Sumner Hale Gove was born in Lynn, Massachusetts, as the eighth child of Warren and Laura Gove. He was a businessman, politician, and prolific developer and architect. During the early 1880s, he was employed as a carpenter and builder in the Groton, Connecticut area. In 1882, he served as a member of the Connecticut General Assembly.
In 1883, he and his first wife, Caroline Baker, relocated to Daytona, Florida. They believed that the milder climate would relieve Caroline's suffering from asthma. Caroline died in 1910. In 1891, Gove started businesses as an architect, builder, developer and supplier of construction materials in the Daytona, Florida area. By the 1910s, Gove was one of Daytona's leading citizens and businessmen. He was the president of the East Florida Telephone Company, and managed three bridge companies. He was also the co-founder and president of the Halifax River Yacht Club, and vice-president of the Florida East CoastAutomobile Association.
Developer and architect
As an architect, Gove designed important residential and commercial properties that had a major influence on the physical character of the Daytona, Florida area. His architectural influences in the late 1800s was Neoclassical, Shingle and Victorian styles. During the early 1900s he adapted to changing building trends and was influenced by Mediterranean Revival styles. In 1909, Gove contracted with the ketchup maker, Thomas A. Snider, and built a group of California-style bungalows on the northeast corner of South Street and Ridgewood Avenue in Daytona. His residential buildings include the Siems house, the Thomas H. White house at 426 South Beach Street, Daytona, the Conrad and Anthony Blocks, the Charles Nichols House, the Charles G. Burgoyne House on Beach Street in Daytona Beach, the Delos A. Blodgett House at 404 Ridgewood Avenue, Daytona Beach, and the MacDonald House at 38 E. Granada Blvd., Ormond Beach, FL. His commercial buildings include the Rexall Building, Clarendon Hotel, Colonnades Hotel, Ridgewood Hotel, Deland High School, Halifax Yacht Club, an addition onto the Ormond Hotel and the Ormond Yacht Club Building. He also built the first Port Orange and Seabreeze bridges across the Halifax River.
Boating interests
Gove designed and built his personal house on Anita Avenue in Daytona, Florida in 1912. It originally included a boat house and private slip to the east which provided direct access to the Halifax River. He participated in business investments with another prominent developer and architect in Daytona, Charles G. Ballough,and collaborated with him on the construction of the Clarendon Hotel. In 1915, Gove and Ballough filed a patent for the design of a “Submarine Vessel.”
Death
On October 27, 1926, Sumner H. Gove died in Daytona Beach at the age of 73. He is buried along his first wife and several children in Pinewood Cemetery in Daytona Beach.
