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BOCA RATON:

A CITY IN THE PINK (AND MINK)

To visitors and residents, Boca Raton is anything but miserly when it comes to history, tradition, and modern elegance. But this special south Florida city is definitely 'Miznerly' when it comes to its past and vibrant present.

Dreamers, risk-takers, moguls, and millionaires all contributed (and contribute) to Florida's Boca Raton, but none influenced the city more than Addison Mizner. With architecture often done in vibrant pink, the Mizner touch is everywhere and it's certainly not miserly. This is a city that's at home in pink and real or designer faux mink.

Boca Raton (Spanish for 'mouth of the rat') was little more than a place on the map until Henry M. Flagler extended his railroad from West Palm Beach through Boca to Miami in 1895. In fact, it is only called Boca Raton because an 1823 mapmaker mistakenly moved a Miami inlet named 'Boca Ratones' too far north on his drawing. The English version of the misplaced name stuck.

Except for a few Spanish explorers, pirates, and Native Americans, nothing much more stuck around in Boca Raton until the railroad brought the first settlers. A few hearty farmers who had been frozen out in north Florida pulled up stakes and moved to Boca Raton to raise citrus and vegetables for the winter market.

But Addison Mizner's arrival in south Florida in 1918 changed the region and, specifically, Boca Raton forever. Self-taught architect, eccentric, and magnet for high society of the day, Mizner moved to Palm Beach from New York for health reasons at the recommendation of his friend Paris Singer, heir to the sewing machine fortune.

As Mizner recuperated, he and Singer began planning a convalescent facility for wounded officers returning from the war. With Singer's money and Mizner's architectural skills, they built the swank Everglades Club in Palm Beach. This led to commissions from the area's elite for Mizner to design their great mansions. Frank Lloyd Wright once said that many architects had imagination, but only Mizner had the courage to let it out of the cage.

Mizner also ventured to Boca Raton and decided his future lay there. By then, the frenzied Florida land boom was in full swing, with mangrove swamps and scrubland giving rise to whole towns. Real estate developers, land speculators, and quite a few swindlers flocked to Florida hoping to become millionaires overnight by selling pieces of paradise to snowbound northerners.

To take advantage of this, Addison Mizner and his brother, Wilson (sometime playwright and full-time man-about-town) formed the Mizner Development Corporation. The company acquired 17,500 acres of Boca Raton property and proceeded to create what they called, 'the greatest resort in the world,' a happy combination of Venice and heaven, Florence and Toledo, with a little Greco-Roman glory and grandeur thrown in for good measure.

The Cloister Inn, which would eventually become the famed Boca Raton Resort & Club, opened its doors in 1926 at a cost of $1.25 million, the most expensive 100-room hotel ever built at the time. Mizner designed an elegant 'pink palace' structure in an imaginative pseudo-Spanish style with courtyards and furnished it with his private collection of rare antiques from old churches and universities in Spain and Central America. The Cloister's luxury and ambience quickly attracted royalty, Wall Street wealth, movie stars, and the ranking hierarchy of the international social set, including General T. Coleman du Pont, Harold Vanderbilt, George Whitney, Florenz Ziegfeld, Al Jolson, and Elizabeth Arden.

The Cloister's guests seemed attracted, rather than put off, by Addison Mizner's unconventional behavior. His previous trips to China gave him a fondness for silk pajamas, which he decided were perfectly proper for street wear. He also delighted in parading around with his pets and was reportedly seen on more than one occasion promenading with two chows, a small monkey on one shoulder, a macaw on the other, and leading two more larger monkeys.

However, the glory of The Cloister Inn lasted just one season. The land boom was already faltering and signs that the upcoming Depression was already taking its toll. Mizner's investors became apprehensive and demanded the reorganization of his company. Eventually, management was taken over by the Chicago-based Central Equities Corporation, run by Rufus Dawes and his brother, U.S. Vice President Charles Dawes.

The Dawes brothers were unable to rescue the company from bankruptcy, which was hastened by a deadly hurricane in the fall of 1926, which killed nearly 400 people and destroyed many of the boomtime buildings. Even though Mizner's plans for Boca Raton were curtailed, his impact was seen in jobs, buildings, visitors, permanent residents, and national attention. He set the stage for future development and his grand vision for the 'Golden City of the Florida East Coast' eventually became a reality.

