Goodwood Plantation

Goodwood Plantation, also known as Old Croom Mansion, is a historic estate and house museum in central Leon County, Florida. Established in the 1830s on land acquired from the Lafayette Land Grant, the property developed as a cotton plantation under the Croom family and later passed through several owners before becoming a public historic site. The surviving mansion and associated buildings are now operated as Goodwood Museum & Gardens. The estate's origins are connected to Hardy Bryan Croom, a member of a wealthy North Carolina planter family that expanded into northern Florida during the territorial and early statehood periods. Croom acquired land associated with the Lafayette Land Grant and began developing what became Goodwood Plantation. After Hardy Croom, his wife, children, and other relatives died in the 1837 wreck of the steamship S.S. Home during a hurricane, his brother Bryan Hardy Croom assumed control of the Florida properties. Enslaved laborers were used to construct the estate's buildings and to cultivate cotton, corn, and other crops. The main mansion, an imposing Italianate residence, was completed around 1850, although economic difficulties, epidemics, and financial disruption appear to have delayed construction. Goodwood was a substantial slaveholding plantation. The 1850 federal slave schedule recorded Bryan Croom as owning 129 enslaved people, while additional people were held by his mother-in-law, Ann Hawks. In 1858 Arvah Hopkins purchased the plantation together with 41 enslaved people. Historical records describe the property as having approximately 1,675 acres during the period represented by the present historic site, while its broader holdings reached roughly 8,000 non-contiguous acres at their greatest extent in the 1850s. The plantation economy depended on forced labor, and after emancipation the agricultural operation continued through arrangements involving formerly enslaved people as sharecroppers and tenant farmers. Ownership of Goodwood was shaped by both inheritance litigation and changing regional economic conditions. Following the Croom family's deaths in the shipwreck, the Florida Supreme Court ruled in 1857 that relatives of Frances Hardy, through her mother Henrietta Smith, were entitled to much of the estate. The decision addressed questions of domicile, inheritance law, and the order in which family members died. The Smith family sold Goodwood to Arvah Hopkins the following year. In 1885 the estate was acquired by Dr. William Lamb Arrowsmith, whose widow and companion remained there for more than two decades. Wealthy widow Frances Tiers purchased the property in 1911 and transformed it into a more elaborate winter residence, remodeling the mansion and adding or improving recreational and service facilities. Tiers sold Goodwood in 1925 to Florida State Senator William C. Hodges. Hodges and his wife, Margaret, made the estate a setting for social and political entertaining, hosting politicians, artists, writers, and other prominent visitors. After Margaret Hodges married Thomas Milton Hood in 1948, the property remained a private residence. Following her death in 1978, Hood began planning for its preservation as a house museum and public park. He established the Margaret E. Wilson Foundation in her memory and resisted proposals that would have resulted in the estate's sale or demolition for development. After Hood's death in 1990, the foundation and Goodwood Museum and Gardens, Inc. assumed stewardship. The property was added to the National Register of Historic Places on June 30, 1972. Today, Goodwood Museum & Gardens interprets the house, landscape, outbuildings, and domestic collections, including furniture, porcelain, textiles, glassware, artwork, and personal effects associated with the property's later residential history. Its interpretation also reflects the plantation's origins in slavery and agriculture, making it both a historic house attraction and a site for understanding the social, economic, and racial history of antebellum and twentieth-century North Florida.

Goodwood Plantation originated in the land transactions that followed the 1824 Lafayette Land Grant. The United States Congress granted the Marquis de Lafayette a township-sized tract in the Florida Territory in recognition of his Revolutionary War service. Lafayette did not visit the property and instead appointed an agent to sell parcels. Members of the Croom family, wealthy tobacco planters from Lenoir County, North Carolina, acquired land in the region during the 1820s and 1830s. Hardy Bryan Croom purchased acreage from the Lafayette Grant and began developing the estate known as Goodwood. Croom's plans were interrupted in 1837, when he, his wife, children, and a maternal aunt died in the wreck of the S.S. Home during the Racer's Storm off the North Carolina coast. A small house had already been framed at the Goodwood site. After Hardy's death, his brother Bryan Hardy Croom assumed control of the Florida properties, and enslaved workers completed the early construction. Bryan later commissioned a large mansion. The building was completed around 1850 under the supervision of Tallahassee builder and businessman Richard Shine. Its Italianate design and ornate details made it one of the area's notable plantation residences. The Crooms operated Goodwood within a slave-based agricultural system. Enslaved people were brought from the family's North Carolina plantations and additional people were purchased in Florida. They cultivated cotton, corn, and other row crops and performed construction, domestic, and maintenance work. The 1850 slave schedule listed 129 enslaved people under Bryan Croom's ownership, in addition to approximately 40 people controlled by his mother-in-law, Ann Hawks. At its maximum extent in the 1850s, the wider Goodwood holdings comprised approximately 8,000 acres in separate parcels. The 1860 agricultural census described 1,050 improved acres, 625 unimproved acres, 2,500 bushels of corn, and 150 bales of cotton, although the enslaved population was not recorded in that agricultural entry. The estate's ownership became entangled in a major inheritance dispute after the Croom family deaths. Bryan Croom initially treated the Florida properties as his inheritance. Relatives of Frances Hardy, particularly her mother Henrietta Smith, challenged that position. The litigation considered whether Hardy Croom was legally resident in North Carolina or Florida at the time of the shipwreck and which family member died last. In 1857 the Florida Supreme Court awarded much of the estate to the Smith family. The court relied partly on evidence that Hardy had not intended to establish permanent residence in Florida and on survivor testimony concerning the order of deaths in the wreck. The Smith family sold Goodwood in 1858 to Arvah Hopkins, who acquired 1,576 acres and 41 enslaved people. Hopkins operated a store and commission business in Tallahassee while maintaining agricultural activity at Goodwood. Farming continued through the Civil War period and after emancipation. The postwar operation used formerly enslaved workers in sharecropping and tenant-farming arrangements, illustrating the transition from slavery to other forms of dependent agricultural labor in the South. Dr. William Lamb Arrowsmith bought Goodwood in 1885 together with approximately 160 surrounding acres. He died about eight months later, after which his wife and her companion, Martha Dykes, lived at the estate for more than twenty years. In 1911, Frances Tiers, a wealthy widow connected by marriage to the owners of nearby Waverly Plantation, purchased Goodwood. Tiers used it as a seasonal residence and renovated the property extensively. She remodeled the mansion in a Mount Vernon-inspired style, replaced wrought-iron elements with Georgian columns, restored or adapted several antebellum outbuildings, and added amenities including a water tower, amusement hall, guest cottages, servant quarters, a heated swimming pool, tennis courts, and a carriage house. Tiers sold the estate in 1925 to Florida State Senator William C. Hodges. William and Margaret Hodges hosted prominent political, artistic, and literary guests, giving Goodwood a new role as a center of elite social life rather than an operating antebellum plantation. After William's death in 1940, Margaret later married Thomas Milton Hood, an Army Air Corps major from West Virginia. When Margaret died in 1978, Hood began pursuing a preservation plan that would convert the property into a house museum and public park. He formed the Margaret E. Wilson Foundation in her memory and declined opportunities to sell the estate for development. Goodwood was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on June 30, 1972. After Hood died in 1990, the Margaret E. Wilson Foundation and Goodwood Museum and Gardens, Inc. took over stewardship. The site now operates as a museum and heritage destination, preserving the mansion, gardens, and outbuildings. Its collections document the domestic life of the estate's later owners, while interpretation addresses the plantation's agricultural history, the people enslaved there, the transition to post-emancipation labor, and the property's transformation into a twentieth-century residence and public museum.

