The Mountain Lake Estates Historic District is a U.S.

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 historic district

Historic district (United States)

In the United States, a historic district is a group of buildings, properties, or sites that have been designated by one of several entities on different levels as historically or architecturally significant. Buildings, structures, objects and sites within a historic district are normally divided...

 (designated as such on August 26, 1993), located north of Lake Wales

Lake Wales, Florida

Lake Wales is a city in Polk County, Florida, United States. The population was 10,194 at the 2000 census. As of 2004, the population recorded by the U.S. Census Bureau is 11,802 . It is part of the Lakeland–Winter Haven Metropolitan Statistical Area...

, Florida

Florida

Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...

, off the US 27A Scenic Highway.

Mountain Lake Estates was first developed in the 1920s as an exclusive residential area created "to attract the nation's business elite.". The developers hired Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr.

Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr.

Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr. was an American landscape architect best known for his wildlife conservation efforts. He had a lifetime commitment to national parks, and worked on projects in Acadia, the Everglades and Yosemite National Park. Olmsted Point in Yosemite and Olmsted Island at Great Falls...

 to design the community. Such wealthy and widely-known people as Edward W. Bok

Edward W. Bok

Edward William Bok was a Dutch born American editor and Pulitzer Prize-winning author. He was editor of the Ladies Home Journal for thirty years...

 (long-time editor of Ladies' Home Journal

Ladies' Home Journal

Ladies' Home Journal is an American magazine which first appeared on February 16, 1883, and eventually became one of the leading women's magazines of the 20th century in the United States...

and Pulitzer-Prize

Pulitzer Prize

The Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...

-winning author), August Heckscher

August Heckscher

-Biography:Born in Hamburg, Germany, Heckscher emigrated to the United States in 1867. He initially worked in his cousin Richard Heckscher's coal mining operation as a laborer, studying English at night. Several years later he formed a partnership with his cousin under the name of Richard Heckscher...

 (benefactor of the Heckscher Museum of Art

Heckscher Museum of Art

The Heckscher Museum of Art is named after its benefactor, August Heckscher, who in 1920 donated 185 works of art to be housed in a new Beaux-Arts building located in Heckscher Park, in Huntington, New York...

), and Irving T. Bush

Irving T. Bush

Irving T. Bush was an American businessman. His father was the wealthy industrialist, oil refinery owner, and yachtsman Rufus T. Bush. As founder of the Bush Terminal Company, Irving T...

 (of Bush Terminal

Bush Terminal

Bush Terminal now known as Industry City is a historic intermodal shipping, warehousing, and manufacturing complex on the waterfront in the Sunset Park neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York City...

, Bush Tower

Bush Tower

Bush Tower, also called the Bush Terminal International Exhibit Building is an historic thirty-story skyscraper located just east of Times Square at 130-132 West 42nd Street between Broadway and Sixth Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It was built in 1916-18 for Irving T. Bush's Bush...

, and Bush House

Bush House

Bush House is a building between Aldwych and The Strand in London at the southern end of Kingsway. The BBC World Service occupies the Centre Block, North East and South East wings. The North West wing was formerly occupied by BBC Online until they relocated to BBC Media Village in 2005, with some...

 fame) subsequently became early "snowbirds

Snowbird (people)

The term snowbird is used to describe people from the U.S. Northeast, U.S. Midwest, or Canada who spend a large portion of winter in warmer locales such as California, Arizona, Florida, Texas, the Carolinas, or elsewhere along the Sun Belt region of the southern and southwest United States,...

" and established winter homes in or near Mountain Lake Estates.

The district contains 65 historic buildings, including two previously listed on the National Register: El Retiro Estate

El Retiro (Lake Wales, Florida)

El Retiro is a historic site in Lake Wales, Florida. It is located on Mountain Lake, off State Road 17. On December 12, 1985, it was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places.-References and external links:* at...

 (today renamed "Pinewood" and part of the landmark Bok Tower Gardens

Bok Tower Gardens

Bok Tower Gardens is a botanical garden and bird sanctuary, located north of Lake Wales, Florida, United States. It consists of a 250-acre garden, the tall Singing Tower with its carillon bells, Pine Ridge Trail, Pinewood Estate, and a visitor center...

http://boksanctuary.org/history/estate.html) and Mountain Lake Colony House

Mountain Lake Colony House

The Mountain Lake Colony House is a historic site within the Mountain Lake Estates Historic District in Lake Wales, Florida. This three-story Mediterranean Revival clubhouse and inn was originally designed in 1916 by Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr., and features pergolas, loggias, and a barrel-tile roof...

. Noted architect Wallace Neff

Wallace Neff

Wallace Neff was an architect based in Southern California and was largely responsible for developing the region's distinct architectural style referred to as "California" style...

, known for his celebrity clients' mansions in southern California (see for example Pickfair

Pickfair

Pickfair was a 56 acre estate in the city of Beverly Hills, California designed by architect Wallace Neff for silent film actors Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford. Coined "Pickfair" by the press, it was once one of the most celebrated homes in the world...

), designed one home within Mountain Lakes Estates, one of his few commissions outside California.

Mission Revival

Mission Revival Style architecture

The Mission Revival Style was an architectural movement that began in the late 19th century for a colonial style's revivalism and reinterpretation, which drew inspiration from the late 18th and early 19th century Spanish missions in California....

, Colonial Revival

Colonial Revival architecture

The Colonial Revival was a nationalistic architectural style, garden design, and interior design movement in the United States which sought to revive elements of Georgian architecture, part of a broader Colonial Revival Movement in the arts. In the early 1890s Americans began to value their own...

, and other "revival

Revivalism (architecture)

Revivalism in architecture is the use of visual styles that consciously echo the style of a previous architectural era.There were a number of architectural revivalist movements in the United States in the 19th and early 20th centuries....

" styles of architecture are most common.http://www.nationalregisterofhistoricplaces.com/FL/Polk/districts.html House lots

Lot (real estate)

In real estate, a lot or plot is a tract or parcel of land owned or meant to be owned by some owner. A lot is essentially considered a parcel of real property in some countries or immovable property in other countries...

  within the historic district can be sizable; as an example, Irving T. Bush's estate covered five acre

Acre

The acre is a unit of area in a number of different systems, including the imperial and U.S. customary systems. The most commonly used acres today are the international acre and, in the United States, the survey acre. The most common use of the acre is to measure tracts of land.The acre is related...

s (about 2 hectare

Hectare

The hectare is a metric unit of area defined as 10,000 square metres , and primarily used in the measurement of land. In 1795, when the metric system was introduced, the are was defined as being 100 square metres and the hectare was thus 100 ares or 1/100 km2...

s).

External links

• Polk County listings at National Register of Historic Places
  National Register of Historic Places
  The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
  
  
• Polk County listings at Florida's Office of Cultural and Historical Programs