Trips Places Foods Stories Newsletters
Loading...
Top Destinations
Latest Places
Most Popular Places Random Place Lists Itineraries
Add a Place
Download the App
Top Destinations
View All Destinations »

Countries

  • Australia
  • Canada
  • China
  • France
  • Germany
  • India
  • Italy
  • Japan

Cities

  • Amsterdam
  • Barcelona
  • Beijing
  • Berlin
  • Boston
  • Budapest
  • Chicago
  • London
  • Los Angeles
  • Mexico City
  • Montreal
  • Moscow
  • New Orleans
  • New York City
  • Paris
  • Philadelphia
  • Rome
  • San Francisco
  • Seattle
  • Stockholm
  • Tokyo
  • Toronto
  • Vienna
  • Washington, D.C.
Latest Places
View All Places »
Headstone of Matilda Joslyn Gage.
Matilda Joslyn Gage Grave
Mammoth footprint replica
Ice Age Floods display at Tualatin Public Library
Karpeles Manuscript Library Mini Museum
Shakespeare’s Death Mask
Loading...
Loading...

No search results found for
“”

Make sure words are spelled correctly.

Try searching for a travel destination.

Places near me Random place

Popular Destinations

  • Paris
  • London
  • New York
  • Berlin
  • Rome
  • Los Angeles
Trips Places Foods Stories Newsletters
Sign In Join
Places near me Random place
All the United States Florida Tallahassee Verdura Plantation

Verdura Plantation

The ruins of a once massive plantation are now a private residence hidden in the Florida wilderness.

Tallahassee, Florida

Added By
Rachel M
Email
Been Here
Want to go
Added to list
CAPTION
Verdura Plantation   Mom0ja / Atlas Obscura User
Verdura Plantation   Mom0ja / Atlas Obscura User
Verdura Plantation   Mom0ja / Atlas Obscura User
Verdura Plantation   Mom0ja / Atlas Obscura User
Verdura Plantation   Mom0ja / Atlas Obscura User
Verdura Plantation   Mom0ja / Atlas Obscura User
  BoldRhino / Atlas Obscura User
  BoldRhino / Atlas Obscura User
  BoldRhino / Atlas Obscura User
Been Here
Want to go
Added to list

About

Verdura Plantation was once one of the largest examples of early antebellum plantation style. Situated on 9,000 acres of land, the house was a three-story, 13-room, 10-columned mansion. Benjamin Chaires, who built Verdura, was the first millionaire in the state of Florida. He designed the layout of Jacksonville, then brought the railroad to and established the first bank in Tallahassee, Florida. Benjamin died in 1838. His wife, Sarah Jane Powell, died just eight years later.  

Charles, the youngest son of Benjamin and Sarah, became the owner of Verdura after his siblings left to establish plantations and start their own families. After his first wife died, Charles married Martha Mash. Thus began the chain of circumstances--from disloyalty, lawsuits, a gunfight, and unexplained death--that eventually led to the Chaires family no longer being owners of Verdura.

In 1878, Charles returned home from a long trip away and discovered that Martha was pregnant. He sent Martha away to have the baby, discovered that his wife had been having an affair with his nephew, then filed for dissolution of the marriage. Charles and his nephew, Ben, engaged in a "shooting affray" on a downtown Tallahassee street in 1879. Both men were arrested, though all charges were eventually dropped. Charles died of mysterious circumstances at the St. Marks Lighthouse in 1881, before a judge had made a decision about the charges of adultery against Martha, or on the dissolution of their marriage. Verdura, believed to eventually have been given over to creditors, was destroyed by a fire sometime in the late 1880s.  

The plantation land, thought to have once contained slave quarters, slave cemetery, cotton gin, Seminole Indian encampment, Spanish colonial-era mission, and other outbuildings, has never been protected or fully studied. The land is currently privately owned by the St. Joe Company and is mostly used as hunting tracts. Little remains of the ruins beyond some columns and a pile of crumbling bricks.

Update as of November 2020: This site is located on private property and this should be used for informative purposes only. 

Related Tags

Ruins Mansions

Know Before You Go

The land is currently privately owned and trespassing is forbidden.

