The Perfect Wedding Gift
A Dream House
By Evelyn French

When Katherine MacDonell was 13 years old, she found a picture of a beautiful house in a magazine. She cut the picture out, showed it to her parents and told them this was her "dream house." The picture was that of a Queen Anne Style home. Who would have known that five years later Miss Kate MacDonell would become Mrs. Kate Bailey, and she would indeed have her own dream house. 
Katherine MacDonell was born in 1874 on Amelia Island. She was one of 13 children. She attended St. Joseph's Academy of Fernandina. Her father was Augustus Oswald MacDonell. He was a resident manager of the Florida Railroad following the Civil War. Kate's grandfather, Alexander Harrison MacDonell, was born on Amelia Island in 1809. His family owned and operated the Harrison Plantation on the south end of the island. 
A few years later Kate met a gentleman by the name of Effingham W. Bailey, who was a steamship agent from Charleston, South Carolina, who was now working here in Fernandina. He was born in 1867 in South Carolina. Effingham had been courting Miss Kate when she showed him the picture she had from the magazine of the Queen Anne Style home. She told him this was her dream house. Effingham who was eight years older than Kate, replied by telling her that when she was 18 years old, they would marry, and he would build her her very own dream house.             

When they were married, Kate's father gave the young bride and groom a wedding present, which turned out to be the corner lot of the adjoining family residence. Effingham then asked his bride if she had a choice, would she choose to have a modest home built with wonderful and fine furnishings or would she like an elaborate home with furnishings to be added later. Mrs. Kate chose the latter, and her dream house was underway. 
The Bailey House construction began in 1892 and was finished in 1895 at a cost of $10,000. The architect was George W. Barber. Mr. Barber was a successful, creative, self-taught architect. When he was 30, he returned to the town where he was born in Illinois and became a partner in a construction business operated by his brother. It was here in Illinois he designed his first church, the Dekalb Congregational Church. He then settled into life in Knoxville, Tennessee, where he had a series of partners. In the 1900's George Barber had a fast-growing firm that was the driving force in the community. When he died, many mourned the death of this very important architect. Barber was said to have prided himself on the fact that his work descriptions were so clearly detailed that carpenters found ease in following his sketches and work plans. Today, there are still requests to Mr. Barber's firm, Barber and McMurry, for imitation house plans like those Barber built many years ago.  Barber has had many prestigious and gorgeous homes built in states from coast to coast. Many, if not all of these buildings, homes and churches are still standing today just like our local Bailey House. 

Horse and carriage in front of the Bailey House.
(Courtesy of Jan H. Johannes - Yesterday's Reflections II)
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Since Mr. Bailey was a steamship agent, he was a very important man. In those days the steamer brought tourists directly from New York to Fernandina Beach for a winter stay. This wave of tourism probably helped Mr. Bailey finance the house. It also helped to be a steamship agent because it's been said most of the craftsmanship in the house was done by ship carpenters. 
Some of the features of a Queen Anne Style home are: a wraparound porch, a three-sided recess off the entrance hall, a stained-glass window above the first landing of the staircase, and a fireplace across from the staircases. The fireplace in the entrance of the Bailey House has a heart-of-pine mantel carved with the saying "Hearth Hall - Welcome All", which was designed by Mrs. Bailey. This shows her as the gracious and wonderful woman she was said to have been. Mrs. Kate was a very intelligent, witty, and firm lady. An example of this is her fondness for playing her grand piano for hours. She also wrote the school song for Fernandina Beach High School in 1931. (The Alma Mater). Legend also has it that when the city decided to cut down the giant, ancient, live oak tree on Ash Street, just adjacent to Mrs. Bailey's house, she protested. She called the city manager and warned him that under no terms was anyone "to dare put an axe to that tree." She sat on her porch with shotgun in hand and dared the city workers to cut down that tree where they were going to pave the street. You will be happy to find that Ash Street still curves around that marvelous ancient live oak tree some hundred years later. Some say you can still see Mrs. Kate's ghost guarding that tree from time to time. 

The giant live oak tree that Mrs. Bailey helped
save still stands in the middle of Ash Street.
(Photo by Evelyn French)
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The Bailey family lived in the house until 1963. The Bailey House was added to the National Register of Historic Places on July 5, 1973, according to the Fernandina Beach News-Leader. It is also one of the most photographed Victorian homes in the south. It is a Victorian bed and breakfast now and a well-preserved masterpiece here on Amelia Island. The new innkeepers are Jenny and Tom Bishop, who purchased the Bailey House in 1993. Recent renovations to the house have given it three more bedrooms and a den to the attic area; the garage was also made into living quarters; a new five color paint job gave the home a face lift. Other modern efficiencies help to keep the home well preserved yet still antique, all from the stained glass windows to the claw foot soaking tubs. There is also a 1/4" scale model of the Bailey home, built by Mr. Bishop, that shows the care given and the precise measures taken in the new additions to the house to make it identical to the original state of the rest of the home.    
Our local Museum of History received a priceless piece of history courtesy of Mr. Effingham Bailey. The family donated a turn-of-the-century bicycle which is on display at the Museum, along with a music box which you can find in the Victorian room of the Eight Flags tours section. There is also a beautiful section on the wall that talks about the Bailey house and family history, complete with old photographs. One can also take a walking tour of the Bailey House through the museum. For details contact the Amelia Island Museum of History at (904) 261-7378. 

Today, Kate Bailey's dream house is a wonderful bed and breakfast inn.
(Photo by Evelyn French)
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During my conversations with the new innkeepers, it was brought to my attention that Mrs. Jenny Bishop was not so much different from Kate Bailey in the fact that she also had a dream, a dream of owning a beautiful historic home that she could fill with antiques she had collected over the years.
Come and visit the Bailey House, located at the corner of Ash Street and 7th Street. Stay for a night or two, and see what a gem this Victorian home really is to our community. Contact the Bailey House at (904) 261-5390 or 800-251-5390. You can also check availability online at www.bailey-house.com.