Built in 1899 in Gainesville’s Duck Pond, and home to one of Florida’s most honored citizens.
The early photograph shows five people on the porch. If you know who they are, we’d love to hear from you.
Built in 1899, the Albert Blanding House is part of Gainesville’s historic Duck Pond neighborhood. Historical accounts credit its construction to Horatio Davis, a judge and two-time Gainesville mayor.
Its best-known resident was Albert Hazen Blanding, the soldier and conservationist Camp Blanding is named for. He owned it until 1958.
Seven years before the University of Florida opened its Gainesville campus, this house was already standing.
Historical accounts credit the house to Horatio Davis, a judge who was twice elected mayor of Gainesville. He built it in the Queen Anne style of the day: gingerbread trim, a fish-scale shingled front gable, and the deep wraparound porches that still define it. Davis died in 1900, the year after it was finished.
By 1900 the house was home to Albert Hazen Blanding, then in his twenties. He had grown up in Gainesville, graduated first in his class from East Florida Seminary, a predecessor of the University of Florida, and enlisted in the Gainesville Guards. Local accounts place him here from 1900 to 1910, and he kept the house until 1958.
Blanding’s career took him from the Florida National Guard to France in World War I, and then to the head of the National Guard Bureau in Washington.
The Blanding family’s ownership ended in 1958. In 1980 the Duck Pond was listed on the National Register of Historic Places as the Northeast Gainesville Residential District, recognizing more than two hundred of its historic buildings, this one among its neighbors.
We bought the house in 2026 to share it with Gator families. We’re keeping as much of its character as we can, and adding the comforts a modern stay needs.
Craig & Jenn
We’re still piecing together who lived here over the last 127 years. If you have an old photo, a family name, or a story from the neighborhood, please write to us. We’ll share what we learn here.
We’re Craig and Jenn. Our hope is to become your home away from home throughout your Gator’s years at UF, and to welcome you back again and again.
Dear Craig & Jenn, here’s what I remember about the old house on Third Street…
Craig & Jenn
Gator Haven House
306 NE Third St.
Gainesville, Fla.
Four bedrooms, four and a half baths, two miles from the stadium. Opening December 26, 2026.
The drawings of the house, the colorized postcard, the engraved portrait and the keepsakes on this site were created for it as illustrations; they are not historical documents. The photographs of the house and the painted portrait of General Blanding are real.
