The historic Clifford House is welcoming visitors again, giving residents a chance to learn about the family who lived there and the early Eustis community they helped build.

Regular public hours began Oct. 1 under the management of the Eustis Memorial Library. For library and museum director Ann Ivey, opening the house is part of a larger effort to make local history accessible and keep its stories available to future generations.

The house at 536 N. Bay St. is open from 11am to 3pm Mondays and Wednesdays and from 9am to noon on the first and third Saturdays of the month. Visitors can tour the first floor while repairs and preparations continue upstairs.

Scott Amey, the library’s circulation and historical resources manager, is leading tours. A longtime history enthusiast and former president of the East Lake Historical Society, Scott has spent time researching the Clifford family through the library’s historical files.

“I’ve always been interested in Florida history and stuff, so this is just kind of an extension of that,” Scott says. “It was like a history that I didn’t know and it’s so cool to be able to pass along what I’ve learned to others.”

That history includes Guilford Davis Clifford, a New York native who worked as a merchant and carpenter and whose contributions reached well outside his own household.

According to Scott, Clifford helped early residents obtain building materials, established Greenwood Cemetery and served on a board working to start one of the community’s first schools. To help the school meet the enrollment needed to secure a teacher, Scott says, Clifford enrolled his own 4-year-old daughter.

Construction of the family’s 4,500-square-foot house began in January 1910. Three generations lived there beginning on Thanksgiving 1911, with Clifford’s granddaughter Charlotte Taylor Wilson remaining until her death in 1983 at age 96, according to the City of Eustis’ history of the property.

The city has owned the house since 1979 and assumed its management from the historical society in 2023. The city’s events department handled repairs and offered tours by appointment before the library took over this spring.

Ann says the events staff worked to return the interior to a presentation more closely reflecting the Clifford family’s home. Items that did not fit that focus were placed in storage or transferred to the library’s local history collection.

“We didn’t get rid of anything,” Ann says.

The library staff spent the summer cleaning, preparing tours and updating technology. The connection between the house and the library’s existing local history room gives staff another way to share the materials they have collected and preserved.

Plans include library programs at the house and opportunities for local historical societies to meet there. Ann hopes the property will become a gathering place where residents can spend time with their community’s history.

Upstairs, plaster repairs and room preparations remain underway. Staff also plan to create video access to the second-floor displays for people who cannot climb the stairs.

Another priority is the citrus museum directly behind the house. Its collection includes labels, tools and other reminders of the industry’s place in Eustis history. Ann hopes to open it for tours as early as December, although that remains a goal rather than a confirmed opening date.

For Scott, sharing the house means giving visitors a chance to know a man whose contributions helped shape their city.

“I think that his story is fascinating,” Scott says.

Ann says the city has supported the work with funding for repairs and improvements. What matters to her is having a community that sees value in preserving its past and making room for people to learn about it.

“My goal is simple: to appreciate the history and give others the opportunity to do so, as well,” Ann says.