Boca Rococo: How Addison Mizner Invented Florida's Gold CoastThe rollicking tale of the artist, adventurer, and visionary whose innovative architecture transformed Palm Beach and whose dramatic rise and fall mirrors the larger-than-life excesses of the 1920s. Addison Mizner’s Mediterranean-style mansions—with their stucco walls, tiled roofs, and Moorish accents—are much-admired Florida icons. InBoca Rococo, renowned author and biographer Caroline Seebohm introduces the flamboyant genius behind these pastel palaces. Mizner was a leading San Francisco society figure in the 1890s, joined the Alaska Gold Rush, traveled to China, and made his way to an exploding turn-of-the-century New York. No formal training but huge natural talent established him as architect of the rich and famous. The getaways he designed made Palm Beach America’s most elegant resort—and fed his dream of developing a “Venice-on-the-Ocean” in nearby Boca Raton. Mizner’s plans ended with the collapse of Florida’s real estate boom. He died in 1933, broken and bankrupt. Drawing on a huge cache of untapped materials—including measured plans and an unpublished autobiography—Seebohm restores Mizner to the pantheon of great architects and flamboyant Americans. |
Contents
CHAPTER | 4 |
An architect of great taste and little money | 54 |
The old pioneer blood of the tribe rose in my brain | 64 |
Copyright | |
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Boca Rococo: How Addison Mizner Invented Florida's Gold Coast Caroline Seebohm No preview available - 2023 |
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Addi Addison and Wilson Addison Mizner Alice DeLamar Alva Belmont American Anita Loos antiques architect architecture arrived artist beautiful became Benicia Boca Raton boys brother building built California called career clients Cloister Cosden COURTESY Dawson death decoration died Edgar Everglades Club Flagler floor Florida friends furniture gardens gold Guatemala Henry Horace Horace Chase huge interior Irving Berlin Island KIM MIZNER HOLLINS Lansing Mizner later letter living room look Madena Madena Galloway Mama Mizner mansion Marie Dressler married Minnie Mirasol Mizner Development Corporation MIZNER HOLLINS FAMILY mother never night ocean palace Palm Beach County Paris Singer patio plans Polk Port Washington real estate Rosecliff San Francisco social Spanish Stag's Leap Stanford White steamer story Stotesbury style tile tion took town trip Watson Waugh West Palm Beach William Willis Polk Wilson Mizner wrote York young Ysabel Yukon