Paris Eugene Singer

(1867-1932)

Paris Singer was an early resident of Palm Beach, Florida.  He was the 22nd of the 24 children of inventor and industrialist, Issac Singer of Singer Sewing Machine Company fame from whom he inherited a fortune and therefore has been described as a "man of luxury".

In 1917, Singer met the future Palm Beach architect, Addison Mizner.  It was through Singer's influence Mizner arrived in Palm Beach on January 5, 1918.  Mizner's first Florida project was transforming Singer's "villa" in which Singer lived until the Everglades Club in Palm Beach on the West end of Worth Avenue (the Rodeo Drive of the East coast) was completed in 1919.  Paris was the president of the Everglades Club and lived there in an apartment constructed for him.  He later planned a hotel called on the Blue Heron on Singer Island designed by Mizner.  It was to be the most luxurious ever built, as part of a large new resort.  It was the largest building Mizner ever designed.  Becauseof the Florida real estate collapse of 1926 and its effects on Singer, the hotel was never completed.  It was known as "Singer's Folly" until razed in 1940.  This also contributed to the end of Singer's friendship with Mizner which ended in 1927. 

Addison Cairns Mizner

(1872-1933)

Addison Mizner was an American architect whose Mediterrranean Revival and Spanish Colonial Revival style interpretations changed the character of South Florida, where the style is continued by architects and land developers, today.  During the 1920s Mizner was perhaps the best-known living American architect.  He believed architecture should also include interior and garden design and initiated the company Mizner Industries to have a reliable source of components.  He was "an architect with a philosophy and a dream".  Boca Raton, Florida an unincorporated small farming town established in 1896 became the site of Mizner's most famous development project. One of his most notable works was President John F. Kennedy's "Winter White House" in Palm Beach.  

The 6-foot-2-inch bon vivant epitomized the "society architect" when he arrived in Palm Beach at the age of 46. Rejecting other modern architects for "producing a characterless copybook effect" Mizner sought to "make a building look traditional as though it had fought its way from a small, unimportant structure to a great, rambling house that took centuries of different needs and ups and down of wealth to accomplish. Many Mizner buildings contain styles from more than one period.  He designed a castle for himself though it was never built.  Drawings as a Spanish fortress style castle were part of his promotional literature.  

His designs won the attention and patronage of wealthy clients who preferred to build their own individual ocean-front mansions. Constructed of stone, tile and stucco his buildings were better suited to Florida's semi-tropical climate (and the threat of hurricanes) than the wooden shingle-style resort architecture imported from the Northeast.  As a result of Mizner, "Palm Beach was transformed"  Mizner "designed with the wealthy in mind".  People "began building private residences on a grand scale". As a result in large part of Mizner, "by 1925 Palm Beach had established itself as the most resort community of the United States".  Mizner's concept of architect was that he did not just design a building, but also its interior decoration and gardens. 

Mizner houses were generally one room deep to allow cross-ventilation with kitchens located in wings to keep their heat away from living areas.  They were built with courtyards on various levels.  Rooms featured exposed rafters and vaulted ceilings, tiled pools and mosaics.  Other characteristic features included clusters of columns supporting arches, French doors, casement windows, barrel tile roofs, hearths, grand stairways and decorative ironwork. 

The Everglades Club

356 Worth Avenue

Palm Beach, Florida

The Everglades Club is a social/golf club in Palm Beach.  When its construction began in July 1918, it was to be called the Touchstone Convalescent Club and it was intended to be a hospital for the wounded of WWI.  The war ended a few months later and it was changed into a private club.  When the hospital was reinvisioned as a private club, the medical equipment was donated to a hospital in West Palm Beach.

The club opened on January 25, 1919 with Paris Singer as its President and member. In 1920, Mizner supervised the construction of a nine-hole golf course and the landscaping of the club's 60 acres.  An additonal nine holes were added to the golf course in 1930. MIzner also built Via Mizner, an addition on Worth Avenue with 11 apartments and 16 shops.  The Everglades Club as no signage. As of 2022, the club deliberately does not have a website and cell phones are prohibited on the property. 

Mizner's design for the Everglades Club was widely considered to be the biggest success of his career.  It helped establish a new architectual style of Florida.  

Singer began his club with 25 charter members.  Two years later, the membership was closed at 500 members.  By 1999, the club's initation fees were reportedly around $35,000.

In the club's first season Mizner received four architectural commissions.  He went on to become America's foremost society architect of his era. One of the club's most famous members was Adolphus Busch, co-founder of Anheuser-Busch.