James Deering possessed a massive fortune from the Deering McCormick-International Harvester empire. In 1912, he commenced construction on a villa along the shoreline of Biscayne Bay. He acted as a conservationist by leaving the inland tropical forests alone and restricting his construction to the shore. He officially began occupancy on Christmas Day 1916, arriving via his yacht, Nepenthe. The villa was built primarily between 1914 and 1922, while construction of the Italian Renaissance gardens and village continued into 1923.
Deering designated the estate Vizcaya as a nod to the Basque province of Biscay. He believed the name commemorated an early Spaniard named Vizcaya, although records show the explorer he intended to honor was actually Sebastián Vizcaíno. He installed a representation of the mythical explorer Bel Vizcaya at the entrance and adopted the caravel, a ship style from the Age of Exploration, as the estate's emblem.
The architecture is designed in the Mediterranean Revival style with Baroque elements, designed by F. Burrall Hoffman with associate architect Iwahiko Tsumanuma and design director Paul Chalfin. The design was influenced by Veneto and Tuscan Italian Renaissance models, combining these with Cuban limestone and Floridian coral. The gardens are a masterpiece of mazes, theaters, and fountains. The gardens used native plants like palms and philodendrons which were not present in the original Tuscan or Île-de-France gardens being emulated.
Miami-Dade County currently owns the property, which is open to the public as the Vizcaya Museum and Gardens. The Vizcaya Station of the Miami Metrorail serves the location of the estate.
Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons
Written by Kyle McLonely
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