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Old Victorian stood tall for long haul

By Tamara El-Khoury, Times Staff Writer
In print: Sunday, June 8, 2008

Deer Hall, the old Victorian house on Virginia Street, had been dilapidated for years. Deemed too costly to restore, it was torn down recently.
	[Courtesy of the Dunedin Historical Society]

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DUNEDIN

The house at 1150 Virginia St. was once beautiful. • Over its nearly 100-year history, the two-story Victorian structure with large windows and a spacious porch housed generations of a pioneering Pinellas family. • But during the past two decades, the historic home known as Deer Hall became an enigma. • It was crumbling, the lawn was overgrown and no one seemed to know who lived there. • Today, the 3,784-square-foot building is gone. • Sold for $1.1-million, it was demolished to make room for an Achieva Credit Union. The credit union should open in January, said Bill Nicola, Achieva's director of facilities.

Thursday, the City Commission passed the first reading of an ordinance requested by the new owners to annex the property into the city. The 1.73 acres were in a single remaining enclave of unincorporated Pinellas County.

Deer Hall was left in such poor shape, Vinnie Luisi, director of the Dunedin Historical Society, said he was afraid to walk through the interior, fearing part of it would collapse. It would take more than half a million dollars to restore the damage, he said, money the historical society doesn't have.

Deer Hall's history began in 1908, possibly earlier, when Arthur and Agatha Nigels built it. They raised five children there, and erected a sign with black wooden lettering above the front door: Deer Hall.

The Nigels' granddaughter, Winona Jones, 80, of Palm Harbor, is the daughter of the Nigels' oldest son, Eugene Nigels. She said the house was probably named Deer Hall because her family liked to hunt. She remembers spending Christmas and Thanksgiving hunting in the woods.

Agatha Nigels expected her grandchildren to behave and take care of the house she was so proud of, Jones said.

"I just thought it was beautiful," she said. "My grandmother was an excellent housekeeper and she always had bowls of candy."

When Arthur and Agatha Nigels died, the house went to their daughter, Irene Covey. Covey's daughter, Barbara Jackson, 74, who lives in Texas, was born in Deer Hall. The house didn't have air-conditioning and Jackson remembers thinking she was living deep in the country. She had to walk a mile to her bus stop.

She remembers a fish pond in the back and a dark-green living room wall sponge-painted with gold.

Most recently, Jackson's half brother, Sumner "Pete" Covey, lived in the house with his wife. He had a failed plant nursery business, Jackson said. He couldn't be reached for comment.

His son, Jeff Covey, 39, of Maine, said he last visited the house about two years ago and said the house was "in pretty bad shape." The goal was to repair and restore it, but the plan was too costly, he said.

"It was a nice old house in its day," Jeff Covey said. "As my parents got up in age it was a little overwhelming for them to take care of."

Jones didn't want to walk through the house a final time.

"Because I knew it was going to be torn down," Jones said. "When it was kept up, it was a beautiful home and I can't believe they could destroy it in one day."

Times researcher Will Gorham contributed to this report. Tamara El-Khoury can be reached at (727)445-4181 or tel-khoury@sptimes.com.