The Orman House sits on a low bluff overlooking the Apalachicola River, built in 1838 by Thomas Orman, a cotton merchant from upstate New York who moved south to make his fortune. The two-story frame house mixes Federal and Greek Revival features and is one of the few antebellum merchant homes on the Gulf Coast still in its original setting.
It is now a Florida state park with interpretive tours that focus on cotton trading, slavery in West Florida, and the Civil War period when the Ormans were divided in loyalty — Thomas a Confederate sympathiser, his wife a Unionist who reportedly hid escaping Union prisoners. The grounds include the Three Servicemen Detail South memorial, a half-scale Vietnam-era bronze. Closed Tuesday and Wednesday; small admission charge.