Vizcaya Mansion (on right) and its stone barge (on left)
The estate's name refers to the northern Spanish province Biscay, "Vizcaya", in the Basque region along the east Atlantic's Bay of Biscay, as the estate is on the west Atlantic's Biscayne Bay. Records indicate Deering wished the name also to commemorate an early Spaniard named Vizcaya who he thought explored the area, although later he was corrected that the explorer's name was Sebastián Vizcaíno. Deering used the caravel, a type of ship style used during the Age of Exploration, as the symbol and emblem of Vizcaya. A representation of the mythical explorer "Bel Vizcaya" welcomes visitors at the entrance to the property.
History
The famous architect Ti stepping out of his tomb to offer to build Chim's new palace in Florida, a 1912 portraitJames Deering's letter to Paul Chalfin, discussing purchase of tapestriesTelephone at Vizcaya Museum and GardensThe Phillip and Patricia Frost Museum of Science on the Vizcaya property
The estate property originally consisted of 180 acres (73ha) of shoreline mangrove wetlands and dense inland native tropical forests. Being a conservationist, Deering sited the development of the estate portion along the shore to conserve the forests. This portion was to include the villa, formal gardens, recreational amenities, expansive lagoon gardens with new islets, potager and grazing fields, and a village services compound. Deering began construction of Vizcaya in 1912, officially beginning occupancy on Christmas Day 1916, when he arrived aboard his yacht Nepenthe.[9][10]
The villa was built primarily between 1914 and 1922, at a cost of $15 million,[11] while the construction of the extensive elaborate Italian Renaissance gardens and village continued into 1923. Deering used Vizcaya as his winter residence from 1916 until his death in 1925. During World War I, building trades and supplies were difficult to acquire in Florida.
Vizcaya is noteworthy for adapting historical European aesthetic traditions to South Florida's subtropicalecoregion. For example, it combined imported French and Italian garden layouts and elements implemented in Cuban limestonestonework with Floridian coral architectural trim and planted with sub-tropic compatible and native plants that thrived in the habitat and climate. Palms and philodendrons had not been represented in the emulated gardens of Tuscany or Île-de-France.
In 1910, interior decorator Elsie de Wolfe introduced[12] Deering to Paul Chalfin,[13] a former art curator, painter, and interior designer, who became the project's director.[2] He assisted and encouraged Deering to collect art items, antiquities, and architectural elements for the project. Chalfin recommended the architect F. Burrall Hoffman[14] to design the structure and facade of the villa, garden pavilions, and estate outbuildings.
In 1914, during a visit to Villa La Pietra in Florence, Deering and Chalfin met[15] Colombian landscape designer Diego Suarez.[16] Suarez, the designer of the landscape master plan and individual gardens, trained with Sir Harold Acton at the gardens of Villa La Pietra.[17]
Vizcaya Museum also features Gilded Age technology. There are old doorbells, a dumbwaiter, and a rotary-dial telephone. Vizcaya's telephone system was the first in Miami-Dade County.
Deering died in September 1925, on board the steamshipSS City of Paris en route back to the United States. After his death Vizcaya was inherited by his two nieces, Marion Deering McCormick, wife of Chauncey McCormick, and Barbara Deering Danielson, wife of Richard Ely Danielson. Over the decades, after hurricanes and increasing maintenance costs, they began selling the estate's surrounding land parcels and outer gardens. In 1945, they sold significant portions of the Vizcaya property to the Catholic Diocese of St. Augustine, Florida, to build Miami's Mercy Hospital. 50 acres (200,000m2) comprising the main house, the formal gardens, and the village were retained.[17][24]
In 1952, Miami-Dade County acquired the villa and formal Italian gardens, which needed significant restoration, for $1 million. Deering's heirs donated the villa's furnishings and antiquities to the County-Museum.[17][24] Vizcaya began operation in 1953 as the Dade County Art Museum. The village and remaining property were acquired by the county during the mid-1950s. In 1994, the Vizcaya estate was designated a National Historic Landmark.[2] In 1998, in conjunction with Vizcaya's reaccreditation process by the American Alliance of Museums, the Vizcaya Museum and Gardens Trust was formed to be the museum's governing body.
