"Casa Eleda"

 mansion / manor house / villa  Add category

Built in 1928 for Mortimer and Adele Schiff to designs by Maurice Fatio. The house’s name came from the reverse spelling of Adele first name. Because of its distinctive alternating layers of brick and coquina, it became locally known as the “ham-and-cheese” house. Mortimer Schiff’s father, international financier and philanthropist Jacob Schiff, headed Kuhn, Loeb and Co., a firm founded by Mortimer Schiff’s grandfather, Solomon Loeb, and his great-uncle, Abraham Kuhn. Considered the leader of the American Jewish community from 1880 until his death in 1920, Jacob Schiff was the subject of the book ‘Jacob H. Schiff, A Study in American Jewish Leadership,’ published in 1999.
www.zillow.com/homedetails/920-S-Ocean-Blvd-Palm-Beach-...
One enters a foyer on the south side of the house by way of a distinctive front door embellished with carved stone. The foyer features a decorative painted coffered ceiling and a tile-and-coral-keystone floor. A connecting hallway, three steps up, has windows in three coral-keystone arches that offer views of the inner courtyard, pool, fountain and loggias. To the west of the entry, the dining room features a large fireplace and a highly decorative, hand-painted pitched-and-beamed ceiling. A “breakfast porch” and a butler’s pantry connect the dining room to the kitchen, which has an area for staff dining, a staff bathroom, a pantry and laundry. In the basement below the kitchen are a game room and a temperature-controlled wine room. To the east of the main entry is one of the home’s two main stair halls. This one has a beamed ceiling painted with geometric designs, French doors that open to the courtyard and a floor of Cuban tiles. Just beyond are two powder rooms with dressing areas as well as the doorway to the tunnel that leads to the beachfront cabana. In the southeast corner of the house, a library is appointed with knotty-pine paneling, a fireplace and built-in bookcases. Just adjacent is the bar, which has a painted ceiling and decorative wainscoting and hand-painted tiles. The living room can be accessed through the bar as well as through the north and south stair halls. As in the other rooms, Fatio’s love of painted beamed ceilings is in evidence, this one decorated with geometric designs. The floor is covered in wood planks, and the fireplace features a key stone mantel. On the ocean side, arched windows offer water views; and to the west, French doors — with clerestory windows above them — open to the covered dining loggia and central courtyard.
www.bing.com/maps/?v=2&cp=nfdcvm89xb1b&lvl=20.106808674...
www.palmbeachdailynews.com/special-sections/home-loggia...
In 1981 James Sullivan purchased estate and restores house. In 2006 he was convicted and sentenced to life for the murder of his wife Lita.
www.trutv.com/library/crime/notorious_murders/family/dd...