Lichgate

Tucked away in a wooded area on High Road, Lichgate is little known, even to many Tallahassee residents. Its cornerstone and claim to fame is an ancient, fairy-tale live oak tree, whose branches wind and reach out and dip toward the ground from a massive trunk. The tree’s beauty is what lured Laura Jepsen to the property in the first place.

Heaven on Earth! For this intrepid woman of letters, Lichgate on High Road certainly is that. Lichgate is now as it was always intended to be: as one contemplates the very immediate lyricism of the stately, speading oak which now protects and accepts the many visitors. It was Dr. Laura Pauline Jepsen, with her literary mind and passion for antiquity, who built Lichgate.

Dr. Laura Jepsen was a Florida State University English professor. She was an exceptional scholar–whose areas of expertise were on Tolstoy, Greek tragedy and Shakespeare. Laura Jepsen was honored with an exhibit at the Davenport School museum to display the history of Davenport determination and educational excellence.

But she is most remembered for her lovingly built English Tudor Cottage–Lichgate on High Road. She had a vision to build what is documented as Florida's only example of 16th Century Tudor style architecture. She built it on 3 acres specifically to protect the sites unusual matriarch oak, recognized by the Smithsonian Project to celebrate each states significant trees. Lichgate on High Road was placed on the United States National Registry of Historic Places on March 31, 2006.

To conquer time, to preserve the essence of the past, and to escape into reality–where her desire when starting to build Lichgate. The cottage is a small, humble home, but gives a richness beyond any thrown. It is a fairytale creation with a glow from within that speaks of innocence.