365 North County Road at El Mirasol - El Mirasol Entrance Gate

USA / Florida / Palm Beach /
 gate, Horace Trumbauer (architect), interesting place
Remains of the Stotesburys' estate (El Mirasol) designed by Addison Mizner c. 1919. El Mirasol, the 40-room, 40-acre ocean to lake estate built for Edward Stotesbury and his wife Eva. Stotesbury had worked his way up becoming a senior parnter at JP Morgan with a fortune of over $100 million in 1919 dollars! Horace Trumbauer, who had designed Stotesburys' Whitemarsh Hall outside Philadelphia, Pa., was dismissed for the design of El Mirasol shortly after Eva meet Mizner at the Everglades Club. In 1919 Eva Stotesbury had become the recognized grand dame of Plam Beach society. The grounds included lavishly landscaped gardens, an orange grove, an aviary, dockage for the 70-foot yacht Nedeva, and a small zoo. El Mirasol was torn down in the 1950's. The gate was designated a landmark by the city in 1980. El Mirasol was Mizner's first great Palm Beach mansion and it was also, unfortunately, the first to meet the wrecking ball. After Edward Stotesbury's death in May 1938, his wife, Eva, discoverd that his once-immense fortune had dwindled to only a few million dollars and thus her income was inadequate to support her three mansions in Philadelphia, Bar Harbor and Palm Beach. Within the next few years she sold her mansions in Philadelphie & Bar Harbor and began to subdivide the 42 acres of El Mirasol. When she died in 1946 only 12 oceanfront acres surrounding the mansion remainded. The Pittsburgh Company, one of the many coporations owned by the Phipps family, purchased El Mirasol. The mansion was torn down in the mid-1950's, and in 1964 Robert Gottfried developed El Mirasol Estates, a subdivsion of 14 lots.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFG4rKe43aA
Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Addison_Mizner
Nearby cities:
Coordinates:   26°43'39"N   80°2'14"W

Comments

  • To correct a few minor errors in the above description: Even though Addison Mizner was indeed responsible for the initial design of "El Mirasol", a number of other architects were later engaged by Mrs. Stotesbury to make almost endless alterations and additions to the house and property. One of the principal architects so engaged was Maurice Fatio, and it was he who was responsible for the beautiful gate that remains along North County Road. It is not true that Mrs. Stotesbury sold both Whitemarsh Hall and Wingwood House after E.T. Stotesbury's death in May 1938. Under her husband's will, she was given full rights to Wingwood House, the mansion in Bar Harbor, ME, and El Mirasol was already in her name; however, Whitemarsh Hall was owned by the Estate of E. T. Stotesbury, and Eva had only partial control of that ... it was the Estate that sold that property, in May 1943, to a chemical company to serve as a research laboratory. She retained ownership of Wingwood House until she died, in 1946. Its contents were auctioned in 1947, and sold thereafter, but that house was demolished in 1953 to construct a ferry boat terminal.
This article was last modified 13 years ago