Learn about the agricultural tourism of Villa Vizcaya in Florida.
Vizcaya, now called the Vizcaya Museum and Gardens, is the landmark Villa and Estate of businessman James Deering, of the Deering McCormick-lnternational Harvester fortune, on Biscayne Bay in the present day Coconut Grove district of Miami, Florida.
The early 20th century Vizcaya estate also includes:
i. The extensive Italian Renaissance gardens;
ii. The native woodland landscape; and
iii. The historic village outbuildings compound.
The landscape and architecture were influenced by Veneto and Tuscan Italian Renaissance models and designed in the Mediterranean Revival architecture style. Paul Chalfin was the design director and driving force for the winter residence’s resulting excellence.
Miami-Dade County now owns the Vizcaya property, as the Vizcaya Museum and Gardens, which is open to the public. ‘Villa Vizcaya’ is served by the Vizcaya Station of the Miami Metrorail.
History:
The estate property originally consisted of 180 acres (730,000 m2) of shoreline Mangrove swamps and dense inland native tropical forests. Being a conservationist, Deering sited the development of the estate portion along the shore to conserve the forests. This portion was to include the villa, formal gardens, recreational amenities, expansive lagoon gardens with new islets, potager and grazing fields, and a village services compound.
The villa was primarily built between 1914 and 1919, while the construction of the extensive elaborate Italian Renaissance gardens and the village continued into 1923. During the World War I years building trades and supplies were difficult to acquire in Florida.
Vizcaya is noteworthy for adapting historical European aesthetic traditions to South Florida’s subtropical ecoregion. For example; it combined imported French and Italian garden layouts and elements implemented in Cuban limestone stonework with Floridian coral architectural trim and planted with sub-tropic compatible and native plants that thrived in the habitat and climate. Palms and Philodendrons had not been represented in the emulated gardens of Tuscany or tie- de-France.
Deering used Vizcaya as his winter residence from 1919 until his death in 1925. Deering’s advisor, collaborator, and prime visionary in creating the total estate was Paul Chalfin, a former art curator, painter, and interior designer who was the project’s director. He assisted and encouraged Deering’s collecting art items, antiquities, and architectural elements for the project.
Chalfin recommended the architect F. Burrall Hoffman to design the structural and envelope of the villa, garden pavilions, and estate outbuildings. The landscape master plan and individual gardens were designed with the Colombian landscape designer Diego Suarez, who had trained with Sir Harold Acton at the gardens of Villa La Pietra outside Florence, Italy.
The estate’s name is from the northern Spanish Vizcaya Province, in the Basque region along the east Atlantic’s Bay of Biscay, as ‘Vizcaya’ is on the West Atlantic’s Biscayne Bay.
Records tell of Deering wishing the name also to come from the local history of the original Spanish explorer of the bay being named Vizcaya, when, he was corrected that was Sebastian Vizcaino he still kept the more poetic version. Deering used the Caravel, a type of ship style used in the ‘Age of Exploration),’ as the symbol and emblem of Vizcaya. In the Basque language vizcaya can be translated as “an elevated place” a representation of the mythical explorer “Bel Vizcaya” welcomes visitors at the entrance to the property.
Vizcaya’s villa exterior and garden architecture is a composite of different Italian Renaissance villas and gardens, with French Renaissance parterre accent, based on visits and research by Chalfin, Deering, and Hoffman. The villa facade’s primary influence is the Villa Rezzonico designed by Baldassarre Longhena at Bassano del Grappa in the Veneto region of northern Italy. It is sometimes referred to as the “Hearst Castle of the East”.
James Deering died in September 1925, onboard the steamship SS City of Paris en route back to the United States. Following his death Vizcaya passed to his two nieces, Marion Chauncey Deering McCormick and Ely Deering McCormick Danielson. Over the decades, after hurricanes and rising maintenance costs, they began selling the estate’s surrounding land parcels and outer gardens.
In 1945 they gave significant portions of the Vizcaya property to the Catholic Archdiocese of St. Augustine, Florida, and to Miami’s Mercy Hospital. 50 acres (200,000 m2) comprising the main house, the formal gardens, and the village were retained. In 1952 Miami-Dade County acquired the villa and formal Italian gardens, needing of significant restoration, for$1 million.
Deering’s heirs donated the villa’s furnishings and antiquities to the County-Museum. Vizcaya opened to the public in 1953 as the Dade County Art Museum. The village and remaining property were acquired by the County in the mid-1950s. In 1994 the Vizcaya estate was awarded designated National Historic Landmark status.
Preservation:
Vizcaya Museum and Gardens:
The Estate is now officially known as the Vizcaya Museum and Gardens, which consists of 50 acres (200,000 m2) with the villa and the gardens, and the remaining native forest. The estate is a total of 50 acres (200,000 m2), of which 10 acres (40,000 m2) contain the Italian Renaissance formal gardens, and 40 acres (160,000 m2) are circulation and the native ‘hammock’ (jungle forest).
The villa’s museum contains over seventy rooms of distinctive architectural interiors decorated with numerous antiques, with an emphasis on 15th through early 19th century European decorative art and furnishings.
Currently owned by Miami-Dade County and governed by the Vizcaya Museum and Gardens Trust (formed in 1998), Vizcaya is located at 3251 South Miami Avenue in Coconut Grove neighborhood of Miami, and is open to the public daily except for Christmas Day. It has been accredited by the American Association of Museums.
Vizcaya is recovering from damage by several hurricanes. Miami-Dade County has granted money ($50m U.S.) for the restoration and preservation of Vizcaya, as has FEMA, and afundraising campaign by the Vizcaya Museum and Gardens Trust. Plans include restoration of the villa and gardens, and adaptation of the historic village compound for exhibition and educational facilities.
In 2008 the National Trust for Historic Preservation listed Vizcaya as one of America’s Eleven Most Endangered Historic Places: This designation was based on damages from hurricanes and ongoing damaging maritime climate effects.
State Occasions:
Vizcaya was the 1987 venue where President Ronald Reagan received Pope John Paul II on his first visit to Miami.
Vizcaya was the 1994 location of the important ‘First Summit of the Americas’ convened by President Bill Clinton. This began a series of Summits of the countries in The Americas. The thirty-four nations’ leaders that met at Vizcaya created the ‘Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA)’ that all the hemisphere’s countries, except Cuba, could join for national and corporate trade benefits.
Popular Culture:
Vizcaya has provided the setting for many films over the years, both credited and uncredited. Deering himself enjoyed watching silent films in Vizcaya’s courtyard, and he had a particular interest in the works of Charlie Chaplin. External shots of Villa Vizcaya, for example, can be seen in Tony Rome, Ace Ventura: Pet Detective., Any Given Sunday, Bad Boys II, Airport ’77 and Money Pit. The music video for The Cover Girls song Promise Me from 1988 was shot at Vizcaya.
In GTA Vice City, the mansion which is eventually taken over by the games protagonist is heavily based on Vizcaya.