About The Rich Hippies House
Our house turns 100 this year!
WHO DOESN’T LOVE AN OLD FLORIDA HOUSE?
The “Rich Hippies House” was a bit of an accident. After running our own children’s shop and clothing brand in Nashville came to a close, people were asking us, “what’s next?”.
Turns out we had to make an emergency move back to Florida to care for a family member and with our son in an intensive 5-day-a-week therapy program, there wasn’t much time to think about opening another children’s shop again full-time.
We sold both homes in Nashville and bought what we eventually dubbed the new “Rich Hippies House” in West Palm Beach after Nashville guests lovingly referred to it that way a few times.
The multi-unit, three building estate was begging for some TLC, so we got to work returning her to former glory, and we deeply fell in love with our new home and her history.
While we aren’t home, we rent her out for others to enjoy our unique piece of Florida history!
The house was built in 1923 and was the model home for the Visa Encanto neighborhood. It was built for Millard Martin Sadler for around $4,500!
The developer from the Gruber-Carlsberg group was George Allen Fiers. He was even the builder on the Little Brown Church in West Palm Beach. His son Dale is was a well known leader in the Christian community.
Millard Martin Sadler only lived in the house a little over 10 years after buying it. The next owners also lived in the house for about 10 more years, but very little information was available about them or their time at the house. And the following owners - same story! They owned it for 10 years and very little information was available about them.
The next family will be the family that gave the house its soul, living there for 50 years! They loved this house deeply! Once it became too small for their growing family they bought another house. Just two weeks later they moved right back in and sold the new house they bought!
I loved learning though this sweet family, seeing their photos and hearing their stories. I connected with family members and was able to read a book written by the owner and it was incredible to learn about the mark he made in our community.
This is the family that made us committed to being good stewards of this home!
After this family left in the late 90’s, the stories get a little jumbled and inconsistent. Some people found me and shared when they rented the duplex! Others shared stories of nights they spent at art gallery openings (in what is now the studio), weddings, and lots of parties.
I imagine this time to be a very fun period for the house. A former owner, I am told, was best friends with Lily Pulitzer, and they would hang out all the time at the house!
As time went one, bit by bit, the house kind of faded away. I am not clear on the story, but it seems the owners just packed up and left everything behind and moved north.
The house was in a sad state and it seemed like it was forgotten for a while. Someone bought the house and tidied up her major issues before we purchased her. I found this old listing of what she looked like, and I am so happy someone began the process of saving her!
Once she became ours, we worked hard to shine her back to the state she deserves to be, while preserving as much as possible! Luckily for us, we didn't need to do any major renovation or any construction at all! Our work consisted of a lot of cleaning, design, and repair and it was so worth it! Can you believe that front door has been there 100 years?!
We adore our home and are so thrilled to be able to offer it to guests who appreciate historic Florida homes!