Historically, interior design in Florida also paid tribute to Spanish colonial style. Great attention to detail, inside and out, was a hallmark of Addison Mizner, one of Florida's most famous and influential architects. Mizner would go so far as requiring that he designed the interiors of buildings, even of private residencies. He also established Mizner Industries, a manufacturing enterprise that enabled him and his workers to make the tiles, furniture, and wall hangings used in his designs by hand.
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Architect was Addison Mizner. Built by Joshua Cosden in 1923 and later sold to Mrs. Horace Dodge (later Mrs. Hugh Dillman). It was razed in 1957.
Mizner created what came to be called the Palm Beach style. He combined Spanish, Venetian, and Moorish influences he had collected, largely from his own travels, with a deep understanding of his wealthy patrons' somewhat contradictory interests in extravagance and the facade of authenticity. The style came to dominate the exclusive homes and resorts of Palm Beach and the surrounding area within only a few years of Mizner's arrival in 1918. His sought-after residential designs, such as El Mirasol which he designed for leading Palm Beach socialite Eva Stotesbury, incorporated tradition Spanish hacienda u-shapes that maximized cross-ventilation, substituted subtle mixtures of interior and exterior elevations for the flat Florida landscape, and brought Florida society indoors through balconies, cloister ways, and "loggia," open, Mediterranean-like salon spaces (Hatton, 77-81).
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The house was designed by architect Addison Mizner and built in 1920.
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Designed by architect Addison Mizner and constructed in 1924.
Mizner built clubs, larger homes, and commercial buildings, such such as the eponymous Via Mizner. Those constructions attempted to recreate the ambience of the older, elite homes of Europe, especially imperial Spain, by suggesting former palaces or forts, built piecemeal with the passing fortunes of their owners and rulers, adapted gradually to latter-day peacetime uses (Hatton, 82-83). After bringing his brother on board, Mizner designed and began constructing an entire luxury city dedicated to his ideas. However, after the crash of the Florida land boom and the publicizing of the Mizner brothers' questionable management tactics, investors abandoned the project. The "unleashed" creativity, as Frank Lloyd Wright described it, and romance Addison Mizner employed in recreating Spanish regality left a lasting impression on the cultural and architectural landscapes of the state.
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Paulina Pedroso was born and died in Cuba. From the 1880s to 1910, she and her husband, Ruperto, worked at cigar making while organizing La Sociedad Libres on behalf of Cuban freedom. Jose Marti headquartered his activities in the United States in her home.
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The Chalet was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1990.
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Sleeve notes: "In connection with the hotel is a sun parlor 108' long—paved with tiles and roofed with glass. The building is constructed of coquina in the Spanish and Moorish styles of architecture."
Florida experienced several waves of building booms, and many of the new homes, resorts, and town centers constructed as the state's population mushroomed sought to maintain the exotic allure of Florida's unique history. The Spanish Eclectic style of architecture, which featured low-pitched, red-tiled roofs, arches over doors and prominent windows, and white stucco walls, was commonly used for new homes in those parts of the United States that had experienced Spanish Colonial building into the early 20th century. Spanish Eclectic reached its height of popularity in the 1920s and 1930s, with many examples surviving in residential areas across Florida. (Virginia and Lee McAlester, 417-419.)
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In addition to private homes and prominent commercial buildings, many of Florida's historic sites, civic buildings, and notable destinations incorporate the state's strong connection to Spanish Colonial heritage into the public space Florida's millions of residents and annual visitors share.
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James M Cox Sr., former governor of Ohio and owner of the Miami Daily News and Metropolis, spent $1.5 million to build the lavish News Tower, later renamed Freedom Tower.
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The News Tower, later renamed Freedom Tower, was patterned after the 800-year-old Giralda bell tower in Seville, Spain.