In 1928, Clarence Geist, a one-time railway brakeman from Indiana who made a fortune in utilities and was one of Mizner's original investors, successfully bid on the assets of the failed corporation. Geist hired golf course architects Toomey and Flynn to reconstruct the hotel's two courses and also proceeded to greatly expand the Cloister Inn. Two years and $8 million later, he reopened it as the Boca Raton Club, one of the world's finest 'gentlemen's clubs.'

Although never fiscally profitable, an exclusive membership kept the Club flourishing. Private railroad cars and yachts brought in such notables as Herbert Hoover, several du Ponts, Jacob Raskob, and many other celebrities. Geist subsidized the perennial Club deficit through the Depression and even after his death, by which time the property had grown to four times its original size.

A World War II service roster replaced the guest book when the government commandeered the resort in 1942. Army Air Corps officers referred to their quarters as "the most elegant barracks in history."

After the war, hotel, theater, and real estate magnate J. Myer Schine bought the resort for a paltry $3 million Completely refurbished and modernized, the club reopened in 1945 as the Boca Raton Hotel and Club and became extremely popular. A 1947 Saturday Evening Post article said, "If you were looking for the prodigal public spot on the globe, there is little argument that you need to no further than the Boca Raton Hotel and Club."

The resort's (and, in many ways, Boca Raton's) future was secured when Arthur Vining Davis, one of the founders of Alcoa, bought the property from Schine in 1956 for $22.5 million. At the time, it was the largest real estate deal in Florida's history. Davis's plans for the legendary hotel were to "preserve the atmosphere of quiet luxury." He succeeded and so did successive owners after him, always improving on Mizner's original grand plans.

Arvida Corporation owned the resort until 1983, when it was purchased by VMS Realty Partners and the Boca Raton Hotel and Club Limited Partnership. A decade later, Boca Raton Management Company replaced VMS as the general partner for the now renamed Boca Raton Resort & Club. Since then, ongoing multi-million dollar renovations have taken place at the world-class property that is the symbol for a world-class city.

Set within a backdrop of casual Boca elegance, the resort's amenities include two 18-hole championship golf courses, 30 tennis courts, several pools, state-of-the-art fitness centers, a half-mile stretch of private beach, a wide range of dining, a full-service marina, a variety of watersports, and much more. It retains its share of guests who remember a long gone era, but also boasts many newcomers, business travelers, couples, and families who come to enjoy the resort's unparalleled setting, luxurious accommodations and amenities, and the rich traditions of Mizner's famed resort and city.

Mizner's legacy lives and breathes on the property through its architecture, elegant furnishings, many Mizner touches, and even a 'Mizner Room' just off the lobby, which is filled with memorabilia from those early Boca days. But you'll find Addison Mizner's influence throughout the city, with historic, modern, and often pink reminders seemingly around every Boca Raton corner.

Town Hall is a great place to start an exploration of Mizner's modern-day Boca Raton. Mizner envisioned an entire community that would reflect his Mediterranean Revival style of architecture and he included the 1927 Town Hall in his plans. The building is now the headquarters of the Boca Raton Historical Society.

A visit reveals several Mizner nuances, like arched entrances and fanlit windows, tile and Dade County pine floors, and pecky cypress ceilings. There's also the Historical Society's library, which includes a permanent exhibit of historic maps, photographs, documents, and Mizner memories. This Historical Society also presents special exhibits and traveling exhibits, but visitors will be especially interested in their scheduled "Guided City Tour" (on a trolley), historical tours of the Boca Raton Resort & Club, as well as other even more extensive tours.

Just down the street, get directions and a map for a free driving tour of the Old Floresta Historic District. Just several blocks in size, this small residential area is filled with Mizner-designed and -influenced homes that provide wonderfully varied examples of his unique style. Keep in mind, however, that these are private residences. Nearby, the Boca Raton Museum of Art and the Children's Museum are both popular stops.

The other major Mizner attraction can actually be quite expensive if you're from the shop-'til-you-drop school. Downtown Boca's village-in-a-city, Mizner Park features dozens of shops, restaurants, and much more, all in pretty pink Mizner-influenced buildings set in a bustling village atmosphere. Drop your car off at the valet parking stand and then check out the huge selection at Liberties Fine Books & Music, designer duds at Nicole Miller, and one-of-a-kind gifts at Celebrations of Boca. With lots of pink (and mink) it's Boca at its best. The dining scene at Mizner Park (see below) is one of the most creative in the state. In many ways, lush Mizner Park defines the blending of Addison Mizner's original vision with today's ritzy Boca Raton results.

