Lunch boxes for meals made at the Brock House hotel on Lake Monroe in Enterprise, Florida. The meals were packed in these boxes so steamship passengers would have something to take with them on their journey. A rare example of what is ostensibly the first manufactured lunch box, and a rare artifact from a now forgotten Florida hotel. In 1856, steamboat captain Jacob Brock built a 100 room wooden hotel in Enterprise, Florida, know as The Brock House. Renovated in 1876, the Brock House was a popular tourist destination, and its visitors included such dignitaries as Presidents Ulysses S. Grant and Grover Cleveland, General William Henry Sherman, Jay Gould, and members of the Vanderbilt and Rockefeller families. Renamed the Epworth Inn in the early 1900s, it later became a Methodist retreat, but the building was eventually razed in 1937. The lunch box was produced by Robert Gair, a Scottish-born immigrant and the inventor of the folding carton. Gair was the force behind the Brooklyn waterfront development and the history of his company is well documented on line.

The Brock House Hotel was located on Lake Monroe in Enterprise, Florida. In 1851, Jacob Brock bought land a mile west of the original settlement, where he built a wharf and laid out streets and lots. A steamboat captain with "a notable reputation for the lavish and original nature of his profanity", he had transported to Enterprise many invalids seeking the climate and sulfur springs, which were believed to be curative for a variety of ailments. In 1854, he completed The Brock House, a ​2 1⁄2 story hotel with accommodations for more than 50. That year Volusia County was organized from territory of Orange County, and Enterprise was designated as its county seat. Brock operated the first regular steamboat passenger service from Jacksonville to Palatka, expanding to Enterprise.

It was a 206 mile (332 km) trip aboard the Darlington, which departed Jacksonville at 8:00 AM on Saturday, timed to receive passengers discharged from ocean-going ships. It would arrive and spend Sunday in Palatka, from which it departed at 5:00 AM on Monday morning, docking at Enterprise that evening. Only by daylight did prudent captains navigate the narrow, crooked upper part of the St. Johns River. Crew members had to watch for snakes, slithering aboard out of Spanish moss in overhanging trees, and also for alligators, which the crew shot before the reptiles could tangle with the paddlewheel. Soon, an additional danger would imperil the waterway, the Civil War.

The South Atlantic Blockading Squadron division commanded by Union Captain George Balch set out to capture Confederate steamboats on the St. Johns River. Seized at Lake Monroe on March 14, 1864, was the Hattie Brock, named for the captain's daughter, and loaded with 150 bales of cotton for export to help finance the rebel cause. It was towed to Brock's wharf to load wood fuel. From the veranda of The Brock House, the New York Tribune would report, Miss Brock expressed grief and indignation at the capture of her namesake by the Yankees. The marines were reportedly glad to get away as soon as their boats were supplied. They took with them from Enterprise two black males, probably slaves, and three black females, as well as 2,000 pounds of sugar from a refinery. They demolished the mill, located about 2 miles (3.2 km) farther downriver on the east side of DeBary Creek.

Following the rebellion, the state experienced a boom in tourism, and Enterprise became a fashionable resort and sportsmen's paradise for fish and game. "No dreamland on earth", wrote Harriet Beecher Stowe in 1873, "can be more unearthly in its beauty and glory than the St. Johns in April."[citation needed] Sold and renovated in 1876, The Brock House was the most famous hotel in the state, with Northern guests including President Ulysses S. Grant, President Grover Cleveland, General William Sherman, Jay Gould and members of the Vanderbilt family. Others came from England, France and South America. In 1877, Enterprise was incorporated.

Another notable visitor was (Samuel) Frederick deBary of New York City, a wealthy importer of champagne and other French wines. After staying at The Brock House in 1870, he would buy 400 acres (1.6 km2) to the west in 1871 and build DeBary Hall, a mansion and hunting lodge. Acquiring much more land, deBary planted orange groves and pecan trees. In 1876, he established the DeBary Merchants Line, a steamship company contracted to carry mail from Jacksonville to Enterprise. He contributed money to build the Gothic Revival All Saints Episcopal Church, completed in 1883. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.

The Atlantic Coast, St. Johns & Indian River Railroad in 1885 linked Titusville with Enterprise, from which ran a spur line to the Jacksonville, Tampa and Key West Railway at Enterprise Junction in present-day DeBary. But in 1888, Florida experienced an epidemic of yellow fever. The population of Enterprise dwindled, and DeLand became the county seat. The freezes of 1894 and 1895 wiped out the citrus industry in much of the state, including the deBary groves. Enterprise voted to de-incorporate in 1895. Its distinctive midden, once featured on the city seal, would disappear, as well as the shells used to pave streets and sidewalks.