Little is currently known about a group of Florida paintings completed by Harold Harrington Betts after 1896, including a large and colorful harbor scene with sailing ships in the Miami area in the Sam and Robbie Vickers Collection, Jacksonville, Florida, and an elegant topographical view of the architecturally significant Villa Flora, St. Augustine, Florida, built in 1896 for $ 15,000.00 in the Moorish Revival style commissioned by a retired Baptist minister named O. A. Weerrolsen.

After serving as his winter home for a number of years, the Villa became a popular area hotel in 1906 and later in 1934 it was a restaurant known as the Villa Flora Grill. In 1941 the large and elegant building passed into the stewardship of the Sisters ...