Grant Historical House — Grant-Valkaria, Florida

The Grant Historical House is the Bensen House, a 1916 pioneer home at 5795 U.S. 1 in Grant-Valkaria that has been a house museum and the home of the Grant Historical Society since 1987.

The University of North Florida archive describes the Bensen House, sometimes called the 1916 House or the Grant Historical House, as a historic home at 5795 U.S. Route 1 in Grant that now serves as a house museum and the home for the Grant Historical Society (UNF Digital Commons, Bensen House Marker). The Florida Department of State lists a state historical marker titled Bensen House, placed in 2008 at 5795 S US Highway 1 in Grant, Brevard County (Florida Historical Marker Details: Bensen House). The Bensen House became a museum in 1987, according to the marker text.

The Town of Grant-Valkaria includes the Grant 1916 House on its short list of historical sites and gives its significance as the homestead of the early settler Bensen family (Town of Grant-Valkaria historical sites). The marker was sponsored by the Brevard County Historical Commission, the Brevard County Tourist Development Council and the Florida Department of State, and a UNF photograph of it dated July 7, 2011 records its position at latitude 27.92275278, longitude -80.52133611 (UNF Digital Commons).

Atley Bensen built the house in 1916 for his wife, Clara Christensen, from $1,200 worth of precut yellow pine lumber shipped to Grant by riverboat from Jacksonville.

The state marker in Grant-Valkaria tells the story. Atley Bensen paid $1,200 for the precut yellow pine lumber, which arrived by riverboat from Jacksonville in 1916, to build the house for his wife Clara Christensen (Florida Department of State marker). Two Grant pioneer families were joined twice over: the Bensen brothers married the Christensen sisters. Atley and Clara raised their sons Atley Jr. and Russell in the house until the boys reached school age, then moved to Melbourne, where a third son was born in 1928. The Bensen House was rented for about five years until the family came back to Grant.

The Bensens made their living the way much of early Grant did. The marker says Atley and his brother Adolph were involved in commercial fishing, grew pineapples and operated the Jorgensen General Store, which opened in 1894. The family's ties to that store reach back further: the National Park Service nomination for Jorgensen's General Store credits Louis Bensen with building the trading post and post office between 1892 and 1894 and serving as postmaster and storekeeper from May 1894 to July 1896 (National Register nomination, page 10). That store, now Grant Grocery at 5390 US 1, is on the National Register of Historic Places as Jorgensen's General Store, National Register Information System ID 99000711 (NPGallery record 99000711).

Atley Bensen died in 1961. Clara continued to live in the Grant house and later moved to Tampa, where she died in 1981 (Florida Department of State marker). The marker refers to the Grant building as a cracker house, the term used in the 1984 donation line of its text.

Russell Bensen gave the house to the Grant Historical Society in 1984, it was moved from its first site on the Indian River Lagoon in 1985, and it became a museum in 1987.

The UNF record dates the gift precisely: Russell Bensen donated the 1916 house to the Grant Community Center and the Grant Historical Society on October 25, 1984, in memory of his mother, Clara Christensen Bensen (UNF Digital Commons). In 1985 the house was moved from its original site, about 300 feet south of 1st Street on the banks of the Indian River Lagoon, to its present lot, which the marker identifies as the original site of Grant's first house, built in 1894 by Louis Kossuth Smith (Florida Department of State marker). The Smith house had burned down in the 1970s.

The National Register nomination for Jorgensen's General Store, which stands on the north side of 1st Street in Grant, records another early landmark nearby: the Smith General Store stood approximately 300 feet south of the 1894 trading post (National Register nomination, page 5).

The Grant Train Station Depot stands near the house at 5799 U.S. 1, and the National Register-listed Grant Grocery, the former Jorgensen's General Store, is at 5390 U.S. 1.

The Town of Grant-Valkaria lists three historical sites, all on U.S. Highway 1: the Grant 1916 House at 5795, the Grant Train Station Depot at 5799, described as a Flagler Rail System East Coast Railway train station, and the Grant Grocery Store at 5390, the site of the early post office and a National Register property (Town of Grant-Valkaria historical sites). The town calls the grocery Grant Station today.

The depot's move explains why it stands near the museum. According to the National Park Service nomination, the Grant freight station remained in operation until 1956 and was later relocated on site near Grant's 1916 Historical House (National Register nomination, page 5). As a result, the Bensen House, a railroad building and the old store all sit along the same U.S. 1 corridor through Grant-Valkaria.

The house is the home of the Grant Historical Society, and the Grant Community Club on 1st Street helps fund it with proceeds from the Grant Seafood Festival and sponsors a Historical House Christmas Open House.

The Town of Grant-Valkaria civic groups page describes the Grant-Valkaria Community Club at 4350 1st Street as the organizer of the Grant Seafood Festival, run with 440 to 500 volunteers each year, and says the festival celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2016 (Town of Grant-Valkaria civic groups). Festival funds go primarily to scholarships but also support The Grant Historical House (Bensen House), the Grant Library and children's holiday celebrations. Among the club's other events, the town lists sponsorship of flea markets, a Pioneer Fish Fry and the Historical House Christmas Open House.

The museum also holds the community's photographs. The Town of Grant-Valkaria history page directs readers who want to see historical photos of Grant to the Bensen Historical House, and notes that the albums are stored under the bed, so visitors are told to ask for them (Town of Grant-Valkaria history).