Gamble Mansion and Plantation in Florida

We are visiting the Gamble Mansion, the only original plantation mansion left in Florida near Palmetto and Ellenton. This mansion was made from 1840-1850 near the Manatee River. It was constructed using slave labor to both clear the land for growing sugarcane and for building the houses out of “Tabby”.  Tabby was a construction material made like concrete from the local oyster shells left by centuries of Native Americans and reduced to lime and added to other shells and sand. There was no clay in the area to make bricks from. The columns and walls are two feet thick and the building was made in the vernacular Greek Revival style. Mr Gamble started with a small plot of land and soon bought 3,500 acres to grow sugarcane. The sugar and molasses was taken down to the dock on the Manatee River and shipped out by schooner across the Gulf of Mexico to the Port of New Orleans and international port.