The 1920s Homes of Daytona Highlands

The 1920s Homes of Daytona Highlands

The homes shown below are among the earliest built at "Coquina Highlands" which was soon renamed "Daytona Highlands" so that the city of Daytona could profit from the national marketing campaign. The development is reached via the Tarragona Tower grand entryway(see older post, below). The distinctive feature of the "Coquina Highlands" plan was to feature Mediterranean Revival or English Cottage styles of architecture, as the homes that remain from that period demonstrate.
The pink Spanish Revival in “Daytona Highlands” shown above and below is at 106 Tarragona Way, just beyond the Tarragona Tower. It is a large home and inward looking with a privacy wall around the main backyard.

The white Spanish Revival in “Daytona Highlands” shown above and below is at 250 Tarragona Way. It is sited on a large corner lot and the house shows much recent care in the painting of the stucco surfaces and the carved details around the windows. It is perhaps the most visible and showy of the original houses in the neighborhood.

The photos above and below are of the same house at 128 Tarragona Way. This is a very large, handsome house, with extensive property and lush, mature landscaping. It is also a house in need of some careful renovations and repairs. The house could be a real showplace with the proper TLC.

The house above, which can be found on Cordova Avenue in “Daytona Highlands” is a cottage looking narrow two story house, with a very strange one story wing on the main facade, shown here. That wing must have undergone some sort of unsympathetic remodeling years ago. The grey stucco addition to the left can only be called utilitarian. In spite of both, the house is trying to assert its original stone and hip roof character, with some hints at the prairie style. It could be quite charming with some thoughtful attention to curb appeal.

The houses above and below are on Australia Way in the Daytona Highlands neighborhood.

The house above is a charming Mediterranean Revival home with some later non-Mediterranean Revival embellishments such as the shutters and window boxes which tend to give it a kind of French flavor. The 1966 Mustang in the driveway is also a classic.

The house below has a Mediterranean Revival porch on what looks to have been an American Foursquare house that may have pre-dated the formation of "Daytona Highlands" as a development. Some sympathetic attention to details would enhance the Mediterranean Revival flavor--such as painting the column details of the archways a harmonizing color.

Simplified Mediterranean Revival in "Daytona Highlands" shown above is reminiscent of the work of Irving Gill in San Diego and environs. The house was probably white stucco with dark green window trim when it was built. In the mid 1920’s, Daytona Highlands was touted as “Florida’s Suburb of Hills and Lakes.” Originally named “Coquina Highlands," the name was changed to “Daytona Highlands” so that the city of Daytona (not yet called Daytona Beach) might benefit from the nationwide publicity put on by the developers. Designed as an exclusive golf and country club style community, early plat maps of the development detail a proposed series of canals, lakes, parks, playgrounds, boulevards, two golf courses, tennis courts, pools, and even several hotels. Plans for new homes in the community required approval by the board of Architects, and homes were restricted to Mediterranean architecture, with the exception of certain sections devoted to various English types.

Above is the house at 1144 Cordova Way in “Daytona Highlands”. This house seems to have a style all its own and may have been among the ones characterized as English in style. It is not quite "prairie" but it has the hip roof and grouped windows that lean in that direction. Certainly it is not Spanish Revival in spite of the arched forms of the porch and sun porch. The stonework is attractive and could be enhanced with some sympathetic use of color on the trim. The air conditioning unit in the front window is not exactly chic