Vizcaya – A Multicultural Palace

Article By: Monica Hurtado 
Photos By: Pablo Hurtado 

“Florida is a different country.” 

You would be shocked by how many times I’ve had coworkers and classmates tell me this when I say I’m from South Florida. They assume that it is all nightclubs and bars and highways and beach. If you were to base your understanding of Florida on Hollywood and Tiktok, you would think that Florida rose from the sea fully formed in the year 1980. 

It’s just not true. Florida – just like the rest of the United States – has a history. 

The truth is that Miami is an old city with a history going back to 1896. Back then Miami was just a collection of seaside settlements, slowly welcoming adventurous northerners, farmers, and people from all over the Caribbean. Over the years Miami would also come to be the winter home of key industrialist families who would change Miami forever. What started out as settlements soon morphed into key Miami neighborhoods: Brickell, Little Haiti, and Coconut Grove. These neighborhoods are foundational to Miami culture. There are families that have been in these neighborhoods for generations; building their homes, businesses, and places of worship. As the years have passed, more and more have been crammed into these streets. It all continues to modernize and keep up with the branding of a hot and neon vibrant party city.  It just seems to keep changing. 

Which is why it is almost shocking to find a palace in the middle of it all.

Coconut Grove is luxury. The neighborhood sits right along the water on Biscayne Bay, with old money houses in neat rows and the Ritz Carlton peeking behind the trees. As you drive along S. Miami Ave through Coconut Grove - with a blink and you’ll miss it entrance - you’ll find the Vizcaya Estate, now Museum and Gardens. A home over 100 years old, hidden behind dark green trees and a small winding road, is sitting in the middle of Miami. 

Vizcaya begins with agricultural industrialist James Deering. Needing a place to escape the harsher winters of Maine and a severe respiratory disease, James Deering spent his summers in Florida. He fell in love with the state so much that by the time he turned 53 in 1912,  James Deering began planning his home on Biscayne Bay, deciding that this tropical climate next to the water would be the place that would heal him. The property is vast, 43 acres in total, encompassing a 45,225 square foot house, lush gardens and galleries, as well as an ornate stone barge that sits in the bay. Deering and his designer, Paul Chalfin, were meticulous with this property, pulling inspiration from 17^th and 18^th Century Italy and France. It is evocative of the European estates of old but seems to seamlessly settle into Biscayne. The exterior is white stone, with tall and wide dark wood and iron entry ways with large windows. The inside includes 54 rooms, surrounding a stone and glass atrium that lets the sunlight pour in. The inside becomes even more beautiful with every room and staircase that you pass through. Natural botanical beauty is only amplified by the construction of the home, which takes us from the Miami we know and love to a time we have nearly forgotten. 

The rooms of this house demand its splendor to be admired. Guests to Vizcaya are allowed to view dozens of rooms in the house, including reception areas, tea rooms, dining rooms, flower rooms, bedrooms, and even the bathrooms. On the first floor where, the majority of the reception rooms are, the large multicolored glass doors provide a scenic view of the gardens and the Bay. Every wall and ceiling in the home is ornate and a piece of artwork in and of itself. On the second and third floor you will see the bedrooms. Every room housing a different theme from the one before it. They are opulent, all the furniture expertly crafted and complimentary to the artwork that is placed in these rooms as well. The rooms often come with a plaque that explain the specific theme planned for the room, usually themed around an art period or particular point in East Asian or European history. The rooms are so wonderfully preserved, you half expect to see Deering come in and ask you to sit and relax.

There are two interesting things about the Vizcaya Estate which differentiate it from any other. We first have to recognize how modern it was for the period. Remember that the Vizcaya Estate began construction in 1914 and finished in 1922. Electricity was only beginning to be a common function in American homes, yet Deering made sure to include electricity access through the entire home. Vizcaya is filled with all sorts of then revolutionary amenities; a working elevator, electric dumb-waiter, electric lamps and lighting, water filtration, heating and ventilation, refrigerators, telephone switchboards, a central vacuum cleaning system, and partly automated laundry room. However, these innovations do not take away from the classical beauty in the home. If anything, the innovation merely makes this beauty easier to appreciate then and now. Appreciating natural beauty and looking towards the future.

You will also notice that the home blends multiple cultures into one art piece. The home pulls its’ architectural design from classic Italian and Mediterranean designs. The home furnishings and interior pulls from Italy, France, and China. The artwork originates from both Europe and East Asia, all perfectly situated in a tropical climate. At the time this home was built, these elements had yet to fuse together like this. Walking through the rooms in the home, you won’t immediately recognize that the art pieces and furnishings are inspired by different regions. However, as you take closer inspection of the finery you’ll certainly notice. It’s jarring as it first doesn’t make sense why these styles would all be in one house.  They are different. Different origin and style. Yet it all works together perfectly.  In fact, I would posit that if Vizcaya had not utilized the styles of all of these regions in the home and in the garden, Vizcaya could not achieve the same level of beauty. It would simply be another nice summer home. The beauty lies in the variety and in the detail. 

The United States is an interesting case study in culture. We are too young to have had an established aristocracy as we classically know it. We do not have castles or palaces (except Iolani Palace in Hawai’i, which we hope to one day feature) or historical lines of families. There is no country like the United States, no one else has our story. The United States started with Indigenous Americans welcoming the immigrants seeking refuge from European tyrants. This country continued to grow and change with every new kind of immigrant  that came in. Every new family and every new neighborhood that came about brought another layer of beauty. This American land became so distinct; the entire world could find themselves in this American culture, yet we are entirely our own. The beauty of every nation being represented and blending so seamlessly into a lovely and growing home.