Sunday Favorites: Thelma By the Sea Crosses the Canal

Holes were dug all the way underneath the house so that the ÔI’ beams can be inserted.

ANNA MARIA -- Eerie noises emanated from a  normally peaceful North Bay Boulevard on Friday. Bellowing Beams yawning off years of inactivity disturbed the whispering bay breeze. Joints screeched loudly, bending for the first time in 98 years. Floors creaked and dollies squealed when after years of lying dormant on a hushed neighborhood street, a massive dwelling was roused from a century of slumber. Approximately 300,000 pounds of substantial block foundation was moved to the water’s edge to rest peacefully over the weekend.

Developers Mike and Lizzie Thrasher have gone to great lengths to preserve the historic building known as the Angler’s Lodge. Over the next few days, they will construct a bridge and winch the house over a canal. The distance is only a half a mile, but the preparations were anything but simple. The hollow rusticated blocks that make up the majority of the structure had to be filled with concrete to build strength. The corners of the house were reinforced with steel rods to enhance rigidity. Steel corner guards were inserted on the outside of the house. New beams were placed over the open areas such as doors and windows and bracing structures were positioned inside each room to stop distortion of the walls and ceilings. All of this in the name of history!

”It is important to preserve history because if we don’t care about it, we’re going to forget where we came from,“ said Lizzie Thrasher. ”This building is beautifully designed. It has a lot of  detail, curved doors and windows, more than you would normally find in one building.“

The Thrashers have started a new island legacy. The Angler’s Lodge will mark the fourth historic building used in the couple’s ”Green Village,“ a new development on Pine Avenue, consisting of 8000 square feet of retail space and upstairs apartments. The village includes the village cafŽ, built in 1913, a Sears and Roebuck model home built in 1935, and the White House built in 1917.

New beams were placed over the open areas such as doors and windows and bracing structures were placed inside each room to stop distortion of the walls and ceilings.

Beyond the charming rustic design, one of the most notable elements of the project is the extensive, Ôgreen’ initiatives that are being incorporated. The whole village will be run using renewable energy sources, including ground-source heat pumps, electricity generation via solar panels, and solar hot water -- bringing new and old together. 

The Green Village is set to be awarded Platinum LEED Certification, and will be first development to achieve this in Florida. LEED Certification, developed by the U.S. Green Building Council, is an internationally recognized certification system that uses strategies aimed at improving performance across the board. Requirements are intended to increase energy savings and water efficiency while reducing CO2 emissions.

On Tuesday May 24, the house will be moved to its final site. Beams will lift the Angler’s Lodge up, where it will then be loaded onto dollies and positioned at the edge of the canal.  It has to be turned at a 90-degree angle because the side of the house that is facing the water currently, is too wide to travel across the canal.

”The Angler’s Lodge was one of the only three buildings constructed in 1913,“ said Lizzie Thrasher. ”It is a special structure.“

Captain Mitch Davis, a well-respected Anna Maia Islander, built the Angler’s Lodge in 1913. He was one of the island’s first developers.  He owned a fishing fleet and captained a 30-foot boat for 39 years  that he built with his own two hands. He constructed a church in 1912, the Lotus Cottage and the icehouse on the end of the city pier. He built the first city jail and the first hotel. He was also the very first mayor of Anna Maria. On nights when the fog was too thick for ships to see clearly, he would beat empty gasoline drums on the pier to guide in steamers.

The house will be moved over the canal at 2 miles per hour on Tuesday.

Mr. and Mrs. J. R. Wood of Ellenton purchased the Angler’s Lodge in 1913.  Mr. Wood was a vegetable broker and owned several packing houses and farms, who subsequently became the Mayor of Ellenton.  The family used to travel from Ellenton by steamship to enjoy days on Anna Maria. They named the house ”Thelma by the Sea“ after their daughter. Thelma was a beautiful young woman and modeled for many publications, including the first tourism brochure for Anna Maria.

Two brothers, Edward and Robert Scott, purchased the Lodge in 1972 as a get-away from their Tampa residence.  In 1992, they sold it to Mrs. Agie Hebebrand, who was the last owner of the lodge. She recently donated it to the Anna Maria Preservation Trust, to ensure that it was protected and it became part of the legacy of the City of Anna Maria Island.

At its final resting place, the Angler’s Lodge will be placed alongside the Rosedale Cottage – home of the new Village CafŽ – a house that like the Angler’s Lodge also built by Captain Mitch Davis.  Both homes were built using the same rusticated blocks.