New Smyrna Beach, Eldora House, Florida

Eldora House

Eldora was a prominent community of orange groves in the latter part of the 19th century. After a freeze destroyed most of its crops, it was nearly completely abandoned and has never regained its population.
After the death of its last resident, Doris "Doc" Leeper, a locally famous artist and conservationist in the 1980s, the management of the town was officially turned over to the federal government, and the town is now located more than two miles within the borders of the Canaveral National Seashore. The town claims no permanent residents, and visitation is limited and subject to park hours. Only two of its original buildings remain. The largest, "The Eldora House", now holds a museum. Although the town's orange groves were nearly completely wiped out over one hundred years ago, some trees still remain.
Eldora was a steamboat stop along the Indian River, and passenger boats frequently stopped for the evening at the Eldora House. Though not advertised as such, the Eldora House was a locally well known brothel, serving wealthy steamship passengers on their way to Palm Beach in the late 1900