Tilghman House Palatka Florida

Tilghman House

As you open your car door at 324 river street, the breeze off the water greets you in a playful dance, smelling of open air, fish, a hint of earth. As you look up to the house that sits regally atop a slight incline from the water, you can sense that this house is special. It is old, it has seen progress, yet has maintained a sense of integrity, of retrospect and quiet history.

As you walk up the front steps you will see a brass plaque to the left of the door that states the Tilghman House has been placed on the National Register of Historic Places. When you open the door and breach the threshold the air changes ever so slightly, as it will in old homes, a testimony to history these walls have seen.

To the right as you walk in hang the likenesses of William G. Tilghman and his wife Mattie Tilghman. They bought the house in 1894 from its original owner Irving Gillis.

Mr. Tilghman was a farmer and co-owner of Noah J. Tilghman & Sons, a major lumber and shingle mill in Palatka. This mill was sold to the Wilson brothers in 1890. However, William then bought the D. A. Boyd mill and continued in the cypress shingle business.

The Tilghman's daughter, Helen, was born in the house. She was born deaf, but could read lips. She worked in the orange groves as a picker, and after her parents died, she lived in the house until the mid-1970's. She divided the house into apartments, which she rented out while she lived there. Helen was a supporter of the arts and loved to garden, and had a small fernery behind the house. Helen Tilghman died in the house at the age of 85.

After several owners used the house as rental property, the City of Palatka bought it in 1990 and in 1991 leased it to the Palatka Art League, which is currently renovating and maintaining the house as an active Cultural Arts Center.

The cypress wood floors, molding and staircase are an excellent example of the workmanship of the late 1800's.

third story windows

This three story, Georgian house is flanked by heavy matching end-wall chimneys and features a steeply pitched gable roof accented by a paladin window and a half gabled verandah supported by Greek Doric columns.