Addison Mizner

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Addison Mizner (1872 – 1933) was a resort architect born in Benicia, California. Mizner did not have formal training. As a child he traveled around the world with his father, who was the United States minister to Guatemala. Mizner began his architectural career in San Francisco and later worked in New York City.

Mizner was the brother and sometime partner of businessman and con artist Wilson Mizner.

In 1903 He co-illustrated a book with Ethel Watts Mumford titled 'The Limerick Up To Date Book' (Paul Elder Company, San Francisco, 1903) while in San Francisco. Little is known about his sketches and artwork which preceded his architectural career.

At age 46, he moved to Palm Beach, Florida, for his health, and his Spanish Revival architecture won the attention of wealthy clients in West Palm Beach, Florida and Palm Beach, Florida. His work included the 37-room El Mirasol (now the Sunflower) for Edward T. Stotesbury, the town’s most notable family of the time—installing a 40-car garage, a tea house, an auditorium and a private zoo. Villa Flora was built in 1921 for a banker at J.P. Morgan.

La Guerida (or "bounty of war") was built in 1923 for the Wanamakers (Philadelphia department store heir Rodman Wanamaker) which was later purchased by Joe Kennedy for a paltry $120,000 in 1933 would later become John F. Kennedy's “Winter White House.” It sold to When John K. Castle, chief executive of Castle Harlan, and his wife Marianne, in 1995.

Mizner's own Palm Beach home, built in 1925, was El Solano. He sold that to Harold Vanderbilt and John Lennon later purchased the home.

Mizner also designed and built the historic Riverside Baptist Church (founded in 1908) in Jacksonville, Florida, which he completed in 1926. Because he promised to build the church in honor of his mother, Mizner refused payment for his services. The church is Mizner's only piece of religious architecture.[1]

In 1928, Mizner designed the original Cloisters Hotel at Sea Island, Georgia

He died bankrupt in 1931 of a heart attack.

An 11-foot tall statue of Addison Mizner by Columbian sculptor Cristobal Gaviria was erected in Boca Raton in March 2005 (Mizner Blvd. and Federal Highway (U.S. Route 1) to commemorate his contributions to Boca Raton and Florida architecture. In addition, in 1968 an elementary school in Boca Raton was built and named for him to commemorate his additions to the city's architecture.