Vizcaya Mansion- Miami, FL

Located mere minutes from modern Miami is a magnificent Gilded Age estate, left virtually untouched by time or developers. Well researched and designed around salvaged architectural elements, it feels like a centuries old Italian Villa, magically transported through time and place to South Florida. One of the finest extant examples of the era’s excess outside of Newport, exploring Vizcaya is an architectural adventure.

Commissioned by James Deering, a Midwest farm machinery millionaire, the sprawling estate was to function as his winter retirement retreat. Known for his international travels, in 1910 Deering set off overseas with Ecole des Beaux-Arts trained designer Paul Chalfin in search of inspiration and architectural elements for his new home; they returned with a massive collection of artifacts that were used by society architect Francis Burral Hoffman Jr. to design a sprawling Mediteranean Revival villa.

Situated on Biscayne Bay, the 38,000 square foot, 54 room Vizcaya took two years to complete, with Deering arriving by yacht on December 25, 1916. Modeled after an Italian villa, the somewhat symmetrical mansion was built around a central open air courtyard, with rooms located around the perimeter, accessed by arcades. The rooms themselves were designed around items acquired during Deering’s travels, assembled as an accumulation of artifacts, suggesting the passage of time.

Although designed to look old, the reinforced concrete structure incorporated every modern convenience imaginable, including electricity, plumbing, several telephones, a central vacuum cleaning system, two elevators, and film screening equipment. A dumbwaiter was used to move food from the second floor kitchen to the dining room below. Rightfully so, the house was considered exceptionally attractive, and was widely covered by all the popular architectural publications of the day.

Although all around interesting, several spaces are exceptional, including the second floor Breakfast Room, with its arched, gated entrance, elaborate wall murals, corner chandeliers, inlaid floors, Ming dynasty porcelains, and amazing chinoiserie chairs. It is absolutely a room for the ages.

Technically not part of the house proper, the mansion’s elaborate limestone breakwater located in Biscayne Bay is another of it’s unique and exceptional spaces. Although primarily constructed to protect the house, it was painstakingly chiseled by sculptor Alexander Stirling Calder into the shape of a barge, then embellished with mermaids and other decorative elements.

Home of lush gardens and a flowering gazebo, it was used as an entertainment venue, the site of elaborate Gilded Age parties which involved guests taking gondolas out to the stationary ship. A long list of famous friends attended these events, including John Singer Sargent, who produced several water color paintings of the property.

Today, following countless hurricanes and tropical storms, the breakwater is battered and worn, but still standing. For now. It may well disappear under rising sea water in the future. Sadly, the gardens and gazebo are long gone, distant memories like the grand parties themselves. Along with the mansion’s extensive Italian Renaissance gardens, which are so magnificent they warrant their own entry, it is one of Vizcaya’s defining features, differentiating it from other elaborate estates of the era.

Sadly, Deering spent less than a decade at Vizcaya before his death in 1925. A lifelong bachelor with no children, he left the estate to his two nieces, who were forced to sell off much of the surrounding acreage to pay for the mansion’s maintenance. In 1952, they sold Vizcaya to Miami-Dade County for $1 million, including the villa’s artwork and furnishings; a year later, the property was opened as the Dade County Art Museum.

Although some alterations have been made to the home for preservation purposes, including enclosing the open air courtyard, it remains much as it was originally designed. Some artifacts were lost during a 1971 robbery, but the majority of Deering’s eclectic collection remains intact, in the luxurious home that was designed for its display.