In the 1920s, Margaret and John Roebling were among the visitors drawn to the Lake Placid Club of New York's Florida resort on Lake Childs, later renamed Lake Placid, and Margaret's tuberculosis led them to settle just south of Lake Placid on a property called Red Hill. John A. Roebling II came from a family of engineers known for suspension bridges including the Brooklyn Bridge, while Margaret was a naturalist who urged preservation of Red Hill's native scrub habitat. Construction of the estate began in 1929 during the Great Depression, and in response to severe regional poverty, John Roebling directed that local men be hired and that labor-saving equipment be avoided to provide more jobs. From 1929 to 1935, even as thousands of banks closed nationwide, construction continued despite Margaret's death in October 1930. In early 1930, Margaret donated $50,000 to help purchase 500 acres of Hooker Hammock, which later became Highlands Hammock State Park, and after her death John contributed $300,000 more; Alexander Blair, the estate's engineer, oversaw construction of the park's original buildings and roads, and in 1935 the property was donated to the state of Florida as one of its first state parks. Archbold Biological Station's scientific legacy began with Blair's daily weather records and investigations of nearby Lake Annie, which became the basis for continuing studies there. After the estate buildings were completed in 1935, John Roebling, having remarried, decided to sell or donate Red Hill, but few buyers in remote rural Florida could afford to maintain it. In 1940, his son Donald Roebling had a chance meeting in New York with his old school friend Richard Archbold, who, with World War I ending his overseas Pacific expeditions, was seeking a U.S. base for biological research. On July 21, 1941, John Roebling deeded Red Hill Estate to Archbold for $1.00, trusting that he would be sensitive to the land's unspoiled beauty.