Addison Mizner was not a regular architect. He never went to school for it, and the state of New York and California, where he came from, never officially recognized him as such.
Yet after arriving in Palm Beach after World War I, suffering from health issues, he found himself a catalyst for Palm Beach society in the post Flagler (who died in 1913) era. He came to be known for being the father of development in Boca Raton and has created some of the most notable architectural works throughout Palm Beach County including Villa Mizner on Worth Ave., The Everglades Club in Palm Beach, the Woman’s Club in Boynton Beach, and many private homes. While regarded now as an architectural mastermind, he certainly has another legacy that is less recognized, he was probably a gay man.
Because it would have been professional suicide, especially in the critical realms of Palm Beach society, it can only be discussed today in a speculative manner, but there is quite a bit to speculate about.
Mizner came to Palm Beach in 1918 to die. World War I had put a damper on the business he had drummed up as an apprentice draftsman in California. He was broke and sick with necrosis of the bone in a leg from a childhood injury. When he came to Palm Beach, Mizner found that society was being dictated by one man: Paris Singer. Singer, was an obvious socialite due to his family's prominence in the business world, manufacturing at the time what was the most popular brand of sewing machines.
Mizner met Singer at Gus Baths (later known as the Lido Baths), a popular hang out in Palm Beach at the time off Worth Avenue around where the clock tower stands today. Both struck up a fast friendship, and one can only imagine what initially got them to strike up a conversation. Autobiographies and memoirs written by both men describe the Gus Baths scene and both men seemed to be drawn into its main attraction at the time, Norman Selby, better known as world champion boxer, Kid McCoy (or where the term “Real McCoy came from”). Both men subtly described McCoy as the physically handsome instructor. McCoy was nothing less than straight, but would have been a gay man’s dream at the time (life was not so great for McCoy as he got older; he fell victim to alcoholism, had no money, was accused of killing his wife, and eventually took his own life).
It can be speculated that Singer was also a closeted gay man. Around the time Mizner arrived, Singer had been involved with a female dancer, Isadora Duncan. In her autobiography, she described him as unapproachable, but a good companion nonetheless, and the relationship was probably just that, one of companionship, basically a person to be seen in society with as a couple. Feeling what one might assume was likely sexual frustration, she’d often cheat on him when he was not around. Upon returning from a trip abroad, Singer had realized McCoy had been having relations with her, and he distanced himself. It was in the aftermath of Singer’s relationship that Mizner and Singer became very close. Singer was able to use his society prominence to launch Mizner into being society’s architect.
As for Mizner, after having a few unsuccessful relationships with women in California and New York, he declared himself a lifelong bachelor, which in the 1920s may as well have been coming out as gay since you could never say it.
During his time in New York, however, Mizner did become close to society architect Stanford White. It was he, who was somewhat a mentor to Mizner, much of the foundation for becoming a successful architect later on. In Aline Saarinen’s unpublished biography of White she revealed him to be a very open homosexual for the time period. His letters, while they never mention Mizner by name, describe a circle of bisexual and homosexual people he often associated himself with. Those people included, according to her; “[Augustus] Saint Gaudens, Joseph M. Wells, Frank Millet, Whitney Warren, Thomas Hastings and probably [William R.] Mead.” Nearly all, including Mizner, were associated with White’s architectural firm, McKim, Mead & White.
Caroline Seebohm’s book, “Boca Rococo,” is one of the few that mention that both Singer and especially Mizner were described as having “eccentricities” and very flamboyant personalities. While it seems very well suggested in history that it was known they might have been gay, the word was dare not spoken among society. As with gays throughout South Florida at the time, it was just an activity that happened, people knew it, but they dare not talk about it.
Pop culture has taken notice to Mizner’s speculated homosexuality. In 1999, Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman authored a musical titled “Road Show.” The musical told the story of Mizner and his brother Wilson Mizner (initially played by actors Josh Lamon and Noah Racey) from their adventures during the Alaskan Gold Rush, to the development of Palm Beach and Boca Raton.
While the play was completely fictionalized, it portrayed Mizner as openly gay and while traveling to Palm Beach for the first time meets a young man named Hollis Bessemer who comes from a wealthy family but is estranged from them. Mizner is smitten by the young man who claims to have a strong interest in the arts with an interest in setting up an art colony in Palm Beach. Bessemer and Mizner end up becoming lovers and together come up with the idea of developing up Boca Raton with Bessemer’s wealthy Palm Beach aunt’s financial assistance.
