 The house was built about 1904-05, and was purchased by the Daytona Educational and Industrial Training School (now Bethune-Cookman University) in 1913 as the residence of Mary McLeod Bethune, the school's founder.Bethune, an African-American born to formerly enslaved parents, achieved nationwide notice for her success in establishing the school, and went on to play an important role in the advance of education and civil rights, particularly in the years between World War I and World War II.She was a good friend of Eleanor and Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and acted as an advisor to Roosevelt during his presidency in the 1930s.