MIZNER’S INN: BOCA RATON RESORT & CLUB

Susan Gillis

DESCRIPTION: This tour/lecture is back by popular demand! Palm Beach society architect Addison Mizner turned the small farming community of Boca Raton into a national sensation with his Boca Raton development project in 1925. Many of the Mizner Development Corporation’s plans never materialized, but his legacy lives on. The most dramatic of his completed projects was the 1926 Cloister Inn, built on the western shore of Lake Boca Raton to house potential investors. In spite of these successes, by 1927 the Mizner Development Corporation was bankrupt. The new owner, Clarence Geist, hired hotel architects Schultze and Weaver, designers of the Breakers in Palm Beach and the Biltmore in Coral Gables, to greatly enlarge the small inn. The newly named Boca Raton Club opened in January 1930. Learn about Mizner, Schultze and Weaver, and the architecture and history of Boca Raton’s “pink palace” in this slide lecture and hotel tour provided by the Boca Raton Historical Society (BRHS).

BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION: The Boca Raton Historical Society (BRHS) was founded in 1972, with the mission to collect, preserve and present artifacts relating to the history of Boca Raton. Since its founding, the BRHS has been the city’s principal agency for historic preservation. The BRHS brings history to the community through a wide variety of programs, exhibitions, publications, and other outreach services.

BRHS curator Susan Gillis has been with the BRHS since 2002. She has a BA in History and Anthropology and an MA in Anthropology. She is the author of six books on local history, including Boomtown Boca: Boca Raton in the 1920s. She has worked with FAU Professor Donald W. Curl to produce the 2008 book, Boca Raton Resort & Club: Mizner’s Inn.

Bonnie Dearborn, a local historic preservation consultant and a BRHS volunteer, will be the hotel tour guide.