Ca' d'Zan Mansion Tour - Sarasota Ringling Museum

welcome to Corazon Corazon is the house of John and that is a running joke because actually it was the house of his his wife Mabel but this was the winter residence of John and Mabel Ringling it was built to the designs of the architect Dwight James Baum between 1924 and 1926 at a cost of 1.5 million its venetian gothic style reflects the Ringling's love of italy which was one of their favorite vacation destinations the mansion was used for entertaining guests including the politicians Al Smith and Jimmie Walker and entertainers from Flo Ziegfeld Billy Burke and Will Rogers so I'm going to go on inside and bring you along for a nice tour of this beautiful mansion here on the shore of Sarasota Florida the winter home of John and Mabel Ringling I thought I'd stop at the tower here and give you a nice view of the front of this beautiful home or what was once a home to John and and Mabel Ringling just beautiful and having been to Venice Italy several times I sure can appreciate their love of that wonderful place in the world it's gorgeous 1.5 million to build this home back in the in the 20s imagine yeah consider evolve out more than that and today so I'm just gonna do my best to walk you through some of the the grounds and as much of the insight as I as I can the price of admission into the museum includes I believe it's the first floor and then if you want to go upstairs and see other parts of the museum you there's an extra cost incurred for for that you can see the beautiful views all the round here you know not too far down the road in Fort Myers where I live is the summer home of Henry Ford and Thomas Edison I wonder if the Ringling's and the boards and Edison's ever got together from bbq's look at that just on the other side of the of the mansion is the Gulf of Mexico look at that not a bad place to spend the winter I'd imagine well as I understand that they have various social functions here on these grounds are taken come up and partake and I should say as I live about an hour south let's go around to the back alright I found my way to the back of the mansion and you can actually feel like you're in Venice Italy I got to tell you more Nimmons on the on the building here for you I'd hold my camera study as I can absolutely gorgeous all right let's see if we can't find our way inside this beautiful home all right the first word that comes to mind when you walk inside this mansion is wow what a gorgeous gorgeous home look at this so when you come in with the price of admission the price of admission is a $25 to come in and it gives you access to most of the grounds and the it also gives you access to the miniature Museum and the other museum and the rose garden and gives you access to the first floor of the mansion here look at this gorgeous yes they're giving up almost it was done by the last question son-in-law in his studio under his tutelage so I'm just gonna walk you through that walk you through the home as I'm able to looks like we're going into the East vault room now I know what they did with all the money from their selling all those peanuts and popcorn the ceiling here you have depictions it looks like from different parts of the the world Wow it's a really beautiful beautiful home this area here is known as the court the architect white James bomb and the ringleaders referred to the central living space as the court this room was the focal point for the Ringling's entertaining yet it savage furnishings were made intimate by introducing overstuffed velvet sofas flanking the fireplace John purchased the crystal chandelier from the old Waldorf Astoria which was to be demolished to make room for the Empire State Building so there's the chandelier that was in the Waldorf Astoria that was torn down to make room for the Empire State Building and look at the ceiling this looks like that would be Mabel right there I think she probably wore the pants in the family like most women and get a picture of him there's mr. Ringling right there happy laughing guy some more pictures probably mrs. Ringling on the right I would imagine Wow looks like a piece of ceramic you would buy over and over in Italy this is the breakfast room you really do feel like you're in Venice as you walk through this this house into their silver this is the valets pantry Tom and Gail McCabe just like the ice box right there all right so I'm walking into the pantry and the in the kitchen here at the home of the Ringling's you can see there's the refrigerator and the 20s I'd imagine they probably used ice this looks like there's a cookbook right here and here's the stove look at this Westinghouse automatic just gorgeous all right would be a staircase going up to the second floors or the upper floors I should say so let's go look at the at the dining room gentlemen nothing at all there the chairs that you see our extra one against the wall but we haven't even more start up under 30 anymore when she bought the chair she had the reupholstered so I really don't know what the original chairs look like this is an early example of machine embroidery done in the United States and when the restoration was being done the facts were left they were just clean they had to show a little wear that they were ordered for the most part it's in good shape they did reproduce the seat material and the print materials all reach out well without some the center of the table or service over from Germany her favorite accessories were told they had holes in the back that extra mode should remain rose water for the petals of the roses in her garbage water in there well if you're coming to the house you have entered the front door over here you would come into the foyer to take you along on the tour beautiful tapestries Tonto up from the della robia workshop and you can go upstairs for the extra part of the tour here the grand staircase the Cadiz on is seated majestically on the edge of the Sarasota Bay having 56 rooms 36,000 square feet and then when the railings were here the staff would hire what they needed for instance I had mentioned the one chauffeur had the six cars to deal with we're told John and Mabel didn't drive so it was busy he'd hire people to come on a daily or an hourly basis and again with the cooks in the maid mrs. Ringling had asked over a hundred people to come to lunch or 40 or 50 for a dinner party taking some copper so they hire what they needed they would not stay in the house seven did live here and their quarters where the south wing will point that out as we get to that point I mentioned earlier that this is painted canvas by Robert Webb and what he's doing here is kind of interesting he's showing the growth of the vineya so he starts in the center with the growing of the grapevines Venice he goes each way you can see the vines thicken they blossom they're growing and then by the time you get to both ends The Grapes of harvest enema neither here rather than just in you know light he shows the progression across the ceiling now the elevator was installed when the house was built it's a quotas elevator said to be the first Otis in Florida not the first elevator but the first office and it does go to the basement and all the way up to the fourth level and she's opening the door there you can see very very beautiful 1920s elevator they're gonna go through and do the rest of the tour and I'm gonna find my way back out front so I hope you enjoyed this tour of the Ringling's home here in beautiful Sarasota Florida would highly recommend getting off it getting off from route 75 on your way down to Southwest Florida and stopping in and seeing this wonderful wonderful exhibit

Channel: Tom Hall

Views: 16,866

Rating: 4.8360658 out of 5

Keywords: John And Mable Ringling Museum Of Art (Venue), Cà D'Zan (Building), Sarasota (City/Town/Village), Museum (Building Function), Tourist Destination, Tourism (Interest), Florida

Id: 5gmZaCED_fo

Length: 15min 57sec (957 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 14 2015