in 1908 as a family home and constructed by local builder John T. Cairns in Queen Anne style. Listed on the DeLand Register of Historic Places as historically significant at the local level, its notable features include an irregular plan, with a rectangular central block with a large two-story wing off the rear elevation, a brick pier foundation with lattice aprons, a hipped roof with lower cross gables, a stained-glass oculus, and oriel windows. A first-floor hipped roof porch extends across the north and east elevations. The original Queen Anne style porch was probably replaced in the 1920s with the present Craftsman style porch, which features regularly spaced battered wood columns with brick bases set on a brick parapet wall. 

George Haynes was the first known resident and lived there until the early 1920s. By 1924 it was the home of Alex C. Haynes (who may have been George’s son) and his wife Rosa, who were from Grand Rapids, Mich. In DeLand, Alex Haynes spent a few years in partnership with Russell Nahm selling Willlis-Overland cars, but his real interest was citrus. He had extensive holdings in oranges and peaches and owned the Haynes Packing House.

After Alex died in 1929, the year the stock market crashed and the Great Depression began, the Haynes home was a lifeline for Rosa, who welcomed guests to what she called “Mrs. Haynes’ Guest House.” Postcards still exist of the home from that period, showing screened porches on both floors in the rear, probably used for sleeping in the days before air conditioning.

In 1945 Rosa was ready to retire and sold it to Colin Stout, executive vice president of DeLand Federal Savings & Loan Association. His wife, Lulu, took over the business, renaming it Stout’s Guest House. A World War I veteran and a staunch member of the Christian and Missionary Alliance Church, he is remembered for his easy smile.

The Stouts had a son, Neal, and a daughter, Miriam — always called Mickey. Born in 1932, she led the DeLand High School Band in parades as a majorette. After graduating from Stetson University, she did graduate work in linguistics and went to the Amazon jungles of Brazil as a missionary with the Wycliffe Bible Translators. She worked there for 30 years, returning periodically to lecture on her experiences, until her death in the field in 1987. She is buried in Brazil but has a headstone in DeLand’s Oakdale Cemetery.

The home was also used as a sorority house by Stetson University students, but the latest repurposing of this historic home began when Sean and Linda Ryan bought it in 2004 as the flagship office of Ryan Insurance and Financial Savings Inc. The Ryans hired David Owen, a carpenter who specializes in historic homes, to restore it. Keeping much of the original wood craftsmanship intact, the Ryans converted it to office space while honoring its historical significance, from its artisan fireplace to its crown moldings and pine floors.