Mable and John Ringling Home
5401 Bay Shore Road
Sarasota, Florida
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John and Mable Ringling
Ca' d'Zan or "House of John" is the waterfront residence built for Mable and John Ringling. The mansion was designed by architect Dwight James Baum with assistance from the Ringlings and built by Owen Burns. Mable worked directly with Baum and his on-site architect, Earl Purdy on all design elements, resulting in imaginative decorations and fine furnishings throughout the "House of John". It was completed in October of 1926 after only two years of construction. With 36,000 square feet, five stories and 56 rooms, the Ringlings' opulent winter home was meant to impress!
Mrs. Ringling worked with artists and specialists developing the interior finishes and marble installation opening the mansion at an open-house on December 1926. She handed out gifts and candy to all the children and hosted lunches for the Boy Scouts tht handled all the traffic and parking situations. Mable Ringling was known for her kindness and love of children and animals. She helped host many public events that involved thousands of children and their families to see the exquisite beaches on Lido Beach, play games and participate in athletic contests.
Mable and John Ringling purchased twenty acres on Shell Beach Subdivision establishing a winter residence with her primary residence on Fifth Avenue in New York City. They purchased the land from Ralph Caples who had acquired the land a few months prior to the Ringling's acquisition from Charles N. Thompson who had designed the Shell Beach Subdivision. The property had a twelve-room wood frame house called "Palms Elysian" in which Mable Ringling had reconfigured enlarging rooms and installing indoor plumbing.
Ca' d'Zan was named one of America's treasures.
To learn more about the Ringling Museum of Art and Ca' d'Zan
Overlooking Sarasota Bay, "House of John" was designed in Venetian Gothic style and became the center of cultural life and social hub in Sarasota. The residence was restored in 2002 and today, Ca' d'Zan offers a glimpse into John and Mable's taste and lifestyle, transporting visitors back to the glamorous age of the Roaring Twenties.
Mable Ringling's rose garden was completed in 1913 while she and John were living in another house on the property. The rose garden is located near the original Mary Louise and Charles N. Thompson residence within the beautifully landscaped grounds overlooking Sarasota Bay.
John and Marble were both laid to rest near this garden in what is called the Secret Garden. The rose garden is surrounded by romantic stone statues. The statues are all pairs of people attired in Italian peasant clothing, engaged in activities associated with couples courting.
A romantic statue bordering Mable's Rose Garden.
John Ringling and four of his brothers (seven in total) started a circus. A journey that extends from John's first year running a circus to the lasting cultural legacy both John and his wife, Mable built.
After Ca' d'Zan was completed, Mable was able to participate more in social activities. She was named to a Chamber of Commerce panel in November of 1927. John and Mable hosted a number of celebrities at their home. She had numerous musical celebrations for her Garden Club membership or Women's Club membership. She was named director of the Sarasota Woman's Club in 1928. The Ringling's even staged public radio programs from their estate featuring musical performances on the Aeolian Organ that was installed in the central court of the mansion. This was to share classical music with the small community and expose them to fine performances of artists they would bring in from New York and Tampa.
It is rare to have had someone so generous, kind and dedicated to a community's enrichment. John and Mable truly established a memorial in Sarasota of a world-class art collection that was given to the people of Florida and to, above all, Sarasota.
Johan Nicholas Rungeling
(1866-1936)
John passed of pneumonia at age 70 in his home on Park Avenue in New York City. Upon John's passing the Ringling Estate was bequeathed to the people of Florida. Once one of th world's wealthiest men, he sadly died with only $311 in the bank. At his passing, he will his Sarasota mansion, the museum and his entire art collection to the State of Florida.
John Ringling was an American entrepreneur who is best known of the *seven Ringling brothers, five of whom merged the Barnum & Bailey Circus with their own Ringling Bros. World's Greatest Shows to create a virtual monopoly of traveling circuses and helped shape the modern circus. In addition to owning and managing many of the largest circuses in the United States, he was also a rancher, a real estate developer and art collector. In 1987, he was inducted into the Florida Artists Hall of Fame.
*The seven Ringling Brothers were Albert, Augustus, Otto, Alfred, Charles, Henry and John. Four brothers were born in McGregor, Iowa (Alfred, Charles, John and Henry. The family lived in mcGregor for 12 years, from 1860-1872. The Ringling family then moved to Prarie du Chien, Wisconsin and in 1875 settled in Baraboo, Wisconsin.
The five Ringling brothers who founded the Ringling Bros. Circuse were Albert Ringling, Augustus Ringling, Alfred Ringling, Charles Ringling and John Ringling. The Ringling brothers (originally spelled Rungling) were five American siblings who transformed their small touring company of performers into one of the largest circuses in the United States during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
After purchasing Barnum & Bailey's Greatest Show on Earth from the estate of James Bailey in 1907, the Ringling brothers were recognized as the "Circus Kings".
On March 29, 1919, the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus debuted at Madison Square Garden in New York City.
Mable Ringling
(1875-1929)
Mable Burton Ringling was an American art collector who with her husband created the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art. She was born in Moons, Ohio. She had four sisters and one brother. Mable left her Ohio factory job and headed to Chicago in pursuit of a husband. There in Chicago, she met John Nicholas Ringling. They wed in Hoboken, New Jersey when Mable was 30 and John was 39 years old. In 1924, John and Mable began the creation of their dream home. Mable played a much larger role in the creation of the home. In fact, the blueprints were titled Mrs. John Ringling's Home. Two years and $1.5 million dollars later the home was finished. Mable hand-picked items for her home at estate auctions and on her travels to Europe. She filled the home with Venetian style decor and several shades of green because green was her favorite color. Her rose garden was her passion and she chose to have her room face her belove rose garden rather than face Sarasota Bay.
Mable Ringling created her formal rose garden in a classic Italianate wagon-wheel design. At its center was a cast-stone gazebo with wrought iron dome and fifty-four cast columns that once supported trellises with European sculptures placed throughout. This is now one of the oldest public rose gardens in the south and an outstanding example of early twentieth-century gardens in America. Mable Ringling became more involved in community projects after their purhase of the Sarasota Yacht and Automobile Club in 1916. This property was located across from Cedar key now known as Golden Gate Point, which the Ringling's also purchased the same year. Later, after the Ringling's started developing Cedar Key, Mrs. Ringling redesigned the exterior and interior of the Sarasota Yacht and Automobile Club renaming it the Sunset Apartments. She enclosed all the veranda's expanding the interior rooms and making a luxury penthouse apartment.
The Ringling's began an elaborate real estate venture buying property ast of town with Charles Ringling as a partner, purchasing 66,000 acres. In 1922, John and Mable purchased Bird Key with the existing Worchester Mansion and Gardens. Then hundreds of acres of property was acquired with the assistance of Owen Burns developing St. Armands Key, Lido Key and almost two-thousand acres on Longboat Key. A charter was developed with John Ringling as President and Treasurer, Mable Ringling as Vice-President and Owen Burns as Secretary calling it John Ringling Estates, Inc. It included electric power and water services, hotels, golf courses and steamboats. It embraced all the essentials for a well-formed resort.
Mable was in charge of decorating all John Ringling offices, where she had elaborate wall treatments, installing master paintings from their collection and beautiful window treatments. It was praised in the newspapers as a museum installation with masterpieces and important furniture from famous estates.
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