Building a life
 
Sherry Boas
Sentinel Correspondent

June 30, 2002

CLERMONT -- The house at 550 E. DeSoto St. in Clermont is one of those homes in which you immediately feel welcome.

The front door opens into a light-filled living room. The floor is soft with slightly worn carpeting. The knotty pine walls radiate a warm, golden glow. The furniture, neither old nor new, is inviting and comfortable.

One piece in particular stands out. A tan recliner with a hand-crocheted afghan draped over its backrest commands a prominent position slightly right of the front door. Next to it is a low end table with a globe-shaded lamp, a portable phone and a well-worn Bible.

That's James Wallace Montgomery's chair in the house that he built for his wife, Julia Mae, and their 10 children in 1958.

"I built this house myself from trees that were growing out there where the road is now," says Montgomery, a 95-year-old carpenter and contractor who has been building homes throughout Florida for the past 80 years.

"I built homes all across the state, in Cocoa and Jacksonville, Altamonte Springs, Merritt Island, Bay Hill, Dr. Phillips and Sand Lake Hills. I worked for Bel-Aire Homes for 13 consecutive years. We used to build two houses a day back then.

"I started building homes in Clermont back in the 1940s," says the 5-foot-6, 126-pound man lovingly called "Big Daddy" by his many friends and family members.

Casually draping one leg over the armrest of his chair, he begins to reminisce.

"Back then this was all pine forest," says Montgomery pointing out the window toward the city street that runs parallel to State Road 50 in downtown Clermont.

"There was no road, no electricity, no water lines and no phones. They got put in after we built the houses. We cut down the trees to make the road, and the lumberyard would mill the wood into boards that we used to build the houses. I built just about every house on this street myself. That was back before you needed licenses or inspections or anything like that."

Deloris Pinkney, a former teacher in the Orange County school district, is Montgomery's second-oldest child. "He did it all in those days," says Pinkney, 65. "He drew all the plans and did all the carpentry work. He even made the pine paneling on the walls. Every facet of home building, he could do it."

Montgomery holds up his right hand.

"I lost two fingers one evening trimming out one of these windows," he says. "I had worked all day on a construction job and came home in the evening to work on finishing this house for my family. It was late and I was tired. Several friends were over admiring the white pine paneling I had put up when the table saw slipped and I cut off my fingers."

But despite the injury to his right hand, Montgomery went on to build countless homes.

"I wish I had kept track of how many houses I've built. It surely has been well into the hundreds."

Carpentry books were tools

Montgomery learned his trade as a teenager who traveled to South Florida from his home in Georgia during Miami's "boom days." He started out as a carpenter's helper working on the first hospital in Coral Gables and then the Biltmore Hotel in Miami that later was destroyed in the infamous 1926 hurricane.

After marrying his 16-year-old next-door neighbor from back in Georgia, Montgomery and his bride settled in Clermont in 1935. For a few years, the hardworking young father with only a third-grade education worked as a road builder before returning to his first love, carpentry.

"I have a set of carpentry books that I got from Sears Roebuck that I would refer to when I was still learning how to build," says the self-taught carpenter.

Having begun building well before most Central Florida towns had established building codes and licensing practices, Montgomery became "grandfathered in" as a building contractor.

"I was building Miss Cole's house across the street on East DeSoto in 1953 when I got my contractor's license," Montgomery recalls. "I didn't have to pass any written test or take any classes. I just had to answer a few questions about building and got my license."

In those days building lots were not surveyed and homes had no engineering requirements for hurricane conditions. Steel supports were not required. There was no such thing as pressure-treated wood. Montgomery used a product that he still keeps in his garage called Coppertop to preserve the wood that was often milled from trees on the site.

"Every house I ever built is still standing," Montgomery proudly boasts, "None have been destroyed in hurricanes."

Montgomery built many houses for black members of the Clermont community. A close relationship with William Kern, a major landowner and local businessman, enabled Montgomery to broker deals for many people who could not otherwise afford a home.

For years Montgomery acted as Kern's agent. He negotiated loans for people wanting a home and built the houses for them as well.

"The homes I built back in the 1940s and 1950s were mostly single-story homes with a front porch, one bathroom, two bedrooms, a dining room, living room and kitchen. They cost between $1,800 and $5,000 to build," Montgomery says.

"Mr. Kern would lend the people the money, and they would pay me a little bit every month, whatever they could afford, maybe $5 to $15 per month. I would hold the money and give it to him when he came around. I worked for three generations of the Kern family. Mr. Kern went out of his way to help people."

The same is often said of Montgomery. Though slightly built with a soft voice and unassuming nature, Montgomery is known to be a generous and charitable family man committed to his community and his church.

"James is an amazing person," says Gerald Childs, a builder in Winter Garden who has done framing on many of Montgomery's jobs since the 1970s. "He is incomparable. I've never heard him say an unkind word about anybody. He never raises his voice and has been a pleasure to work for all these years."

No farm animals in the neighborhood now

But being a gentle man with a good nature did not prevent Montgomery from making his share of mistakes and missing opportunities over the years.

"In 1945 I bought seven 50-by-150-foot lots for myself in Clermont for $325," Montgomery smiles and shakes his head as he thinks back. "I had the opportunity to buy all the way down to the lake for $1,500, but I felt I couldn't afford it."

That was back in the 1950s when Montgomery and his neighbors had large gardens, kept a pig, a milk cow or two and a few chickens.

"I recall walking home from school for lunch one day," says Pinkney. "We were out of eggs, so I just waited around until the hen laid one, took it, made my lunch and then went back to school a little later than I was supposed to."

Zoning laws no longer allow farm animals in Montgomery's neighborhood. The towering piney woods were long ago replaced by yards landscaped with shrubbery and small trees. The homes that Montgomery, his sons and grandsons now build are also different from the homes that used to be built in the area.

"The last house I built is 2,600 square feet, has vaulted ceilings, large walk-in closets, a triple-car garage and four bathrooms," says Montgomery, now officially retired after breaking a hip several months ago. "They wanted four bathrooms for a family with only two daughters."

Daughter Pinkney says, "Whenever he sees a small house, he says 'They don't build houses like that anymore.' "

Recalling her own childhood growing up in a house with one bathroom and 10 children, Pinkney can only laugh and state passionately, "It was a great house to grow up in."

Copyright © 2002, Orlando Sentinel