Smith House
1975
Built in the mid-1920s and once located at 927 Columbia Way, the Smith House was bought by Grace and Levie Smith, Sr. after World War II. Soon after, the couple also bought lots along Ingraham Avenue that stretched from Princeton Place (now Duke Place) to just before Lake Hollingsworth Drive. This land was later sold to the College when President Ludd Spivey asked the couple to sell the land to the College, so that more dormitories could be built for the expanding student population. For many years after, the Smith family lived alongside the College and its students. Levie Smith, Sr. mentored members of the nearby Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity house and was later inducted as member of the fraternity. Grace Smith held multiple roles at the College as both a housemother as well as a mentor. Of their five children, four graduated from Florida Southern: Levie Smith, Jr. (1947); Betty Ross (1948); Lenora (1950); and Carolyn (1968). After their parents' death in the early 1970s, the Smith children decided to sell the house to the College in 1975. Shortly after, the house became a family home again when Dean Frank Szabo and his family moved in. In the late 1980s, the Smith House became the home of the Office of Student Affairs. The house continued to serve various administrative purposes until 2005 when it was torn down; the site later became the location for the new Rinker Technology Center.
