Napoleon Bonaparte Broward House Historic Structure Report

Oppermann, Joseph

The Napoleon Bonaparte Broward House on Batten Island is named for its most famous owner. By every measure he was a self-made man who overcame enormous odds in a meteoric and quite colorful rise to national prominence. He was orphaned at 10. As a young man he became a river pilot and attracted notice as a gunrunner for the rebels in Cuba. His political career began in 1895 when he was elected to the Jacksonville City Council and the same year built a fi ne house for his family in the city. Two years later he acquired this summer house on the St. Johns River northeast of town. In 1900 he was elected to the Florida House of Representatives and in 1904 was elected governor. In 1910 he was elected to the United States Senate, but died before taking office. Governor Broward’s family retained the house until the 1990s. Little is known about either the initial construction of this house or the persons involved. The area where the house is located was known in the last half of the nineteenth century as Pilot Town. It was a community inhabited mostly by harbor pilots, sea captains who made their living bringing ships through the notoriously treacherous currents nearby where the St. Johns River meets the Atlantic Ocean. By the last quarter of the century there were others who came here, mostly wealthy northerners, to enjoy the mild climate and stunning coastal scenery.

Napoleon Bonaparte Broward House Historic Structure Report

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