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The red-brick beauty at 701 N. Florida Ave. was the belle of the ball in downtown Lakeland nearly 100 years ago, but a roof leak, no electricity and an owner who had to take care of his ailing wife and then his mother left the building bedraggled.
Now, a pending sale has put the old gal on a date with a dozer.
Sale: Mark Williams owns the building with his four siblings. He operated a pawn shop there with his wife, Leigh Ann, until she died from early onset Alzheimer’s disease four years ago. He then became his mother’s primary caregiver until she passed away in 2023.
Williams’ grandmother established The S.A. Williams Children’s Trust in the 1960s. It included multiple real estate holdings.
Williams said Wednesday he wanted out of building ownership and, at 69, wanted to enjoy his life. So he wanted the properties sold.
A trustee then began selling the buildings, including the property at 701 N. Florida Ave.
The new owners, Williams said, are going to tear it down.
Relics: Williams spoke as workers hauled a cream-colored safe out the front door and onto a flatbed tow truck.
“That safe was the safe of the Medulla Lumber Company when they went out of business during the Depression. Then it was Nocodemus’ Jewelry Store’s,” he said.
Another safe still inside the building also has a history.
“It belonged to Edgar Hull Jewelers — it was barged down the Mississippi River to New Orleans. From there, it was put on a steamer to Tampa. Then a mule and wagon brought it first to Plant City. The (Hull) family that was still alive had all the records and showed it to me.”
History: The Traders building has sat on the lot at N. Florida Avenue and East Myrtle Street since at least 1932, according to records on file with the Lakeland Public Library.
The Polk County Property Appraiser’s website shows the building was constructed in 1935, but Williams said it could be as early as 1917.
It was built as Traders Furniture Company by Luther Humpreys, who also operated a Traders Furniture Company building for about 10 years at 708-710 N. Florida Ave.
A mosaic step with the Traders name still sits at the entrance to the building at 701.
The building was most recently home to Lakeland Pawn & Gun.
Historic preservation: Local historic preservationists are sad to see the building go, but say there is nothing they can do to save it.
“It’s neither in a historic district, nor is it individually listed in the national register,” said preservationist Jim Edwards, who helped to rejuvenate the downtown area starting in the late 1980s.
“And of course it’s isolated now, which makes it even weaker. It’s surrounded by vacant land.”
Edwards said if it were part of an historic block or area, they could argue for its salvation.
Records on file with the Polk County Property Appraiser’s website show the last time the property was bought and sold was in 1980 for $75,000 when four owners sold the property to the S. A. Williams Children’s Trust.
Mark Williams said the trustee recently tried to sell it for $300,000, but he and his siblings put it on the market for $960,000 and got a contract quickly from what he describes as an anonymous group of buyers.
Natalie Oldenkamp is a realtor and serves on the Lakeland Historic Preservation Board, which protects properties in Lakeland’s historic districts, and with Historic Lakeland, Inc., a non-profit dedicated to saving old and historic structures.
“Designating it as a local historic landmark takes more time than we have. I’m sorry, Lakeland,” Oldenkamp said on her Facebook page Wednesday.
“Historic Lakeland, Inc. is a non-profit, and it will not come before our City of Lakeland Historic Preservation Board because it is not in a historic district or is locally/nationally protected. Once these buildings are gone, it’s forever, y’all.”
In the meantime, Williams was working Wednesday to clear out anything valuable from the pawn shop he once operated in the building.
The sale, he said, is expected to go through next Thursday.
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Thats a shame the building is not protected. Its a pretty cool old building.
I have lived in Lakeland since 2006, that building has never been occupied nor has it supported a business in all that time.
Glad to see it go. Wish the world do the same to the many eyesore’s in Dixieland. The buildings look terrible and it would revitalize downtown and make way for widening Florida Ave, so it is actually useful.
In a historical district or not a building that old is a part of history and should be able to be saved Barbara Knowles knowlesbarbara58@gmail.com