Ormond Beach is located next to Daytona Beach, Florida. It was also the former winter home of John D. Rockefeller, the Standard Oil billionaire. Today we spent the day at the former home of Rockefeller call The Casements. Rockefeller purchased the house in 1918 and lived there during the winters until his death in 1937 at age 97. The home was called the Casements after its charming casement windows. After Rockefeller retired he was an avid golfer and used to play in Augusta but a friend told him about the great weather in Ormond Beach so he moved there. Across the street was the Ormond Hotel, that was owned by his former Standard Oil partner Henry Morrison Flagler. Rockefeller use to go to the hotel for the Sunday night concerts. Rockefellers friends included Will Rogers, Henry Ford, Harvey Firestone and Sir Malcolm Campbell. Rockefellers enjoyed cars and was very happy to have the first Ford V-8 off the assembly line in 1931. He was very interested in automobile racing and Ormond Beach was the birthplace of auto racing, it was later moved to Daytona Beach.
Rockefeller was a very generous man, he use to give away dimes as good luck and every year he had
a Christmas party for all of his friends and neighbors. After he pasted one, The Case ments was turned into a college for young women. It was latered placed on the National Register of Historic Places in the city of Ormond Beach.
During our visit to The Casement we also got to view the Boy Scout Historical Exhibition. Sir Robert Baden-Powell was the Founder of Scouting in 1907. The exhibit was the Eagle Scout Project of John Slaughter of Troop 447, Ormond Beach. The collection displayed a hand written letter by Sir Robert Baden Powell to a scout in Ormond Beach. It also had an Eagle Scout badge awarded by President Franklin D. Roosevelt and many other boy scouts historical memorbilia.
Photos of both the Casement and the Boy Scout Exhibit will be attached to his post. We are enjoying learning more about people, places and things...
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