In Citizen Kane, Orson Welles’ great cinematic satire of the life of publisher William Randolph Hearst, Charles Foster Kane is building “Xanadu,” a bloated, overdone mega-residence somewhere on the Gulf Coast.
Xanadu is an obvious take-off of San Simeon, Hearst’s grand estate on the isolated central California coast. In a way, Welles, by placing fictional Xanadu much further east and south than Hearst’s real-life castle, was paying indirect tribute to the millionaires who built a string of magnificent estates along Florida’s Atlantic coast.
Built in the early 20th-century era of Henry Flagler’s inspired hoopla about Florida’s supposedly Mediterranean climate and boundless potential, the mansions’ construction did more to cement the image of Florida as the next El Dorado in Americans’ minds than almost any other event.
One of the greatest of the mansions was Miami’s Vizcaya, the 180-acre winter quarters of James Deering, the wealthy vice president of International Harvester Co., the General Motors of its day. The ornate Italian villa-style house, completed in 1916, was intended to mimic a traditional Old World estate that could produce its own meat, dairy and produce, as well as support a full staff of servants, herders, workmen and gardeners.
The great house itself, set at the edge of Biscayne Bay, overlooked an elaborate little harbor formed by statue-decked stone walls that curved protectively into the bay to create an area of calm water. It was from the water that guests would approach Vizcaya, giving them time to contemplate its tiled roofs, sculpted breakwater and lush surroundings.
On land, the estate featured formal gardens, while the house’s interior was furnished with art, fixtures and furniture that spanned a 400-year stretch of Italian history. Deering had imported them from various villas and castles in Italy, hoping to create the effect of a long lived-in residence whose ambience had grown naturally over a span of centuries.
Deering got to enjoyed Vizcaya for almost nine years before he died in 1925. Just as his estate got into the rhythm of maintaining the property in his absence, the devastating hurricane of 1926 – a calamity that set Florida’s hope for national prominence back a full generation – inflicted heavy damage on Vizcaya. Reduced to a moldering remnant of bygone glory, the great house sat ignored for more than a quarter century.
However, in 1952, the city of Miami purchased the property for use as a museum. Over the 52 years since, Miami has painstakingly restored the mansion to its former glory, refinishing, refurbishing and restoring its structure and contents, as well as bringing the gardens back to their former brilliance. Today, The Vizcaya Museum and Gardens, which draws 200,000 visitors per year, has become the crown jewel of the city’s park system.
Since Miami is the country’s largest ocean cruise center, Vizcaya has become an excellent day trip for travelers who want a pleasant way to pass time on a layover in Miami as they’re wait to board their ship.
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