James Deering was advised by his doctors that sunshine and a warmer climate would restore his heath, he was afflicted with pernicious anaemia. So like many rich American retirees he chose Florida as the place to do this. However he didn’t just purchase a house, he decided he’d create his own estate – Vizcaya – on the shoreline of Biscyane Bay.

Apparently the build initially began as quite a modest project but the house, the gardens and even the terrace quickly became a much larger project. It was like a mini Venice at the waters edge; a feeling that would have been heightened for Mr Deering’s guests as he had a gondola to take them across to his stone King’s Barge.

The gondola wasn’t the only similarity to Venice. High tide also recreates the Venetian experience here; it floods the lower deck of the stone barge. I suspect Mr Deering’s guests however didn’t copy tourists in Venice by putting on waders to go across at high tide!

James Deering is described as an American executive, socialite and antiquities collector. His fortune came from his family’s Deering Harvester Company and later International Harvester. He was treasurer of the company when he first joined in the management of the family business, and later became one of the vice presidents. With the support, vision and expertise of designer Paul Chalfin, architect F. Burrall Hoffman Jr, Colombian landscape designer Diego Suarez he built Villa Vizcaya between 1914 and 1922. I visited more than a hundred years later in September 2024.

Vizcaya Museum and Gardens is built on the homeland of the Tequesta and Calusa peoples, ancestors of the Seminole Tribe of Florida and the Miccosukee Tribe of Florida. The Museum & Gardens Trust acknowledges that Vizcaya exists as a result of the displacement of Indigenous people, colonisation, and policies and practices that inflicted harm.

87 thoughts

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    1. Sadly don’t think there are many places if Europeans have gone there before. However I feel as long as we acknowledge the past and do our best to be better then it’s okay for us to visit. Plus I don’t think he actually removed any peoples to build his place, that had occurred in the previous century.

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        1. thanks for this – a really interesting perspective. I agree about both acknowledging all aspects of history whilst also celebrating achievements – there must be a way we can do both.

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