Community Contributors

Added By

Mom0ja

Edited By

Ariel Viera, koelker12, BoldRhino

  • Ariel Viera
  • koelker12
  • BoldRhino

Published

January 8, 2016

Edit this listing

Make an Edit
Add Photos
Sources
  • http://www.mcglynnlabs.com/VerduraBriefHistory.pdf
  • http://www.tallahasseemagazine.com/November-December-2015/A-19th-Century-Story-of-Disloyalty-Gunplay-Lawsuits-and-a-Mysterious-Death/index.php?cparticle=1&siarticle=0#artanc
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vendura_Plantation
Verdura Plantation
Tallahassee, Florida, 32311
United States
30.379613, -84.165628

Nearby Places

Tallahassee-Leon County Civil Rights Heritage Walk

Tallahassee, Florida

miles away

9/11 Whale Sculptures

Tallahassee, Florida

miles away

Library Oak Tree Fort Sculpture

Tallahassee, Florida

miles away

Explore the Destination Guide

Photo of Tallahassee

Tallahassee

Florida

Places 17

Nearby Places

Tallahassee-Leon County Civil Rights Heritage Walk

Tallahassee, Florida

miles away

9/11 Whale Sculptures

Tallahassee, Florida

miles away

Library Oak Tree Fort Sculpture

Tallahassee, Florida

miles away

Explore the Destination Guide

Photo of Tallahassee

Tallahassee

Florida

Places 17

Related Places

  • The Poltalloch House has a long history behind it.

    Kilmartin, Scotland

    Poltalloch House

    The ruins of this 19th-century Scottish Baronial mansion reflect the architectural heritage and history of Scotland's aristocracy.

  • Pune, India

    Taljai Mansion

    The crumbling ruins of an old stone mansion sit atop a hill in the middle of Pune.

  • Rock Hill, South Carolina

    Carhartt Mansion Ruins

    The ruins of this once-grand mansion are linked to one of the country’s most popular clothing brands.

  • Póstelek Back Facade A

    Békéscsaba, Hungary

    Széchenyi-Wenckheim Castle Ruins

    The ruins of an early 1900s neo-Baroque mansion sit nestled in a local park in the Hungarian plains.

  • Marshall Hall

    Accokeek, Maryland

    Marshall Hall

    The ruins of an 18th-century mansion that was once named "Mistake" by the man who had it built.

  • The collapsed section.

    Strichen, Scotland

    Strichen House

    The ruinous former neo-classical mansion was built for Thomas Fraser of Strichen.

  • Windows

    Dunmore, Scotland

    Dunmore Park House

    A once extravagant mansion, now reduced to ruin.

  • Pergola - The Garden of Sweet Remembrance

    Shrewsbury, Massachusetts

    Garden of Sweet Remembrance

    All that remains of the Whittall mansion are the ruins of the formal garden and its pergola, dedicated to the late Matthew J. Whittall by his widow.

Aerial image of Vietnam, displaying the picturesque rice terraces, characterized by their layered, verdant fields.
Atlas Obscura Membership

Become an Atlas Obscura Member


Join our community of curious explorers.

Become a Member

Get Our Email Newsletter

Follow Us

Facebook YouTube TikTok Instagram Pinterest RSS Feed

Get the app

Download the App
Download on the Apple App Store Get it on Google Play
  • All Places
  • Latest Places
  • Most Popular
  • Places to Eat
  • Random
  • Nearby
  • Add a Place
  • Stories
  • Food & Drink
  • Itineraries
  • Lists
  • Video
  • Podcast
  • Newsletters
  • All Trips
  • Family Trip
  • Food & Drink
  • History & Culture
  • Wildlife & Nature
  • FAQ
  • Membership
  • Feedback & Ideas
  • Community Guidelines
  • Product Blog
  • Unique Gifts
  • Work With Us
  • About
  • FAQ
  • Advertise With Us
  • Advertising Guidelines
  • Privacy Policy
  • Cookie Policy
  • Terms of Use
Atlas Obscura

© 2025 Atlas Obscura. All Rights Reserved.