On March 22, 1971, three individuals from New York City stole approximately $1.5 million in artworks and silver items from the Villa Vizcaya, some of which were of historical value.[25] The trio of reputed jewel thieves was arrested on March 25, 1971.[26] Sergeant Tom Connolly from the New York City Police Department raided the Manhattan apartment of Vojislav Stanimirović and his wife, Branka, and arrested them. The couple's accomplice, Alexander Karalanović, was also arrested, and all three were charged with suspicion of stolen property and possession of a dangerous weapon. From the Stanimirovićs' apartment, approximately $250,000 of the stolen goods was recovered. Sergeant Connolly stated that included in the theft was a virtually priceless silver bowl that once belonged to Napoleon Bonaparte.[27] According to Sergeant Connolly, the three perpetrators had been under surveillance for four months for unrelated jewel burglaries that they had carried out in the Manhattan Diamond District. NYPD Captain Thomas Kissane said that the vast majority of the precious items stolen from the Vizcaya were never recovered.
Vizcaya Museum and Gardens
The living room organThe estate's pool
"Miami-Dade in 2017 entered into a long-term operating and management agreement with Vizcaya Museum and Gardens Trust Inc., a local nonprofit. The county still provides funds for “upkeep, maintenance, renovations and operations … in the form of annual budget appropriations and grants.” — Miami-Dade Commissioner Joe Martinez —Miami Today"[8]
The estate is now known officially as the Vizcaya Museum and Gardens, which consists of 50 acres (200,000m2) with the villa and the gardens, and the remaining native forest. The estate is a total of 50 acres (200,000m2), of which 10 acres (40,000m2) contain the Italian Renaissanceformal gardens, and 40 acres (160,000m2) are circulation and the native hammock.[17][28] This beautiful landscape is packed with unique decor and tons of history. The complimentary audio tour provides a great selection-paced tool to explore this marvelous mansion and its surroundings. There are tons of nooks and crannies to explore, making it a great place to spend hours discovering all its wonders.[29]
The villa's museum contains more than seventy rooms of distinctive architectural interiors decorated with numerous antiques, with an emphasis on 15th through early 19th-century Europeandecorative art and furnishings.[17][28] Amongst the furnishings are ceramics, the originals of which were shipped from England in 1912 but sank along with the Titanic. Luckily, Deering had taken out insurance and had them replaced.[30]
Vizcaya was built with an open-air courtyard and extensive gardens on Biscayne Bay. As such, the estate has been subject to environmental and hurricane damage, the latter notably in 1926, 1992, and 2005. Miami-Dade County has granted money ($50 million) for the restoration and preservation of Vizcaya. These funds have been matched by grants from FEMA, Save America's Treasures, and numerous other funders. Plans include restoration of the villa and gardens, and adaptation of the historic village compound for exhibition and educational facilities; however, additional funds are required for this. The completed first phase of the project included rebuilding of the museum's cafe and shop (in historic recreation areas of the building adjacent to the pool), renovation of the North and South Gate Lodges that flank South Miami Avenue, and rebuilding of the David A. Klein Orchidarium in a plan that generally uses historic precedent. At the same time, Vizcaya has completed the first half of a major conservation program of its outdoor sculpture collections. With a consulting landscape architect, Vizcaya has also finished a comprehensive cultural landscape report, which will be a vital tool in the ongoing restoration of the formal gardens.
