Via Mizner, Palm Beach. Mayor Danielle H. Moore, center, presented a proclamation declaring December as Addison Mizner Month at the 150th Birthday Celebration for iconic architect Addison Mizner, organized by the Historical Society of Palm Beach County. Also, pictured above, Taylor Materio, left, HSPBC development director, and Jeremy Johnson, right, HSPBC president and CEO. [Photo Augustus Mayhew]
Town Mayor Danielle H. Moore, along with the Worth Avenue Association and the Historical Society of Palm Beach County, welcomed more than 100 guests to Via Mizner for a reception celebrating Addison Mizner’s 150th birthday, who was born this day (December 12th) in 1872. The mayor officially declared the month of December as Addison Mizner Month on the island of Palm Beach. The sponsors of the event included Pizza Al Fresco, Meyer Lucas Real Estate, Gunster, The Scout Guide Palm Beach, Capehart, and Kilo Content.
The Mayor’s Proclamation acknowledged Mizner’s legacy as an architect, designing more than 60 houses and buildings on Palm Beach, and as a craftsman, establishing Mizner Industries that manufactured building materials and artifacts utilized throughout South Florida.
Addison Mizner, 12.12.1872 – 12.12.2022. [Historical Society of Palm Beach County]Via Mizner, courtyard. Pizza Al Fresco provided drinks and nibbles, as guests mingled in the via’s East Courtyard at the entrance to the Mizner apartment.Via Mizner, Addison Mizner apartment arched entrance.Lizzi Connaughton and Nikki Connaughton.Holly Meyer Lucas.Ryan Walters, Charlotte Hemmerly, and Nick Hemmerly.Via Mizner, courtyard reception.Jeremy W. Johnson, pictured above, also announced the Historical Society’s forthcoming publication of Addison Mizner’s Palm Beach: A Memoir by Pineapple Press, Florida’s flagship book publisher. “Told in Mizner’s own voice, the memoir will provide readers with the ultimate insider’s guide to the building of Palm Beach.”
The book’s Introduction was written by Alice DeLamar, longtime Palm Beach resident and a Mizner client/friend, when she donated the manuscript to the Historical Society during the mid-1960s. In 1927, DeLamar underwrote and produced The Florida Architecture of Addison Mizner, still regarded as the seminal book on Mizner’s design legacy. It contains the most complete record of the architect’s original Palm Beach houses and buildings, with photographs byF. E. Geisler and essays by Ida Tarbell and Paris Singer.
Alice DeLamar and friends at Palm Beach, 1916. Following her father’s death, Alice was often chaperoned by her teachers at the Spence School.Sloppy Joe’s Bar, Havana. Alice DeLamar, center, and to her left, confidante Lucia Davidova, with friends. Both DeLamar and Mizner were part of the 1920s free-spirited Palm Beach where laissez-faire lifestyles were the standard. [Historical Society of Palm Beach County]Mizner Industries, sales brochure and workshop craftsman, 1925. [Historical Society of Palm Beach County]
“Mizner’s Palm Beach chronicle is a page turner,” remarked Debi Murray, the Historical Society’s chief curator. “The first-person aspect alone would make this account required reading. But to add Alice DeLamar’s perspective on Mizner, Singer, and the people and events that shaped and fashioned 1920s Palm Beach makes this an exceptional offering.”
The book’s Foreword and Afterword were written by architectural and social historian Augustus Mayhew who also provided a timeline of Mizner’s Palm Beach works and the essay Manufactured History: The Making of Mizner Industries.
Mizner Industries, sales catalog.Summer, 1923. Addison Mizner, center, with Peggy Thayer, left, and Nell Cosden, right, photographed leaving New York aboard the RMS Mauretania for a shopping trip to Spain and Italy to furnish and accessorize the Cosdens’ new Mizner-designed villa. The upcoming publication includes Mizner’s detailed account of the trip. [NEWS Photo}Via Mizner. Gerald Hoenings and Lindsay Muntz.Via Mizner. Grace Hyde and companion.Via Mizner, December 1924. [Mizner Library Foundation]Via Mizner, 1925. Entrance at Worth Avenue, Spanish Art Galleries, Addison Mizner Building.“The New Florida,” January 1926. This Arts & Decoration issue featured several Mizner commissions, including Casa Bendita, Casa Florencia, El Solano, Concha Marina, Warden House, and Villa Fontana, as well as noting that Andalusian streetscapes are “the source from which much of Florda’s modern architecture has been developed.” During the 1920s, Mizner’s work was also featured in Architecture and Architectural Forum magazines. [Cover illustration from a painting by Everett Shinn]Via Mizner, 2022.
Here are a few remembrances of Addison Mizner’s legacy at Palm Beach.
More than a century ago, on a remote island at the edge of a jungle …Everglades Club, 1918. “We are establishing the …”Touchstone magazine, August 1918.Everglades Club, under construction. 1918 [Mizner Library Foundation]Everglades Club, 1918-2022. An Italian-inspired tower and a tower modeled on an 18th-century Franciscan Mission-style terraced tower found in California.Everglades Club, Worth Avenue. Port cochere entrance.Everglades Club, port cochere entrance, added 1924-1925.Everglades Club, addition. Port cochere entrance inspired by a Granada gate portal.L. to r.: Everglades Club, a light in the tower; Everglades Club, exterior staircase.Everglades Club, Worth Avenue façade. Windows.Via Parigi.Via Parigi …… and Villa Parigi, originally an office building.
Sin Cuidado, 1800 South Ocean Boulevard. [Historical Society of Palm Beach County]Sin Cuidado, 1800 South Ocean Boulevard. [Historical Society of Palm Beach County]Playa Riente, Great Hall. [Historical Society of Palm Beach County]Casa Florencia, Loggia. [Historical Society of Palm Beach County]Everglades Club, c. 1919. [Historical Society of Palm Beach County]
