<p> [11] Scotia Plantation</p><p>John Brown came to Hypoluxo from his native Scotland in 1894. One of his children – James Murray Brown – would become Hypoluxo’s first mayor.</p><p>Acquiring sizeable plots of land, Brown owned much property from the highway to the lake. He grew crops and was known as the “Pepper </p><p>King.” </p><p>John Brown named his comfortable two-story frame house on the lakefront Scotia (for Scotland) Plantation. It was sold after his death in 1919 and became a restaurant, Upton’s Chicken Dinner House. During Prohibition in the 1930s, the place was a popular roadhouse – distinctive for its red light that could be seen from some distance.</p><p>Son James Murray Brown also accumulated much land south of his father’s place. As a gentleman farmer, he grew asparagus plumosus ferns used in the florist industry. The beautiful southern mansion he built on his property -- elegant with its built-in cypress bookcases, window seats and hand-carved staircase balustrades – was also called Scotia Plantation.</p><p>The mansion was featured in the 1981 Hollywood thriller “Body Heat” staring Kathleen Turner and William Hurt.</p><p>Brown sold his mansion in 1967. Vacant and falling into disrepair, it was destroyed by fire in 1999.</p>