The Great Miami Hurricane of 1926 devastated the greater Miami area including Vizcaya. The estate's historic rose garden was destroyed after saltwater seeped in, decimating the roses and preventing growth thereafter. Vizcaya's horticultural team partnered with the Tropical Rose Society of Miami to help bring some roses back to Vizcaya's gardens 100 years later. However, the historic rose garden, now known as the fountain garden, has not been returned to its former glory.[31] One of Vizcaya's outdoor restoration project challenges included the estate's swimming pool grotto, built in 1916. The pool is only one of two public places in the world to feature a surviving mural by Robert Winthrop Chanler, a prominent American artist. The ceiling mural was designed in 1916, depicting an underwater fantasy scene filled with creatures and marine life. Shells are embedded into the plaster mural of the scene.[32]
In 1992 and 2005, the swimming grotto was submerged during hurricanes. The combination of floods and Miami's climate have led to preservation challenges and are a priority to the museum. The State of Florida and the Division of Emergency Management's Hurricane Loss Mitigation Program provided Vizcaya with a grant of $194,000 to help prevent future damage to the historic estate.[33]
In 2008 the National Trust for Historic Preservation listed Vizcaya as one of America's Eleven Most Endangered Historic Places.[34] As noted by the National Trust's website, Vizcaya's inclusion on this list was based on the threat of proposed highrise development on neighboring property. Specifically, the National Trust stated: "Unless development is blocked or an intervention occurs, this cultural landscape will be permanently damaged by the construction of three high-rise condominium towers within Vizcaya's historic viewshed."[35] The proposed highrises were blocked by two court rulings and, in 2010, the City of Miami included viewshed protection for historic properties such as Vizcaya in its new zoning code, Miami 21.
Other types of events are hosted by the museum to collect funds for its preservation. For example, every Halloween, Vizcaya organizes a costume party, where people from all around Florida attend in costume.
Vizcaya participates in Baynanza, Biscayne Bay Cleanup Day, an annual community event to clean up the most important ecological system in South Florida. During the event, Vizcaya encourages participants to capture Biscayne Bay's beauty with a photography contest. The event usually takes place on Earth Day.[36]
"Vizcaya was a very modern house. Many are surprised to learn that it was built largely of reinforced concrete, with the latest technology of the period, such as generators and a water filtration system. Vizcaya was also equipped with heating and ventilation, two elevators, a dumbwaiter, a central vacuum-cleaning system and a partly automated laundry room."— Vizcaya Museum & Gardens[39]
Vizcaya was built with a residential elevator, but it is closed to the public. Vizcaya does not meet ADA standards.[8]
In popular culture
The casino of the villa, which was filmed as the lair of the Mandarin in Iron Man 3
The estate can be seen in the background of various photographs taken by photographer Bunny Yeager of model Bettie Page during their working relationship in the 1950s.[47]
Vizcaya is also an extremely popular location for weddings and other special events, given the site's architectural and natural beauty. For decades, the estate has been a subject of photography, and is a favored site for photographs of women celebrating their quinceañera (15th birthday).[48]
On April 18, 2012, the AIA's Florida Chapter placed Vizcaya on its list of Florida Architecture: 100 Years. 100 Places.[49]
Gallery
Estate Entrance at S. Miami Ave.
Vizcaya: Entrance drive view of north Villa facade
Miami, officially the City of Miami, is a coastal metropolis in the U.S. state of Florida and the seat of Miami-Dade County in South Florida. With a population of 442,241 as of the 2020 census, it is the second-most populous city in Florida after Jacksonville. It is the core of the much larger Miami metropolitan area, which, with a population of 6.14 million, is the second-largest metropolitan area in the Southeast after Atlanta, and the ninth-largest in the United States. Miami has the third-largest skyline in the U.S. with over 300 high-rises, 58 of which exceed 491 ft (150 m).
Key Biscayne is an island village in Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States. The village is part of the Miami metropolitan area of South Florida. The population was 14,809 at the 2020 census, up from 12,344 in 2010.
