Zora Neale Hurston House | |
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| Location | 1734 Avenue L,Fort Pierce,Florida |
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| Coordinates | 27°27′39″N80°20′31″W / 27.46083°N 80.34194°W /27.46083; -80.34194 |
| Area | Less than one acre |
| Built | 1957[2] |
| Built by | Benton, C.C. |
| Architectural style | Frame Vernacular[2] |
| NRHP reference No. | 91002047[1] |
| Significant dates | |
| Added to NRHP | December 4, 1991 |
| Designated NHL | December 4, 1991[3] |
TheZora Neale Hurston House is a historic house at 1734 Avenue L inFort Pierce,Florida. Built in 1957, it was the home of authorZora Neale Hurston (1891–1960) from then until her death. On December 4, 1991, it was designated as aU.S.National Historic Landmark.
The Zora Neale Hurston House stands in a residential area of Fort Pierce, on the north side of Avenue L, between North 17th and North 19th Streets. It is a modest single-story house, built out of concrete blocks stuccoed exterior and a flat tar-and-gravel roof. The house is not architecturally distinguished; it was one of a number of identical homes built in 1957 built by Dr. C.C. Benton, a medical doctor, who had sold 10 nearby acres for construction of "a new negro high school" nearby. Originally located on School Court,[4] it was moved, retaining orientation, north 500 feet in 1995 to 1734 Avenue L to allow for expansion ofLincoln Park Academy, the school at which Hurston taught.[5]
Hurston, a native of Notasulga, Alabama, but who lived and wrote about Eatonville, Florida, was one of the leading female African-American writers of the mid-20th century. She lived rent-free (courtesy of Dr. Benton) in this house from 1957 until her death. While here, she worked as a journalist for theFort Pierce Chronicle, taught at the academy, and continued to work on her manuscript forHerod the Great, a major work that remained unpublished at her death. This house is the only known home of hers to survive.[4]
The house is a stop on the Zora Neale Hurston Dust Tracks Heritage Trail.[6] Other stops on the trail include the Zora Neale Hurston Branch Library, a "Zora Exhibit" at the Agape Senior Recreation Center (formerly the St. Lucie County Welfare Home, where Hurston died in 1960), and the Garden of Heavenly Rest Cemetery, where she isburied.[6]
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