An advertisement appeared in the DeFuniak Springs Herald on August 24, 2017, congratulating “Alex Alexander, sales associate with Naylor Realty & Associates, on the sale of the home located at 812 Circle Drive.” The ad continued: “The new owner plans to do a total restoration on one of the most important historic homes located on scenic Circle Drive. Good job Alex!”
Good job, indeed, if the new owner is successful. That house has been purchased several times over the past two decades. Each owner has intended to restore the home to its former beauty but has left it unfinished. Below is a photograph of the home in the early 1960s when it was owned by the Wickersham family.
Harley Emmet Wickersham (1877-1953) and his wife, Coralie Gillis Wickersham (1875-1944) owned the home for many years. Harley operated a funeral parlor that his father, Jonathan Adoniram Wickersham, founded in 1885. It was located across the railroad tracks on Baldwin Avenue in what is now a psychologist’s office. Coralie was from a prominent family that included her brother, Donald Stuart Gillis, an attorney who once served as president of the Florida Senate and as a Circuit Judge. The home at 812 Circle Drive was built for the Tervin family and was designed by Duncan Gillis, a well-known architect.