The Sample-McDougald House, located at 450 NE 10th Street in Pompano Beach, celebrated its centennial in 2016. Built in 1916, it is today one of a relative handful of structures in Broward County that is 100 years old or older.

The Sample family arrived in South Florida soon after the turn of the century. John M. Sample, the first to settle in the Pompano area, had purchased farming land from the Florida East Coast Railway before 1910.

Albert Neal Sample, a one-time architect, followed his younger brother John to the north Broward County area in 1911 from Chester, South Carolina. He was born in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina on April 16, 1866, the oldest of six children. Neal, the name he was known by, purchased his brother’s land on June 11, 1915, and began constructing his new house soon thereafter.

Sample built a spacious house located on high elevation, over 22 feet above sea level, alongside the Dixie Highway and the Florida East Coast Railway, the area’s two major means of transportation. Also known as the Old Sample Estate and Pine Haven, the house is a seventeen-room Georgian Colonial structure constructed by Sample supposedly as a replica of a home he previously owned in South Carolina. It is unquestionably one of the most architecturally significant historic homes in the county, and one of the earliest to display a formal architectural style.

The home served as the base for Sample’s farming operations that stretched from today’s Lighthouse Point out west past what is now Powerline Road. At first, Sample grew pineapples, a popular crop for earlier settlers to the area, but it soon became apparent that winter vegetables, such as string beans, bell peppers, eggplant, and squash, among other crops, were more profitable. Sample constructed a road in 1917 to reach his cropland (like most local farmers, Sample’s agricultural fields were not contiguous). Today that thoroughfare still bears his name: Sample Road. In November 2000, the McDougald family donated the house to the non-profit. The State of Florida and Broward County awarded grant funds for the project and on May 30, 2001, just minutes after midnight, the house was moved off its original site and over the next seven hours moved south on Dixie Highway and then east on NE 10th Street to its new location. Hundreds of people lined the streets in the middle of the night to view this once-in-a-lifetime sight.

The next phase of the project was the actual restoration of the house’s exterior. This included repairing damaged wood siding, restoring masonry features, partial re-roofing, restoring the house’s columns and other architectural features, and painting the structure. This was followed by work to restore the house’s interior, including new electrical and climate-control systems, refinishing floors, walls, ceilings, woodwork, and fixtures. Much of this needed work was performed as in-kind donations by local businesses.

Information provided by Historical Timeline – Sample McDougald House (pompanobeachfl.gov)