Coconut Grove, also known colloquially as The Grove, is an affluent and the oldest continuously inhabited neighborhood of Miami in Miami-Dade County, Florida. The neighborhood is roughly bounded by North Prospect Drive to the south, LeJeune Road to the west, South Dixie Highway and Rickenbacker Causeway to the north, and Biscayne Bay to the east. It is south of the neighborhoods of Brickell and The Roads and east of Coral Gables. The neighborhood's name has been sometimes spelled "Cocoanut Grove" but the definitive spelling "Coconut Grove" was established when the city was incorporated in 1919.
The Freedom Tower is a building in Miami, Florida. It was designed by Schultze and Weaver and is currently used as a contemporary art museum and a central office to different disciplines in the arts associated with Miami Dade College. It is located at 600 Biscayne Boulevard on Miami Dade College's Wolfson Campus.
Virginia Key is an 863-acre (3.49 km2) barrier island in Miami, Florida. It is located in Biscayne Bay south of Brickell and north of Key Biscayne and is accessible from the mainland via the Rickenbacker Causeway.
Charles Deering was an American businessman, art collector, and philanthropist. He was an executive of the agricultural machinery company founded by his father that became International Harvester. Charles's successful stewardship of the family firm left him with the means and leisure to indulge his interests in the arts and natural sciences. His activities and benefactions in the US were centered on Chicago and Miami; he also aspired to found an art museum in Spain.
F. Burrall Hoffman, Jr. was an American architect, best known for his work for James Deering at Villa Vizcaya in Miami, Florida.
James Deering was an American executive in the management of his family's Deering Harvester Company and later International Harvester, as well as a socialite and an antiquities collector. He built his landmark Vizcaya estate, where he was an early 20th-century resident on Biscayne Bay in the present day Coconut Grove district of Miami, Florida. Begun in 1910, with architecture and gardens in a Mediterranean Revival style, Vizcaya was his passionate endeavor with artist Paul Chalfin, and his winter home from 1916 to his death in 1925.
Charles Deering Estate was the Florida home of Charles Deering until 1927 when he died at the estate.
Arch Creek was an early settlement in Miami-Dade County, Florida, in present-day metropolitan Miami. Tequesta Indians thrived here before the first Europeans arrived in the early 16th century. The name is derived from the 40 feet (12 m) long natural limestone bridge that spanned the creek until 1973. It is part of the Arch Creek Memorial Park at 1855 Northeast 135th Street, on Biscayne Boulevard. It was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places on July 15, 1986.
The Glenn H. Curtiss Mansion and Gardens is a historic home located at 500 Deer Run in Miami Springs, Florida and open to the public as an event space or for private tours by prior arrangement.
The Trapp Homestead is a historic home in the Coconut Grove section of the City of Miami, Florida, United States. It is located at 2521 South Bayshore Drive. On November 10, 1994, it was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places. The home was constructed in 1887 out of oolitic lime quarried locally by Caleb Trapp and his son, Harlan. During construction, the Trapps lived on a thatched hut at the front of the property. The property is believed to be the oldest-standing masonry home in Miami-Dade County, Florida. The estate's construction pre-dates the incorporation of the City of Miami. The estate was particularly notable at the time because it was one of the few stone structures in Miami-Dade County, as nearly all structures in the area were built of wood at that time.
The Miami Marine Stadium is a marine stadium on Virginia Key, Miami, Florida, United States. The facility, completed in 1963 on land donated to the City of Miami from the Matheson family, is the first stadium purpose-built for powerboat racing in the United States. The stadium was abandoned in 1992 when officials declared it unsafe following Hurricane Andrew. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2018.
The Phillip and Patricia Frost Museum of Science is a science museum, planetarium, and aquarium located in Miami, Florida, United States. The museum originally opened its Coconut Grove location across from Vizcaya Museum and Gardens in 1960. It relocated to Museum Park in the downtown area adjacent to the Perez Art Museum Miami in 2017 after the closing of the Coconut Grove location in 2015.
