MUNGEN HOUSE

This frame vernacular house was built in 1928 for Doane Martin Mungen, Sr. (1872-1948) and his wife Mary Elizabeth Mungen (1874-1955). It is located in the Oakland neighborhood, which was platted in 1869, and emerged in the 1870s as a working class community. The Mungens moved from 343 East Union Street to a wooded bungalow here that was demolished to build this 12-room house. With time, the rooms on the second level were rented. Later, inside stairs were removed, steps placed on the east, and the upstairs was rented as an apartment. Red bricks that form the columns, pier foundation, and chimney are from a demolished building in the downtown area. A large white stone at the curb of the front walk has rested there for 75 years. It once served as a step from horse-drawn buggies. Mr. Mungen planted a water oak on the east lawn and laurel on the west. D.M. Mungen, Jr. (1904-1936), eldest son of five, sent money from Tallahassee where he worked as a chef in the Floridan Hotel, now demolished. The only daughter, Sylvia Amanda Mungen (1903-1996), a Duval County teacher for 42 years, lived here until 1990. The house is one of a few left of its era in the area representing African-Americans of upward mobility.