Of course, there's much more to modern Boca than swanky shopping. Located in a large pink Mizner-style building on the edge of Mizner Park, the International Museum of Cartoon Art provides much more than a good laugh. After 20 years in metropolitan New York, Phase I of the new location is now open in Boca Raton and Phase II will be open in late-1997.

Founded by Mort Walker, creator of Beetle Bailey, the mammoth museum's permanent collection, which is the largest in the world, includes more than 160,000 original drawings, 10,000 books, and more than 1,000 hours of video and film dating back to the first efforts to create animation. Through permanent galleries, changing exhibitions, and special events, visitors can experience the nostalgic pleasure of being with old and new friends in comic strips, comic books, and animation, including Mickey Mouse, Flash Gordon, Batman, Dumbo, Little Orphan Annie, Beetle Bailey, Superman, Popeye, Garfield, and many others.

Other attractions and entertainment possibilities in Boca Raton include: the Gumbo Limbo Environmental Complex; the Royal Palm Polo Sports Club; the Sports Immortals Museum; Boomer's Family Recreation Center; Loxahatchee Everglades Tours; Musicana Supper Club; Little Palm Theatre; Boca Pops; Jan McArt's Royal Palm Dinner Theatre; and more upscale shopping and dining at Town Center at Boca Raton. Further afield, the rest of Palm Beach County, as well as Fort Lauderdale and Miami, are all within easy day-trip distance.

Along with the Boca Raton Resort & Club, other excellent accommodations options include: Boca Raton Marriott (800-528-1234); Boca Teeca Lodge (561-994-0400); Crown Sterling Suites (561-997-9500); La Boca Casa (561-392-0885); and many others.

On the dining front, you're in for an eating treat. Mizner Park boasts many excellent restaurants, including Max's Grille (561-368-0080) and Baci (561-362-8500). The hottest new choice is definitely Gigi's , the newly-opened tavern, oyster bar, and cafe, with brasserie-style beer and Karl Alterman-created fare. Out at Town Center, Maxaluna (561-391-7177), south Florida's first Tuscan grill, is still going strong after eight years. Other fun options include Addison's (561-391-9800), located in Mizner's beautiful old administration office complex, and Pete Rose Ballpark Cafe (561-488-PETE), with more than 50 TV screens, often tableside, and the live broadcast of The Pete Rose Show.

From the pink of Addison Mizner to the red of Pete Rose, Boca Raton passes any visitor's tests with flying colors. Everyone knows a winning city when they see it in pink or mink.

SIDEBAR

BOCA RATON CONTACTS THAT ARE ALL PINK

--Palm Beach County Convention & Visitors Bureau, 1555 Palm Beach Lakes Blvd., Ste. 204, West Palm Beach, FL 33401, 800-554-PALM.

--Boca Raton Resort & Club, 501 East Camino Real, P.O. Box 5025, Boca Raton, FL 33431-0825, 800-327-0101.

--Boca Raton Historical Society, Town Hall, 71 North Federal Hwy., Boca Raton, FL 33432-3919, 561-395-6766.

--Boca Raton Museum of Art, 801 West Palmetto Park Rd., 561-241-7432.

--Children's Museum, 498 Crawford Blvd., 561-368-6875.

--Mizner Park, North Federal Highway, between Palmetto Park and Glades, 561-362-0606.

--International Museum of Cartoon Art, Mizner Park, 201 Plaza Real, 561-391-2200.

--Gumbo Limbo Environmental Complex, 1801 North Ocean Blvd., 561-338-1473.

--Royal Palm Polo Sports Club, 6300 Old Clint Moore Road, 561-994-1876.

--Sports Immortals Museum, 6830 North Federal Highway, 561-997-2575

--Boomer's Family Recreation Center, 3100 Airport Rd., 561-347-1888.

--Loxahatchee Everglades Tours, 15490 Loxahatchee Rd., 800-683-5873.

--Musicana Supper Club, 2200 NW Boca Raton Blvd., 561-361-9704.

--Little Palm Theatre, 400 NW 2nd Ave., 561-394-0206.

--Boca Pops, 100 NE First Ave., 800-734-6504.

--Jan McArt's Royal Palm Dinner Theatre, 303 SE Mizner Blvd., 561-392-3755.

--Town Center at Boca Raton, 6000 West Glades Rd., 561-368-6000.