In 1842, South Carolinian Bird M. Pearson claimed 160 acres and called it Mount Airy, building the manor house's east wing in 1847; later residents expanded it beginning in 1852. He raised citrus, cattle, and sugarcane on what became one of the few surviving plantations in Florida and one of the oldest houses in Hernando County. In 1905, Chicago residents Raymond and Margaret Dreir Robins purchased the property and named it Chinsegut Hill, an Inuit word meaning "a place where lost things are found." The estate became a retreat from the couple's activism on behalf of workers, women, and the poor, and guests included Thomas Edison, Senator and Mrs. Claude Pepper, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, J.C. Penney, and Helen Keller. During the Great Depression, after severe losses, the Robinses donated Chinsegut to the federal government and worked with the Department of Agriculture on an experimental station to benefit Florida farmers, while retaining the right to live there until their deaths. New Deal workers improved the property and built two cabins in 1933, and in 1958 the University of South Florida acquired it for use as a conference center.