P-Day and Some History

After completing our weekly cleaning, we went to the Gamble Plantation Historic State Park.  This is an old plantation mansion that was built in the 1840's.  At that time, the Bradenton/Sarasota area was considered frontier, so a land grant program was established to encourage settlers.  Robert Gamble, who had been managing a family sugar cane plantation in the Tallahasee area, took advantage of the land grant to begin what ultimately became a 3500 acre plantation with 1500 acres under cultivation using 190 slaves.  The mansion is not as large and ornate as on some of the cotton plantations further north.  Perhaps that is because he was a bachelor when he built and lived in the mansion.  It was built in the typical antebellim style with columns around the exterior.  The walls are two feet thick -- common in the mansions of the time as a means for keeping the interior cooler than the outdoor temperature.

Gamble Mansion - rainwater storage in the cistern on the right