Edward M. Cheney, editor and publisher of the Florida Union and one of the founders of Riverside, lived in this house in 1870. It occupied a site near the present-day Cummer Gallery of Art and was just two doors down from the residence of John Murray Forbes, the neighborhood’s other founding father. Today it is one of the area’s oldest residences. Lumberman Wellington W. Cummer built a large house adjacent to the Cheney property in 1898, at which time his son Waldo took over this old house. A few years later, Waldo moved the house about two-hundred feet toward the river, where he lived until a new residence was completed on the original site. About 1908 Waldo Cummer barged the old house down the river to Willow Branch Creek, then hauled it to its present location. It was too wide to fit properly on the new site, however, forcing Cummer to turn it sideways and reportedly exclaim in exasperation: “It is so far out in the country, no one will ever notice!” And so it stands today, with its front door facing the neighbor’s side yard.
