This outstanding riverfront mansion is the epitome of the Tudor Revival style in Jacksonville. It was built at a cost of over $130,000 in 1928 for the family of Edward W. Lane, one of the founders of the Atlantic National Bank. Mrs. Lane worked closely with architects Mulford Marsh and Harold Saxelbye to adapt the features she admired most in English architecture. She was so interested in the house that she sat in a lawn chair and supervised the bricklaying. The exterior of the house is a compendium of Tudor Revival architectural details: half-timbering with pegged joints, leaded-glass windows, a slate roof, Tudor-style arches over the doors and some windows, ornamental cast stone, massive chimneys with star-shaped stacks and chimney pots, steep gables with ornate vergeboards, and random-shaped limestone blocks that trim the windows, doors, and corners. The interior is also exceptional. It contains pegged oak floors, elaborate beamed and sculpted plaster ceilings, wainscoting, massive fireplaces, and an octagonal breakfast room with a gold-leaf ceiling. As the biggest house on the largest lot in the entire neighborhood, the Lane residence embodies a style and elegance that is purely Avondale.
