The Dudley-Bessey House, also known as the Major Phillip B. H. Dudley Home, is an historic two-story single family house located at 110 SW Atlanta Avenue in Stuart

Stuart, Florida

Stuart is the only incorporated city of Martin County, Florida, on Florida's Treasure Coast. The population was 14,633 at the 2000 census. As of 2007, the population recorded by the U.S. Census Bureau is 15,964....

 in Martin County

Martin County, Florida

Martin County is a county in the U.S. state of Florida. As of 2000, the population was 126,731. The U.S. Census Bureau 2008 estimate for the county is 138,660. Its county seat is Stuart, Florida.- History :...

, Florida

Florida

Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...

. Built in 1909 for Phillip B. H. Dudley, it features a first floor central hallway which runs from the street-side entrance straight though to the main entrance which faces the Halpatiokee River, now known as the South Fork of the St. Lucie River

St. Lucie River

The St. Lucie River is a estuary in St. Lucie and Martin counties in the U.S. state of Florida. Its North Fork flows south from St Lucie County into Martin County where it joins the north-flowing South Fork, which was once called the Halpatiokee River, just south of the old Roosevelt Bridge in...

. All interior rooms open from this hallway. It later became home of Hubert W. Bessey, 1855–1918, one of the founders of Stuart, Sometime before 1989 the street side was altered by the addition of a long porch with a flat roof and a sloped-roof over the entryway. Today most of the front porch has been enclosed and incorporated into the building, leaving only a sheltered entryway with a grander sloped roof over the entry way and hip roof

Hip roof

A hip roof, or hipped roof, is a type of roof where all sides slope downwards to the walls, usually with a fairly gentle slope. Thus it is a house with no gables or other vertical sides to the roof. A square hip roof is shaped like a pyramid. Hip roofs on the houses could have two triangular side...

s over the each side of the former porch.The interior has been restored and the building is now the offices of Rubin and Rubin, a law firm founded by Ellis Rubin

Ellis Rubin

Ellis S. Rubin was an American attorney in Miami, Florida who gained national fame for handling a variety of highly publicized cases in a legal career that spanned 53 years. He was famous for his innovative defenses and his propensity for handling lost causes. Rubin won the first case in Florida...

In 1989, the Dudley-Bessey House was listed in A Guide to Florida's Historic Architecture, published by the University of Florida Press.