The Grove Plantation
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The Grove Plantation
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Call-Collins Mansion at The Grove
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| Location | Leon County, Florida |
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| Nearest city | Tallahassee |
| Coordinates | 30°27′1″N 84°16′55″W / 30.45028°N 84.28194°WCoordinates: 30°27′1″N 84°16′55″W / 30.45028°N 84.28194°W |
| Architectural style | Greek Revival |
| Website | Official website |
| NRHP Reference # | 72000335 |
| Added to NRHP | June 13, 1972 |
The Grove, known officially as the Call/Collins House at The Grove, is an antebellum plantation house located in Tallahassee Leon County, Florida. Territorial Governor Richard Keith Call constructed The Grove circa 1840. By 1851, Call deeded the property to his daughter, Ellen Call Long, who owned it until 1903. Long’s granddaughter, Reinette Long Hunt, acquired the property and owned it until her death in 1940. Hunt opened The Grove Hotel during this era and developed onsite cottages that served as rental properties. After a brief period under the ownership of John W. Ford and Josephine Agler, future Florida governor LeRoy Collins and his wife, Mary Call Darby Collins, a great-granddaughter of Richard Keith Call, bought The Grove.
Mary Call Darby Collins was the last of Call’s descendants to own The Grove. During LeRoy Collins’ tenure as governor, The Grove served as the unofficial executive residence while the current Florida Governor's Mansion was under construction, from 1955 to 1957. The Collins family owned The Grove until 1985, when the state of Florida acquired the property for the purpose of creating a state historic house museum. The Collins family received life leases and lived there until their deaths. Following the death of Mrs. Collins in 2009, the property formally reverted to the state. The property includes a small active family cemetery that predates the current Grove residence and serves as the final resting place for several generations of the Call and Collins families.
The 10-acre parcel on which The Grove is situated was once part of a much larger 640 acres (2.6 km2) tract purchased by Richard Keith Call in 1825. Call came to Tallahassee after his single term as territorial delegate to the United States House of Representatives. He was a member of future president Andrew Jackson’s inner circle and used his connections to secure a position with the federal land office in Tallahassee. The first residence on the property, described as “a plain building of several rooms on one floor, with outside chimneys and porches,” was built around the time Call acquired the property in 1825. According to oral tradition, Mary Kirkman Call, Richard Keith Call’s wife, was responsible for the naming of The Grove. In an early letter written by Mrs. Call to Jackson’s wife, Rachel, the letter is datelined from “Hickory Grove.”
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