“ Come to my Sunland – come with me
To the Land I love
Where the sun and the sea are wed forever
Where palm and pine are filled with singers
Where tree and vine are voiced with prophets. “
— Julia Daniels Moseley, circa 1886
The Moseley Homestead
The Moseley Homestead is associated with Julia Daniels Moseley, whose prolific letters and correspondence provide a window to the past thanks to their publication over 100 years later by granddaughter Julia Winifred Moseley.
The 19th century vernacular home and related outbuildings, structures, and landscape environs include nearly 15 acres of preserved lands located in the historic community of Limona, today largely engulfed by busy State Road 60, Interstate-75 and Brandon. The main house, called “The Nest”, was built in c. 1886, along with several outbuildings of similar design arranged in a planned layout within an unspoiled lakefront hammock setting.
The Moseley Landscape
Here, Julia Daniels and husband Charles Scott Moseley, established their home and family, having moved to Florida from Illinois, where Charles was an inventor and watchmaker for the Elgin National Watch Company. Julia, who was an artist and writer, would fall in love with the land and helped to create a unique art-filled home including a painted wall covering that is made from native palmetto fibers made into a textile. The wall covering in the main house structure is so unique that it was in part displayed at the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago.
Swatch from the painted palmetto fiber wall covering made by Julia Daniels Moseley that was displayed at the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893.
The Moseley Family and this homestead site contributes much in terms of art, voice, perspective, and insight to the past.
THE MOSELEY FAMILY CONTrIBUTION
Archiving, documenting, and creating a preservation and interpretation foundation for this site are part of the first steps in preserving the past for the future. Working in partnership with the Timberly Trust and Historic Preservation Architect Stephanie Ferrell, the Digital Heritage and Humanities Collections with the University of South Florida Libraries has undertaken a program of heritage site documentation using specialized 3D and imaging technologies, ensuring that a lasting record of the structures, landscape, and physical objects is created. Work has included the development of tools and applications for virtual tours, research of collections, and immersive learning opportunities that can be presented broadly and freely to the public for research and learning opportunities.
Through this documentation, there now exits as-built measured drawings and design models that capture a digital twin of the structures and environs to allow for virtual preservation and the highest level of archival record to be created. A holistic preservation and heritage resource strategy has been shaped to ensure a viable approach to safeguarding the site with permanence, along with protecting and sharing with broader discoverability the significant objects, art, and archive of documents and collections. Virtual tours, including full 3D and Virtual Reality experience opportunities are available as part of our developing educational resource and outreach program, and this project establishes the foundation for planning the next phase of consideration for public visitation and broader education and research opportunities at The Nest.
