March 15, 2021 - Bok Tower Gardens
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| Leaving Bruce and Ellen in Sebasian, we headed west to central Florida. Our destination: the famous Bok Tower Gardens. |
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Edward W. Bok (1863-1930) arrived in Brooklyn as an immigrant child in a family with limited resources, and grew up to build a successful career as an internationally respected and influencial editor, author, social reformer, advocate for peace and generous philanthropist. His culminating accomplishment was the creation of Bok Tower Gardens -- a sanctuary for people and nature, and a place of beauty and serenity. Bok brought together a group of America's preeminent artists and craftsmen to create the magnificent Gardens and Singing Tower.
Edward W. Bok, editor of the magazine The Ladies Home Journal, and his wife, Mary Louise Curtis Bok, spent the winter of 1921 in Florida, near Lake Wales Ridge. The Boks loved the beauty of the area, and created a 25 acres bird sanctuary on the ridge's highest hill to protect the land from being developed. They commissioned landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. to transform what then was an arid sandhill into "a spot of beauty second to none in the country". Olmsted's plan included the planting of 1,000 large live oaks, 10,000 azaleas, 100 sabal palms, 300 magnolias, and 500 gordonias, as well as hundreds of fruit shrubs such as blueberry and holly. The gardens are currently ten times their original size, and feature acres of ferns, palms, oaks, pines, and wetland plants. The plantings also include camellias, tree ferns, creeping fig, yaupon and dahoon holly, Asiatic jasmine, Justicia, crinum and spider lily, monstera, wax myrtle, date and sabal palm, papyrus, philodendron, blue plumbago, and horsetail rush. The site is a refuge for more than a hundred bird species. Wild turkey and groups of sandhill cranes are also often seen wandering the grounds.
Just inside the main gate, in the inner courtyard. There is a gift store and the Bue Palmetto Cafe on the right; a visitors center on the left. And a fake alligator at center.
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| In the museum is a model of the 205 foot tall Singing Tower of Bok Gardens. In 1925, Bok had hired architect Milton B. Medary to design "the most beautiful tower in the world". |
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We meet up with Coquina again!
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| At the top of the Singing Tower is a 60-bell carillon. A carillon is a pitched percussion instrument that is played with a keyboard and consists of at least 23 cast bronze bells in fixed suspension and tuned in chromatic order so that they can be sounded harmoniously together. Often housed in bell towers, carillons are usually owned by churches, universities, or municipalities. The bells are struck with clappers connected to a keyboard of wooden batons played with the hands and pedals played with the feet. The origins of the carillon can be traced back to the Low Countries—present day Belgium, the Netherlands, and the French Netherlands—in the 16th century. The fifth floor of the tower houses the Anton Brees Carillon Library, said to be the largest library of carillon music in the world. |
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We started out by walking through the Pine Ridge Preserve.
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| Sugarcane plants. |
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| Sandhill pinelands as much of Florida once used to be. |
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| A glimpse of the Singing Tower in the distance. |
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The gardens had a current exhibit on carnivorous plants. This is a giant Venus Fly Trap. |
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| Walking through the Wild Garden which showcases Florida native plants. |
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| The carnivorous Pitcher Plant. The prey falls down the slipper insides of the long tube and drown, and are then digested. |
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| A look through the Window by the Pond. |
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| Huge oak. |
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| Lynnette stands by the 1929 Dedication Monument which is located at the original entrance. |
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We started getting hungary so we ordered lunch via our Smartphone from the Blue Palmetto Cafe. It was a great move. We stopped by the Cafe 30 minutes or so later. It was jammed with people in line. But I went right up to the Pick-up counter and got our lunch. The food was outstanding; this was not your usual attraction fare. We ate our lunch on a bench with this view.
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On February 1, 1929, Edward W. Bok presented Bok Tower Gardens to America, as a gift to his beloved country. President Calvin Coolidge traveled from Washington D.C. on a special train to speak at the dedication ceremony. Music filled the day-long event, including the bells of the carillon. An estimated 75,000 people attempted to attend the ceremony. Florida had never seen an event like this before.
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The Singing Tower is built of pink Etowah marble and gray Creole marble, mined in Tate, Georgia -- clearly visible in this picture -- and coquina stone from St. Augustine, Florida.
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The Tower is surrounded by a moat filled with Coi fish.
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The gravestone of Edward W. Bok.
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"Where Edward Bok is happiest: in his garden." ... picture from Wikipedia
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| We sat and watched on this monitor the young man who was actually playing the carillon. |
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He's up in that tower somewhere.
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| A beautiful trail through trees and hanging moss. |
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| The Tower is built upon the highest point in peninsular Florida, Iron Mountain, which is 295 feet above sea level. |
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| This spot is where you get the money shot of the Singing Tower. |
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Edward W. Bok talked the talk and absolutely walked the walk. So many people have enjoyed this beautiful place that Bok built.
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| Lantana, my favorite flower. |
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The Great Brass Door features 30 scenes from the Book of Genesis.
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We walked down to the Pinewood Estate which is a 20-room Mediterranean-style winter home built in the 1930s as a winter residence by C. Austin Buck, vice-president of the Bethlehem Steel Company, in Pennsylvania. The mansion's former name was "El Retiro," and it has been restored to its 1930s appearance. In pre-Covid times you can get a tour, but not today.
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| The grounds behind El Retiro. |
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A tight grove of bamboo.
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Orange tree bearing fruit.
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| More bamboo. |
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| Snake! |
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| A path through colorful Azaleas. |
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| We really enjoyed our visit to the Bok Tower Gardens. Highly recommended if you are ever in the central Florida. |
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