Inlet Beach history captured at Barber Cottage (PHOTOS)

Vicki Mathis first laid eyes on the white shores of Inlet Beach in 1949.

Mathis returned year after year to the area she, and her father before her, fell in love with. Even though she now lives in Orlando, Mathis treasures the role the small hamlet has played in her life.

Mathis’s mother and father met at what is now known as Camp Helen when her mother’s college roommate, Margaret Hicks, brought her mother to the beach. Her father lived in Bay County and came with his friend, Casper Harris, to meet the girls at what was then the Hicks’ Loch Lomond.

Harris married Hicks on the property where they met, and Mathis’s mother and father (Joe Mathis) married shortly afterwards in Cuba.

Mathis’s daughter paid homage to her history when she married by having her wedding day breakfast at the Camp Helen House where her grandparents met.

“My father fell in love with Inlet Beach,” said Mathis.

When her dad and uncle completed their tours of military duty, they were able to purchase lots there through the military for $50.

Her dad built a little house on the corner of Wall Street and Rose Lane in 1950. Her uncle’s was at the corner of Winston and Rose Lane. 

In days of old, property along the beach was bought up by large companies as vacations spots for their employees. Avondale Mills bought the Hicks’ property and Barber Dairies bought much of Inlet Beach and what is now Rosemary Beach.

Barber Dairies constructed four small cottages on its property. Three were of concrete blocks and the fourth was wood.

Mathis remembers when employees of those companies came down to stay in the small cottages on their respective properties.

“There was only one house in Inlet Beach that was occupied full time by a couple I knew only as ‘the old couple,’” said Mathis.

When the old couple wanted to sell, Mathis’s dad was ready to buy the house located where the hamlet’s blinking light is now, and moved it down the block.

Mathis followed in her father’s steps in 2004.

Developer Doodle Harris bought Barber Dairies’ Inlet Beach property and was set to demolish the four Barber Dairy cottages to make room for development. Mathis asked if she could have the wooden one. He said yes.

Mathis moved the tiny one-bedroom cottage down the street about 700-800 feet to her property and refurbished it, with siding, new plumbing and air.

She later moved it across the highway north of U.S. 98.

More than just an old house, this one exudes the charm and personality of old Florida.

And just as the tiny cottage was saved from demolition and has been repurposed, everything around it and inside it is also seeing its second life.

Large conch shells resting on top of a wooden rail outside the house were picked up on the beach by Mathis after Hurricane Opal.

The retro pink yard flamingos came from her mother’s native Cuba.

The birdbath was her grandmother’s.

Benches around the yard came from downtown Panama City’s Harrison Avenue.

The ornamental flamingo adorning the gate’s door was taken from an old screen door from years past.

Inside, every piece of furniture and every detail is repurposed.

Teak tables in the tiny living room and a glass towel bar in the bathroom are from her dad’s old tenant houses.

The living room’s ornamental light switch cover was made from seashells Mathis picked up off the beach.

Tenants leave pictures taken while at the cottage, hanging them from wire at the back of the sofa.

“The only things in this house I bought were the ceiling fans and lamps,” Mathis said proudly. “My dad always said, ‘Try to do the most with the least,’ so, I do.”

To do that, Mathis said she buys a lot of things that are broken and brings them back to life.

“I feel like those things are like my grandmother with wrinkles,” she said. “Of the original four houses, all were torn down except this one. This is the only one remaining. I knew of this house since back when Barber Dairies’ employees lived in it. It meant something to me. Our neighborhood was losing character. This house has a good spirit,” Mathis said contentedly.