Lodge has history ‘by the sea’

The Angler’ s Lodge on North Bay Boulevard that was moved to the Anna Maria Historic Green Village at 503 Pine Ave. in Anna Maria earlier this week started out as a private home, according to Anna Maria Island Preservation Trust director Sissy Quinn.

Quinn said she met last week with Emma Service Williams, the 97-year old second owner of the property, who now lives in Parrish.

Quinn said Williams provided her with details of the history of the property, including its name.

It wasn’ t the Angler’ s Lodge until 1950, Quinn said.

The house was called “ Thelma by the Sea” by the original builder, Mr. and Mrs. R. J. Wood, and named for their daughter, Thelma.

It is Thelma’ s picture that appeared on the first tourism brochure for Anna Maria, published around 1925, Quinn said.

In 1944, Pearl Wood sold the house to Emma Service Williams, whose mother operated a boarding house in Ellenton.

Williams added an upstairs to the house, five bedrooms and two baths and by 1950 was calling it the Angler’ s Lodge.

The property was sold in 1956 to Mathilde Haslauer, who then sold it to the Scott family of Tampa in 1972. The Scotts used the house as a family get-away for 20 years until 1992, when it was sold to Agie Hebebrand of Chevy Chase, Md., who rented the home to family vacationers.

In 2011, Hebebrand decided to sell the property, but also wanted to see the building preserved. She now has sold the structure for $10 to Pineapplefish LLP, owned by Lizzie and Mike Vann Thrasher.

The Thrashers proposed moving the house to their green village project on Pine Avenue and Hebebrand agreed to the sale on condition that the house be preserved as much as possible.

There are already three older homes at the village and Lizzie Vann Thrasher said plans call for the lodge to be restored and renovated to accommodate retail-office-residential uses.

One thought on “Lodge has history ‘by the sea’

  1. Kathy Caserta

    Great contribution to the preservation of historic properties on the Island.
    Are we lucky to have Lizzie and Mike on our side or what!

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