As America prepares to celebrate Independence Day and the nation’s 250th birthday, it’s easy to think of the Founding Fathers as names confined to history books.

George Washington.
Thomas Jefferson.
Benjamin Franklin.
Roger Sherman.

The last name may not be as familiar, but it should be. Roger Sherman was the only Founding Father to sign all four of America’s foundational documents: the Continental Association, the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, and the United States Constitution. When the first draft of the Declaration of Independence was presented to the Continental Congress on June 28, 1776, Sherman stood among the Committee of Five that helped shape the birth of a nation.

More than a century later, that legacy found its way to a hill overlooking DeFuniak Springs. In 1886, James T. Sherman, a descendant of Roger Sherman, finished building the elegant Victorian home that today welcomes guests as the Sunbright Inn. An unexpected connection between our nation’s earliest days and one of Walton County’s most beloved landmarks.

For decades, locals have debated whether Sunbright Inn is the oldest house in Walton County or simply one of the oldest. Whether it stands first or second, few buildings have witnessed more of Walton County’s story. No others carry a richer, more unexpected connection to America’s founding fathers.

For nearly 140 years, the home has watched DeFuniak Springs change around it. Dirt roads becoming paved streets. Horse-drawn carriages giving way to automobiles. A small Florida town growing into a community with its own identity and rhythm.

The Sunbright Inn is part of a much older American pattern. Where memories take root in the everyday: in front porches, in familiar streets, in the buildings that outlast the people who built them.

As fireworks begin to light up the sky this Fourth of July, the Sunbright Inn stands not as a monument to a distant past, but as a living reminder that American history did not only unfold in grand halls and capital cities.

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