August Geiger was one of the most prominent American architects in South Florida from 1905 to the late 1940s. He experimented in Mission, Neo-Renaissance and Art Deco architecture, but is most noted for his works in the Mediterranean Revival style. A number of his works are listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places.
USS Nepenthe (SP-112) was a luxury yacht belonging to James Deering and used at his estate, Vizcaya in Miami, Florida. The yacht was completed December 1916 and delivered to Deering who immediately took the yacht to Florida. Nepenthe was acquired by the United States Navy, designated a house boat though given the S.P. indicator of a section patrol vessel, and used briefly from 7 June to 5 October 1917. The yacht resumed its place at the estate until it sank in 1926 during a major hurricane one year after Deering's death. After salvage the yacht was sold.
Paul Chalfin (1874-1959) was an artist and interior designer with an interest in architecture, best known for his work at Villa Vizcaya. Chalfin was openly gay; his longtime partner was Louis Koons.
Phineas P. Paist was an American architect who was the supervising architect for the Coral Gables Corporation.
Matheson Hammock Park is a 630 acres (2.5 km2) urban park in metropolitan Miami at 9610 Old Cutler Road, just south of Coral Gables, Florida. The park surrounds the north and western ends of Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden.
Diego Suarez was a garden designer best known for his work at James Deering's Villa Vizcaya in Miami, Florida. He also served as a press attaché and minister-counselor for Chile in Washington, D.C. from 1948 until 1952 and counselor to the Colombian delegation to the United Nations.
References
Notes
1 2 3 "Dade County listings". Florida's History Through Its Places. Florida's Office of Cultural and Historical Programs. February 20, 2007. Archived from the original on September 27, 2014.
1 2 3 4 "Vizcaya". National Historic Landmark summary listing. National Park Service. Archived from the original on December 2, 2007. Retrieved June 21, 2008.
↑ Dubrow, Gail (2021). "Practicing Architecture Under the Bamboo Ceiling: The Life and Work of Iwahiko Tsumanuma (Thomas S. Rockrise), 1878-1936". Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians. 80 (3): 280–303. doi:10.1525/jsah.2021.80.3.280. S2CID241643066.
1 2 3 Scheckner, Jesse (September 1, 2020). "Accessibility to historic Vizcaya under microscope". Miami Today. Retrieved June 21, 2021. The floors of the estate, built nearly a century ago, were uneven in places. Many parts of the grounds both inside and in the gardens outside couldn't be accessed by wheelchair....We were told there was no elevator for them to get to the second floor of the house...The museum has two wheelchair lifts to help visitors gain access to the grounds from the parking lot. One works, though Vizcaya temporarily removed its four on-site wheelchairs in May to reduce touchpoints during the pandemic. The other still awaits repairs for damages sustained during Hurricane Irma in 2017....Miami-Dade in 2017 entered into a long-term operating and management agreement with Vizcaya Museum and Gardens Trust Inc., a local nonprofit. The county still provides funds for "upkeep, maintenance, renovations and operations … in the form of annual budget appropriations and grants," Mr. Martinez's item said.
Griswold, Mac and Weller, Eleanor (1991) The Golden Age of American Gardens, proud owners-private estates 1890 - 1940 New YorkL Harry N. Abrahms. ISBN0-8109-2737-3
A comprehensive account
Harwood, Kathryn C. (1985) Lives of Vizcaya. Banyan Books, Miami.
Maher, James T. (1975) Twilight of Splendor: Chronicles of the Age of American Palaces. Boston: Little, Brown.
A comprehensive account.
Ossman, Laurie (text) and Sumner, Bill (photographs) (1985_ Visions of Vizcaya. Vizcaya Museum and Gardens/Miami-Dade County, Miami.
Rybczynski, Witold and Olin, Laurie (text); Brooke, Steven (photographer) (2006) Vizcaya: An American Villa and Its Makers Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press
In depth study of villa, gardens, and the creative team.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
