My brother and I visited the John & Mable Ringling Museum in Sarasota Florida this afternoon.
Me at the back of the Ringling mansion.
John Ringling, one of the five original circus kings of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, was blessed with entrepreneurial genius and through his success with the circus and other investments, became quite wealthy. In 1911, John (1866-1936) and his wife, Mable (1875-1929) purchased 20 acres of waterfront property in Sarasota, Florida. In 1912 the couple began spending winters in Sarasota and later decided to build a home there. Their property included a house built by one of Buffalo Bill’s circus managers, Charles Thompson. The Ringlings dreamed of helping Sarasota develop into a metropolitan boom town and they became involved in the community, bought real estate, and eventually owned approximately 25 percent of Sarasota’s total area.
The couple’s first project in Sarasota was the splendid Venetian Gothic mansion Cà d’Zan, built between 1924 and 1926 for a then staggering sum of $1.5 million. Mable had developed an affection for Venetian buildings on their travels and collected sketches and photos to incorporate into the design of the house which reflects both her and John’s taste and passion for opulence. She supervised the construction of the house with architect Dwight James Baum, designer of several New York mansions.
In the spirit of America’s wealthiest Gilded Age industrialists, John Ringling gradually acquired a significant art collection, including paintings by Peter Paul Rubens, Velàzquez, Poussin, van Dyck and other Baroque masters, as well as rare antiquities from Cyprus. He built a palace for his treasures in a 21-gallery Museum of Art on his Sarasota property. Read more
Looking out of a stained glass window of the Ringling mansion onto the marble tiled patio overlooking the Gulf of Mexco.
One of the highlights was the miniature circus display of how the circus came to life in each town it visited. It took nearly 1,500 people to make it all happen… day after day. This display was 50 years in the making.
Here is a virtual tour of this exhibit
I’ve been there.
The house has so much character.
what a beautiful window, i probably won’t tire looking at and through it 🙂
I just recently started popping in on your site (through Sober in a Nightclub), and was pretty surprised you came here to Sarasota!! Last you’d written, you were going to
Tampa. It sounds like you enjoyed your visit to Ca ‘D’ Zan! John Ringling also built the Ringling Towers Hotel, which is where the Ritz is now, and it was an unnecessary loss,
as it could have been preserved when it first started to decay. Before it was completely torn down, a group of us would go and try to salvage what we could, as there were
no steps in place to save the exquisite Moroccan tile, etc. I have a bunch of it! We have some wild stories about being caught a few times (of course we were trespassing!).
Anyway, glad you enjoyed it, although the heat right now is mind-numbing!!!
The place was very interesting. My brother has been there a few times and he has been recommending that I go there sometime when I’m here. I always planned to but just never made it. Well with him here with me and we had the time we stopped in for a quick visit. I’m not big into art or even large Victorian houses but this place was pretty neat. The location doesn’t get any better than this. We mainly went to see the miniature circus exhibit which was just amazing. And the grounds were beautiful especially the
” rel=”nofollow”>banyan trees. If you’re ever in the area it’s highly recommended as a stop. (Tour $25 which I thought was a little high, but the place is nice)
Looks so ineresting! I love being on your travels with you!
FYI As a longtime resident of the Sunshine State, I would like to advise you that if we have legs that look like that we generally wear long pants.
Alan – If you wear long pants, your legs generally look like that…
Last time I was there, (maybe 10 years ago) the mansion was still undergoing renovations and was pretty empty. The circus museum was fun, though and the art museum was amazing.
Jeeez Jonco. Are those your legs or did you hijack a chicken?
J/K, actually kinda cute knees. 🙂 Show us yours Alan…..