• 1990

  Museum stewardship established

  [1]Goodwood Plantationen.wikipedia.org

  After Hood's death, the Margaret E. Wilson Foundation and Goodwood Museum and Gardens, Inc. assumed stewardship.

• 1978

  Public preservation planning begins

  [1]Goodwood Plantationen.wikipedia.org

  After Margaret Hodges Hood's death, Thomas Milton Hood began planning for Goodwood's preservation as a house museum and public park.

• 1972

  National Register listing

  [1]Goodwood Plantationen.wikipedia.org

  Goodwood Plantation was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places on June 30.

• 1925

  Hodges ownership begins

  [1]Goodwood Plantationen.wikipedia.org

  Florida State Senator William C. Hodges purchased Goodwood, which became a prominent setting for social and political hospitality.

• 1911

  Frances Tiers purchases and remodels Goodwood

  [1]Goodwood Plantationen.wikipedia.org

  Tiers acquired the estate and undertook substantial architectural, landscape, and amenity improvements.

• 1885

  Arrowsmith ownership begins

  [1]Goodwood Plantationen.wikipedia.org

  Dr. William Lamb Arrowsmith purchased Goodwood and surrounding acreage.

• 1858

  Arvah Hopkins purchases Goodwood

  [1]Goodwood Plantationen.wikipedia.org

  Hopkins acquired the plantation and 41 enslaved people from the Smith family interests.

• 1857

  Florida Supreme Court resolves Croom inheritance dispute

  [1]Goodwood Plantationen.wikipedia.org

  The court awarded much of the estate to relatives of Frances Hardy after considering domicile and survivorship questions arising from the shipwreck.

• 1850

  Main mansion completed

  [1]Goodwood Plantationen.wikipedia.org

  The large Italianate mansion was completed at approximately the middle of the nineteenth century using enslaved labor.

• 1837

  Death of Hardy Bryan Croom and family

  [1]Goodwood Plantationen.wikipedia.org

  Hardy Croom, his immediate family, and a maternal aunt died in the wreck of the S.S. Home during a hurricane.

• 1834

  Goodwood Plantation developed by Hardy Bryan Croom

  [1]Goodwood Plantationen.wikipedia.org

  Hardy Bryan Croom developed the estate after acquiring land associated with the Lafayette Grant.

• 1824

  Lafayette Land Grant established

  [1]Goodwood Plantationen.wikipedia.org

  Congress granted the Marquis de Lafayette a large tract in the Florida Territory, portions of which later entered the land history of Goodwood.

A preserved North Florida historic estate and museum presenting the architectural, agricultural, domestic, and social history of Goodwood Plantation, including its direct connection to slavery and the plantation economy.

• Historic house museum · 1990

  Goodwood Museum & Gardens

  The principal public offering is the preserved Goodwood estate, interpreted through the mansion, historic outbuildings, gardens, and collections. Visitors encounter domestic furnishings, decorative arts, textiles, artwork, and personal objects associated especially with the property's later owners, alongside interpretation of the site's plantation origins and changing uses.

• Museum collections

  Historic collections and exhibitions

  Goodwood presents original or historically associated furniture, porcelain, glassware, textiles, art, and personal effects. These materials help explain elite domestic life from the antebellum period through the early twentieth century and the First World War era.

• Heritage landscape

  Gardens and historic grounds

  The landscaped grounds and surviving estate structures form an important part of the visitor experience. They include historic service and residential buildings, garden areas, and features associated with the property's transformation into a seasonal residence during the twentieth century.

1. 1Goodwood Plantationen.wikipedia.org
2. 2Goodwood Museum & Gardensgoodwoodmuseum.org