845 South Newport Avenue

This elegant home was built in 1912-1913 by a man named Owen H Lowther and his wife, Ruth. At the time, Lowther owned the largest naval supply store in Tampa. Another family after him owned this house for sixty-seven years. The Deaver family eventually purchased it and lived here from 1929-1992. 

The current owners previously lived on South Dakota Avenue and the wife came here for a cooking demonstration event hosted by the “Old Hyde Park Garden Club” in 1995. The house had a newly-renovated kitchen that everyone was excited to see. The chef from Mise en Place did the cooking that day and the wife immediately fell in love with this house, but most especially the kitchen. When the home went on the market a couple of years later, the family jumped at the chance and bought it! They have lived here for twenty-eight years and are only the sixth family to have ever lived here. It is a very special home to them and they still love the kitchen very much.

When the family moved in, the kitchen also contained a pantry and smoking room. They renovated it and opened it all up to create a larger space for eating, hanging out, and entertaining. They waited to re-finish the floors of the home until recently when their daughters were older and past the stage of riding scooters throughout the circular floor plan!

A unique feature of this house is its original 8-foot basement. One of the family’s favorite characteristics of this home is the grand wrap-around front porch. They love spending nice winter evenings relaxing outside on it. The stately columns and capitals that accentuate the front porch are also duplicated in the formal living room, as well as on the dining room fireplace mantle.