- November 28, 2024
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If you've ever taken a left turn onto A1A from Granada, chances are you've seen the colorful palette of 95 Ocean Shore Boulevard peeking out from behind its bushes. The $2.3 million dollar home was originally built in 1991 by American architect Steven Harris for Chapman Root II, great-grandson of the man who created the first Coca-Cola bottle.
The 3,757-square foot house includes a lifeguard tower, a guitar-shaped pool, an elevator, a second-floor lounge overlooking the Oceanside Country Club golf course, a coral staircase, a poolside office, an atrium foyer and an dog bed shaped like a whale. Literally every inch of the home is a work of art, even the toilet.
"I though a lot about what a house on the beach in that town should be," Harris said in an article for Architectural Record in 1992, "and how it might respond to the authentic culture of the area."
Harris built each visible part of the Root House to represent nearby landmarks that are no longer there. The barrel-roofed living-room wing originally mocked the old fun houses of Daytona's boardwalk, while the two-story pool house is similar to the porches of the historic Ormond Beach Hotel.
Root sold the house in 2013, and the family that bought it made some modern renovations and restored the house to its previous glory. Mary Smith, Remax Signature realtor for the house, said the house had been slightly worn down due to all the parties that used to take place.
"There are a lot of rumors about this house," she smiled. "One being that Chapman Root went to school with Gregg Allman of the Allman Brothers and they used to hang out here a lot."
This is most expensive house Smith has ever sold — the sale is currently pending —and she says it usually takes over a year to find someone to buy real estate at the price point.
"This house has only been on the market since Jan. 21," she said. "And that's not normal."
But thanks to her proactive selling and reaching out personally, she may have found the perfect fit. While it was rumored that a certain local celebrity was considering moving in, that potential buyer was said to have later reconsidered, possibly due to the lack of security from the beach.
"I tried to get him to move in," she sighed, "but he went in a different direction."