned from Zen Glass Studio & Gallery in St. Petersburg, made up of 100 hand-blown glass raindrops so delicate they sway in the breeze when the AC kicks on.
His other favorite place in the house is the library that appears to float between two stories, has a glass floor, is suspended using cables, and is “really pretty cool.”
There have always been Valencia orange groves on the land, but as has been the case with other growers, citrus greening has hurt the crop.
“Dr. O’Leary thought because it was an island that somehow he would be protected by being removed from the mainland, but he was not,” explained listing agent Lisa Kleine with Red Bird Realty. “That grove operated for his family for years as a way of making money for the family, but greening has hurt the groves.”
There are also grapefruit, guava, and more.
“The presence of the native sort of old-time Florida has been my biggest satisfaction,” O’Leary said.
Because of the island’s history, it was recently designated as a Florida Century Pioneer Family Farm, a distinction from the Florida Department of Agriculture recognizing properties with at least 100 years of continuous ownership by a single family. There are five others in Polk County, one in Seminole, three in Osceola, and six in Orange.
The island is only accessible via boat or seaplane, and living there is the ultimate in privacy.
“You don’t have to worry about people soliciting at your door,” O’Leary said with a laugh.
But grocery shopping is a bit of a challenge, involving a golf cart or ATV from the house to a dock, a boat to the mainland, then a car from there.
“We load up the car, take it seven miles to a Publix, then we shop,” he said. “When we come back, we have to unload the groceries from the car into the boat and then come back over to the ATV and then up to the house.”
Things like that, as well as caring for everything on the island, are getting to be a bit too much for the O’Learys, and their children aren’t interested in island life.
“Sam and I are in our 80s and so we’re having a tough time keeping it up, and it’s expensive,” O’Leary said. “At some point in time, [selling] it just seems like it was a reasonable thing to do.”
But they won’t be going far. They’re planning to live on the mainland with a view of the island, but have a promise to offer the new buyers.
“I’m not going to micromanage it. It’s something that I thoroughly enjoyed, and that time has come for me to go away and do something else.”
Have a tip about Central Florida development? Contact me at [email protected] or (407) 420-6261. Follow GrowthSpotter on Facebook and LinkedIn.
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