Sondheim and Weidman claim they invented the Hollis Bessemer character but strongly based him on Paris Singer, who is not present in the play. In early scripts of the musical, the Bessemer character was Paris Singer, but ultimately they figured it might be easier to create this fictionalized character than to place too much speculation on two people without any real proper evidence. Nonetheless, by doing so ensured that this musical would be by no mistake interpreted as fiction.
In early 2018 Stephen Perkins and James Caughman published a new coffee table biography on Mizner titled “Addison Mizner: the architect whose genius defined Palm Beach.” This is the first major publication on Mizner to directly shed light on his personal life that is well researched with many well researched anecdotes and stories regarding Mizner.
According to Perkin’s and Caughman’s book, early clues to Mizner’s sexuality come from the time he spent in San Francisco, where he was known to associate with a young named Jack Baird. The two were playful and involved somewhat emotionally, an act that did not go unnoticed by Mizner’s then female companion, Bertha Dolbeer.
Bertha was a wealthy socialite who appreciated Mizner’s good nature but was concerned about his stability and reputation. At the time, Mizner was an apprentice draftsman. He proposed to Bertha, since it would have plugged him into the social pipeline of society. Mizner was optimistic of her response that she wanted to marry him but wouldn’t do so unless he found a better job and made more money. Awaiting her decision, Mizner traveled to Europe, only to receive a telegram in 1904 that Bertha had committed suicide. Mizner, destroyed emotionally, moved to New York City, where the began associating with Stanford White.
Fifteen years after Mizner died in 1933, Alva Johnston began collecting information to write a series of biographical articles about Mizner for the New Yorker magazine. She solicited many of people in Palm Beach and abroad that knew Mizner well and could give her material. Johnston had been close to Mizner when he was alive and saw him as family of her own. Much material came out of Palm Beach came from a series of letters from Alice DeLamar that still survive today in the basement of the old Palm Beach County Courthouse among the Historical Society Archives.
DeLamar discussed Mizner’s habit of hiring many young well-dressed men whom could assimilate into Palm Beach society as companions easily but lacked the necessarily skills to help Mizner build his business. DeLamar described Mizner’s relationships with these men as “psychologically painful.” For example, Mizner made a young man named Jack Roy manager of his furniture factory despite his lack of experience for familiarity with the art of furniture making. Once Jack left, Mizner gave the management job to Jerry Girandolle, along with a new Cadillac. DeLamar went on to describe later of how Addison was rather attracted to a young painter he used on one of his houses, whom was described as a “strikingly handsome fellow.”
Johnston was very protective of Mizner’s reputation and place in history and used this correspondence with DeLamar was a vehicle to understand Mizner’s personality and habits but refused to publish their content directly due to society’s disdain in homosexuality that still very much existed in the early 1950s when she published her stories.
Alex Waugh was another young man associated with Mizner in Palm Beach. The Orlando Sentinel described Waugh as a “carefully reared English boy,” with ambitions of becoming an interior designer, when they interviewed him for a story on Mizner in 1966. He noted in his own 1976 autobiographical typescript, which also lives at the Palm Beach County Historical Society, that he too corresponded with Johnston and sent her several of what she called “amusing incidents” and while we don’t know what they were she felt they “quite unprintable.”
Waugh was 26 when he met Mizner in 1922 while Mizner was traveling through Paris. He was very knowledgeable in English fine and decorative art and Mizner quickly hired among learning he was looking for work. Early editions of The Palm Beach Daily News in a time when society party guests lists were frequently published, Waugh was often accompanying Mizner to such events. Waugh remarked in his typescript how he felt “all doors were open to him.” And, unlike some of Mizner’s other associated men, he and Waugh worked well together and would continue to do so until Mizner’s demise in 1933.
Waugh eventually left Palm Beach to return to his native England. It is unknown whether Waugh himself ever married a woman, or really what he did after he left Palm Beach. Nevertheless, as a testimony to he and Mizner’s strong relationship, Waugh remained active in preserving the Mizner legacy throughout much of the rest of the 20th century often appearing at lectures, exhibits, and talks about the architect until his own death which appears to have been in 1982 according to British vital statistics records.
Mizner will always have a legacy in South Florida for jumpstarting the trend of Spanish revival architecture, of which Alex Waugh was certainly an asset to. We can still say proudly today that Mizner may have a legacy of having been one of the first prominent gay figures in South Florida history.
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