Tiny House – Replica of the Panton Leslie House, Pensacola, Florida

“Less is more”

Ludwig Miles van der Rohe 

 

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Driving downtown, we headed down Bayfront Parkway when we saw the tiny white house that looked like an oversized doll house. I saw many people stopping to get their pictures taken next to the house to show the true size. They looked like giants in comparison to it. The house stands 12 feet tall and is 19 feet long. We were so fascinated by this tiny home that I had to do some research on it. Why was it built? The miniature house was built in 1955 to disguise an ugly gas regulator, I learned. Escambia County owns and maintain the property with volunteers keeping up the maintenance on the property. The Guy Brothers even installed a new roof on it. My sister-in-law, Cathy states as a child, her mom always joked with her about the tiny people who lived in the house. Just imagine the little people looking out the windows.

The tiny house is a replica of the William Panton's residence that was built on the northern shoreline of Pensacola around 1785. William Panton was born in Scotland and moved to the states when he was twenty. He lived in Savannah, Georgia for a while and then moved to St. Augustine, Florida where the trading center called Panton, Forbes, and Company was formed. Their trading company bought guns, powder, rum, and flint from England to trade with the Indians in exchange for bear oil, furs, deer skins, honey, and food supplies. He stayed a loyalist for Britain which he needed to do to keep the trade going between Britain and the States. Forbes ended up running the East section of Florida while Panton took over the west coast of Florida for trading with the Indians. They traded with the Creek, Seminole, Chickasaws, Choctaws, and Cherokee Indians and when the Indians got too high in debt, the company would inherit their land. In 1783, William Alexander, Charles McLatchy, and John Leslie, also Scotsmen joined the firm and it was renamed Panton, Leslie, and Company. William Panton had the three story mansion built and he lived there for a while till it was used as the Panton, Leslie, and Company's Headquarters. This was the first million dollar business in Pensacola.

After the death of William Panton and John Lester, the company was bought by John Forbes and Company in 1804. His partners were William Simpson and John Innerarity. By 1812, the Indian trade was not their principal way of income. John Forbes reduced the Indian debt by getting their land and became the largest land owner in west Florida.

There was a large fire in Pensacola on September 24^th and 25^th, 1848 and burnt the house to the ground. This tiny house is a nice remembrance to the lovely mansion that once was.