Casa De Josefina
About this property
The Casa De Josefina (also known as the Irwin Arthur Yarnell House) is a historic home near Lake Wales, Florida. It is located two miles southeast of Lake Wales off U.S. 27. On June 10, 1975, it was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places. The house is built of stucco-covered coquina in an eclectic Florida Boom style, a blend of Spanish, Italian, and Gothic, and is E-shaped with a corner tower. A porch at the rear connects the rooms in the three wings. The grounds comprise 18 acres. Irwin Arthur Yarnell, a banker from Minneapolis who helped develop Florida communities including Highland Park, built it for $1.5 million in 1923 and named it for his wife, Josephine; above the front door is a stained-glass window with her name in the grillwork, and there is a sculpture of her profile on a parapet. There were originally gardens including 2,000 species of palms. The house was built by European craftsmen and furnished with antiques bought abroad, and the couple hosted lavish parties there until the Florida bust of 1926 and the stock market crash of 1929 ruined them. Irwin Yarnell died in 1936; Josephine Yarnell continued to live in the house until her death in 1967. She sold antiques, jewelry, and much of the land. Part of the house served at one point as the Ponce de Leon Hall for Convalescents, and it has also been a boarding house and housed a community center. It was open to the public for tours led by the Yarnell grandchildren in the 1960s. Later on, The Miami bank foreclosed on the property and requested that Jacques Gauthier and Beverly Gauthier of Cocoa, Florida purchase the property. They finished the condo developments and moved on. From 1981 it was owned by the Louwsma family, who modified it; it has sometimes been mistaken for a hotel. Contrary to local legends, Josephine Yarnell's family attests that Josephine never believed the house was haunted, but she never refuted such claims because such nonsense kept out trespassers. The family was amused when people later believed Josephine haunted the house, and one claim was her ghost was seen dusting the house, an idea her family thought creative but completely out of character for Josephine. Jean Louwsma said in the 1980s that she thought it was haunted by Josephine herself. Media related to Casa De Josefina at Wikimedia Commons
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Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).
Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
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Questions about this property
When was Casa De Josefina listed on the National Register?
Casa De Josefina was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on June 9, 1975.
What type of historic resource is Casa De Josefina?
Casa De Josefina is classified as a building in the National Register of Historic Places.
What is the period of significance for Casa De Josefina?
The period of significance for Casa De Josefina is recorded as the industrial era.
Can I research the history near Casa De Josefina?
Yes. Aubrey Research reports search National Register listings, battlefield records, land patents, and other primary historical sources within any radius of a US address. A report for an address near Casa De Josefina will include this listing and all other historical records in the area.
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