With the conclusion of the Second Seminole War (1835–1842) and the passing of the Armed Occupation Act on August 4, 1842, the character of Florida was transformed.

By the eve of statehood, planters maintained that nearly half the population and wealth of the territory was now located in central Florida.

[4] Drawn to central Florida by the opportunity offered by the Armed Occupation Act, Colonel Byrd Pearson from South Carolina laid claim to 160 acres in what is now Hernando County.

[6] In 1851, Pearson sold the property to another South Carolinian emigrant to Florida named Francis Higgins Ederington.

In 1852, Francis Ederington and his family moved from South Carolina to Florida, bringing with them their livestock, farming equipment and household goods together with 30 enslaved people.

Colonel Pearson had built a small home there, but Francis Ederington replaced it with the present manor house.

[15] Possibly the most historically significant period for the Chinsegut Hill manor house occurred during the stewardship of Elizabeth, Raymond and Margaret Robins.

Over the years, Raymond and Margaret added a kitchen to the east wing of the house, a widow's walk and ventilator, the west chimney, an expanded study, and a music room.

In 1928, Raymond was present at the signing of the Pact of Paris and was called upon to help plan the presidential campaign of Herbert Hoover.

[18] The Wall Street crash of 1929 left the Robins in financial difficulty because they chose to give almost $250,000 of their money to keep the First National Bank in Brooksville from folding.

Using his connections with Herbert Hoover and his administration, Raymond brokered a deal to donate the Chinsegut Hill estate to the government with the stipulation that the couple be allowed to live there until their deaths, free of property taxes.

[20] In the same year the University of Florida signed a four-year lease for the property, intending to use the site as a branch library utilizing Robins' 8,000 volumes.

During their occupation of the Chinsegut Hill property, the Robinses entertained countless prominent guests including Soviet ambassadors, Jane Addams, William Jennings Bryan, Thomas Edison, James Cash Penney, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, Senator Claude Pepper, Margaret Bondfield, Frances Kellor and U.S. Secretary of the Interior Harold L.

The university signed a 20-year lease in 1962 and has since expended vast amounts of time and money to preserve and restore the property.

Alterations to the manor house include the removal of the widow's walk and ventilator due rainwater leakage (1963), construction of several cabins (1972 & 1990s), a dining room (1982), a classroom (1986), a maintenance shop (1986), and a storage shed (1990).

The University of South Florida has done much to maintain the status quo of the property, but has done little to realize any meaningful efforts to restore the manor house to its previous glory.

On November 21, 2003, Chinsegut Hill was added to the United States National Register of Historic Places through a concerted effort by members of the faculty at the University of South Florida.

[25] In January 2020, the Tampa Bay History Center entered into a partnership with Hernando County to provide curatorial and interpretive services for Chinsegut Hill.

A plaque was commissioned by Lisa von Borowsky, family friend of the Robins and caretaker of the property, and placed on the ground near the Lenin Oak.

The plaque honored the wishes of Raymond Robins to commemorate the Russian Revolution's leader, Vladimir Lenin.