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Tuckahoe
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Front View of Tuckahoe on Mount Elizabeth
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| Location: | 1921 N.E. Indian River Drive, Jensen Beach, Florida |
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| Built: | 1938 |
| Governing body: | Local government Martin County, Florida |
| NRHP Reference#: | 050001338[1] |
| Added to NRHP: | November 30, 2005 |
Tuckahoe, also known as the Leach Mansion or as the Mansion at Tuckahoe, is an historic home located at 1921 North East Indian River Drive in Jensen Beach, Martin County, Florida. It is inside the present day Indian RiverSide Park and is atop the Mount Elizabeth Archeological Site, which was added to the National Register of Historic Places on September 14, 2002.
On November 30, 2005, Tuckahoe itself was added to the National Register of Historic Places. On November 4, 2010, the local Daughters of the American Revolution chapter placed a plaque on the building.[2]
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Tuckahoe was built in 1938 as the home of Willaford Ransom Leach (1899–1984) and his Coca-Cola heiress wife Anne Winship (Bates) Leach (1896–1977). The Leaches lived in it until 1950 when they moved to Palm Beach and sold the property to the Sisters of St. Joseph based in St. Augustine. The Sisters of St. Joseph added two dormitory wings to the building and moved their novitiate and Saint Joseph College of Florida, which was then a sisters' formation college. In 1957, the novitiate was moved to the end of Britt Road and the college was converted into a regular liberal arts college. The college closed in May 1972 and its campus including Tuckahoe was sold to Florida Institute of Technology for its Jensen Beach Campus.[3]
Florida Institute of Technology, or FIT, as it was then known, used the Leach Mansion as its administration building. After FIT closed its Jensen Beach campus in 1986, the property was sold to a land developer and eventually was acquired by Martin County.[3]
Tuckahoe remained unused until 2009 when its rehabilitation was completed by the Friends of Mount Elizabeth.[4] Architect for the project was Bert Bender of Key West[5]