About Charlotte County category interest

Clarence L. Babcock House is a historic building at 25537 Shore Drive in Punta Gorda, Florida. On February 25, 2009, it was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places. The house is a large example of its style and is constructed of stucco over wood frame and rests on concrete block piers. A cross gable-on hip roof covers the main block of the house. A full-width enclosed front entrance porch, covered by an extension of the hip roof, dominates the primary facade.

The Babcock House is a two-story, frame residence with a front porch, hip roof, and open front porch. The house was built in 1908 by Clarence L. Babcock, who owned the adjacent parcel of land at the time. The house and garage apartment were damaged by Hurricane Charley in August, 2004. A renovation of the house following the storm required following FEMA guidelines for the repair work on the main residence; however, the building still retains many of the architectural characteristics of the Craftsman style present when Clarence Babcock lived there. Also found on the property is a noncontributing aluminum historic marker erected on March 14, 2007, to commemorate the creation of Howard Homestead/Solana Plat in which the Babcock House is located. The Babcock House is significant at the local level in the area Agriculture as the residence of Clarence L. Babcock who was responsible for the development of major lumber and cattle ranching interests in Florida during the first half of the 20th century. He and his brothers, Frederick and Oscar, founded the Babcock Lumber Company in 1898 which grew into a world-wide profitable commercial lumber enterprise and is still doing business today