LYNN HAVEN — Those who commute along Florida State Road 77 likely have seen the charming, old-Florida style home located near the intersection with State Road 390 in Lynn Haven. Some were surprised to see the house come down.
According to the Bay County Property Appraiser’s Office, the home at 1312 Ohio Ave. was built in 1915. Current owner 65-year-old Sonia Amick says that it has served as the Suggs family home since the 1930s.
Amick was audibly saddened about the demolition of the home when she spoke to a News Herald reporter on June 3. Her family had been trying to save the home for years, with her father, Thomas Delano Suggs, going as far as lifting it off its foundations and moving it to accommodate the widening of State Road 390 in 2018.
Suggs died in 2022, and Amick says the tough decision to demolish the home came after years of squabble with code enforcement, constant vandalism, and a loss of historical resources that could’ve helped preserve it.
Amick says that they broke down the original chimney when the home was moved, and now that it occupies a new footprint, it wouldn’t have qualified for the grants she was looking into.
“It was just one battle after the other, and so I finally succumbed a couple of months ago and got a demolition permit,” said Amick. “I would (have loved) for my granddaughter to watch the parades or enjoy it, (I’ve) taken her in the house a few times, and she picked the room upstairs.”
Amick describes the interior as having beachy light greens, blues, and yellows. She told the News Herald she remembered running across SR 77 when it was only two lanes to go visit her grandparents who lived there.
Amick remembers watching parades from the roof and attending fish fries involving bags of oysters on the property. She says her father used to place paper dolls, marbles, and trucks underneath the home with his childhood best friend back when it was raised enough to do so.
Her family, the Suggs, has had a long history in Bay County. Thomas Oscar Suggs, her grandfather, worked at the old Southern Kraft papermill. Amick recalled a story from her grandfather about falling off a structure at the mill, breaking his back.
When they needed to get to a hospital in Destin, Suggs would have to get out and help push the car across a two-board wooden bridge. Oscar Suggs also helped build the old water tower in Lynn Haven, according to Amick.
Amick says her great-grandfather, whom she recalls as James Suggs, was a sheriff in Lynn Haven during rougher and rowdier times.
“I remember them telling me (about) the chain gang workers and (how) they steered clear of them,” said Amick. “My great-grandfather was a very kind and loving man. He wanted everybody to know about, you know, what was right and what was wrong. If God said it was wrong, you can’t do it, and he would try to make them appreciate life and not be in jail all the time.”
As for the structure that the family called home, it would be around 111 years old in 2026. Amick says it was built by a holistic doctor from up north, who some at the time may have referred to as a snake oil salesman, and his two daughters.
Her family made it their home in 1934, with her father being born a year earlier. His middle name, “Delano,” came from the fireside chat broadcasts hosted by then-president Franklin D. Roosevelt.
With a structure so sentimental, if she had to demolish it, she would prefer it to be done by a friend, according to Amick. She found that friend in Chester Wilkinson, owner and operator of A Home Innovation Group LLC.
Demolition began on June 1.
While the home may be gone, Amick still has the land. She said she would like to see it put to some kind of community-oriented use, similar to the days of the fish fries. One of her ideas is a community garden.
“It’s like a family member showing that I know this is not our final destination, so yeah, it’s hard to hold on to the past and look to the future,” said Amick.
This article originally appeared on The News Herald: 100+ year old home demolished in Lynn Haven. Here’s the history:
Reporting by Dylan Gentile, Panama City News Herald / The News Herald
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By Dylan Gentile, Panama City News Herald | USA TODAY Network
