This seven-room house dates to the mid 1890s and, though a modest middle-class home, had electricity, running water, an elaborate bathroom, four brick fireplaces, and a seven-foot tub in original condition; its water came from the Belleview hotel's waterworks before Clearwater had a city water system. Its early history is uncertain, but because it closely resembles houses built by railroad magnate Henry Plant, some believe supervisors from either the railroad or the hotel lived there. In 1912 Robert and Julia Sumner bought the house and moved their family in. Robert was a Methodist minister, farmer, occasional veterinarian, and postmaster for the town of Belleair. The Sumner children came of age in boom-era Pinellas, choosing college and careers over chasing cows. During the summer, the family kept cows in a pen, used the cow manure to fertilize crops planted each fall, and sold milk to neighbors to help support the growing family. In the mid 1950s, Calvert and Pauline Whitehurst lived there, and Calvert walked across the railroad tracks to his job at the West Coast Fruit Company owned by the Kilgore family. The house is a homestead-style, middle class-suburban variation of the farmhouse.