- March 27, 2024
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The year is 1931. John D. Rockefeller is hosting a party at his mansion in Ormond Beach, but his staff is not aware he’s home yet. Lillian, one of the famous billionaire’s maids, lets a group of guests into the party early to tour the lavishly decorated house. Along the way, they meet many of Rockefeller’s friends, including Gen. Adelbert Ames and his wife, Blanche Ames, who tell of their connections to Mr. Rockefeller.
News quickly spreads that a pouch of dimes that Rockefeller often carries with him has gone missing. It's now the guests’ jobs to figure out which of the characters they met throughout the mansion misplaced the dimes.
The eighth-annual Rockefeller Revisited was held Saturday, Oct. 28, at The Casements. Group by group, guests took guided tours of the mansion under nightfall to learn about Rockefeller’s time in Ormond Beach, as well as solve the mystery.
In the last room of the tour, Rockefeller’s study, guests meet the billionaire himself right before Detective Hansen recovers the bag of missing dimes. To reward his guests, Rockefeller hands out a dime to each visitor, much like he was known to do with people he met on the street or partygoers he invited to his home.
“Each year we bring in different characters,” said Siobhan Daly, the cultural center coordinator. “This year we added the 'Whodunit?' with the missing dimes. One year, we did an I Spy game with the children. So, every year we try to tweak it to make it interesting. It’s definitely a different tour than you get when you come through the home [in daylight].”
Daly said the event is important for the community because Rockefeller was an influential figure who spent a lot of time in Ormond Beach from 1918 until his death in 1937.