The Everglades Club 1991-1992 Members Annual

The Everglades Club 1991-1992 Members Annual[60] pp. 1992 7 3 4" x 5" The Everglades Club is a social club in Palm Beach, Florida. 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 World War I. But the war ended a few months later, and it changed into a private club. Paris Singer and his good friend, the architect Addison Mizner, were visiting Palm Beach in the spring of 1918. Singer decided to

[60] pp.

1992

7 3/4" x 5"

The Everglades Club is a social club in Palm Beach, Florida. 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 World War I. But the war ended a few months later, and it changed into a private club.

Paris Singer and his good friend, the architect Addison Mizner, were visiting Palm Beach in the spring of 1918. Singer decided to build a hospital with Mizner as the architect. Singer had already built three hospitals in France for the wounded. It was during World War I when only war-related buildings could be built. Construction began in July. (The site at the west end of Worth Avenue formerly contained Alligator Joe's, a tourist attraction.) By November 1918 seven residential villas and a medical center had been built on the north side of Worth Avenue, across from the main building. Singer purchased laboratory and surgical equipment and fittings for an operating room. Singer sent out as many as 300,000 invitations to eligible Army and Navy officers, who had to be screened and had to be able to pay their own room and board.

However, World War I had ended, and most former soldiers wanted to go home. The hospital was reinvisioned as a private club; the medical equipment was donated to a hospital in West Palm Beach. There was a main building, eight separate villas, tennis courts, a parking garage across the street, and a yacht basin. The club opened on 25 January 1919. Paris Singer was the President of the club and he decided who could become a member. For its second season in 1920, Mizner supervised the construction of a nine-hole golf course and the landscaping of the club's 60 acres. He also built Via Mizner, an addition on Worth Avenue with eleven apartments and sixteen shops.

Mizner's design for the Everglades Club was widely considered to be the biggest success of his career." It helped establish a new architectural style for Florida. In the club's first season Mizner received four architectural commissions. He went on to become America's foremost society architect of his era.

Singer began his club with twenty-five charter members. Two years later, the membership was closed at 500 members. Eliza Osgood Vanderbilt Webb (1860–1936) was one of its earliest female members. Businessman Jack C. Massey was a member.