May-Stringer House

Attention: The May-Stringer House Tours will be temporarily closed in preparation for the Ghostfest.

The House Tours will reopen on 30 October 2025 

Open On: Tuesday,Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday

Hours: 11:00am to 3:00pm

Tours begin on the hour. The last tour starts at 2pm

352-799-0129

The May-Stinger House is a four story, 14 room, seven gable, with decorative spindle work, Queen Anne era home.  The “painted lady” exterior follows a popular Victorian style. The house sits on the crest of one of Brooksville’s several hills and now serves as the jewel of the Hernando Historical Museum Association’s buildings. The Museum Association has created exhibit rooms with a Victorian look and there are rooms devoted to specific themes such as an elegant dining room, Victorian bedrooms, a military room, a 1900s doctor’s office and a 1900s communications room. The house was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1997.

In 1842, the Armed Occupation Act was ratified by the U.S. Congress and stated: “any settler who came to Florida, built a dwelling, cleared and cultivated five acres of land and lived there for five years, would be granted 160 acres”.  Richard C. Wiggins homesteaded the land where the May-Stringer House is located.

In 1856, John L. May purchased the property from Wiggins. He and his wife, Marina, and their two daughters, Annie and Matilda, came from Alabama. Along with Marina’s mother, Matilda H. May, the family brought in the vicinity of 40 enslaved people with them. Unfortunately, John May died just three years later, perhaps from tuberculosis.

Marina and her family remained in the home and/or with her mother throughout the Civil War. She married returning Confederate war hero, Frank Saxon in 1866. They had two children: the first was a little boy who died within a few weeks. A daughter Jessie May Saxon was born in 1869. Marina died about six weeks after the baby was born. Jessie May Saxon lived for three years, dying in 1872.

John L. May, Marina May Saxon, infant Franklin Saxon, and Jessie May Saxon may be buried in the May Cemetery that has not yet been confirmed to be on the property.  The possible existence of the  cemetery has fueled many rumors about May-Stringer hauntings. It is known as one of the most haunted houses in Florida. (see Ghost Tours under events)

The property eventually made its way to the Dr. Sheldon Stringer family. Members of the Stringer family owned the house from 1903 until 1961 when it was sold to Dr. Earl and Helen Hensley. They lived there for a few months but kept it as a rental property after moving to a new home. The Hensley’s made an agreement to lease the home with an option to sell to the Hernando Historical Museum Association in 1980 and completed the sale in 1985.

The Museum Association, besides restoring and preserving the building itself, has been collecting, preserving and displaying articles of historic significance in the building since that time. The land, the building(s) and the people who lived and worked there are the basis for the stories related by docents who guide guests through the rooms of the May-Stringer House.

Note: Previous statements that the house was originally built as a four room building are now held as untrue, according to contractors who have worked on the building. History never changes, but our understanding of it certainly does change.