Category: Art & Entertainment

Bonnet house is home to rich history

Near Ft. Lauderdale’s beach, with its hustle and bustle of traffic and tall buildings, it’s easy to overlook the tranquil, forest-like setting of trees, pebble-filled walking paths and fresh water lakes.

But if you turn onto a side street, you’ll soon enter a setting of nature rich with history, serenity, and whimsical sights. Once you’re within this paradise’s confines, you’re apt to think you’re on an exotic island away from the big city.

Still, tall buildings loom from the distance. The beach and Atlantic Ocean are visible through a fence. A stretch of that beach, the Bonnet House beach, spans 700-feet long.

Welcome to the historic Bonnet House Museum and Gardens, 35-acres of nature, and a house that has retained the character it boasted in the late 1800s into the early 20th century.

The attraction gets its name from the bonnet lilies found in its lakes.

Linda Schaller, director of education and volunteer programs, said that Bonnet House Museum and Gardens attracts a little more than 70,000 visitors a year, and about 7,000 school children a year.

“It’s a great educational place for art, history, and the ecology of a barrier island,” Schaller said.

Many who enter Bonnet’s grounds comment “I can’t believe I’ve never been here before,” she said.

The mostly volunteer-run attraction opened as a full-time museum in 1996, but its history stretches back about a century.

Even when Hugh Taylor Birch bought the Bonnet House site in 1895, the land dates back many centuries, to when the Tequesta tribe of Native Americans fished and farmed on the grounds.

Volunteers know this because several shells indicate human activity on the grounds during that time.

“Further archaeological evidence suggests that the grounds saw one of the first sites of Spanish contact with the New World,” according to bonnethouse.org.

Birch gifted the property as a wedding present to his daughter, Helen and her husband, Chicago artist Frederic Clay Bartlett, in 1919. Weddings take place on the grounds to this day.

Bartlett was an American artist and collector. Images of work from famous artists as Pablo Picasso, Vincent van Gogh, and Georges Seurat grace a studio within the home. In that room, Bartlett not only amassed a collection of art, but painted his own works.

The visual appeal of the museum and grounds includes not only painted works of art, but a menagerie of animal statues, ranging from ostriches to lions. The grounds also contain a variety of orchids.

Stroll outside, and gentle swishing sounds from a waterfall soothes the senses.

“It’s so whimsical and there are so many fun things in the house,” Schaller said. She added one could tour the home and outside grounds three times and learn something new each time. That’s because the many tour guides each possess a specific area of interest; some are antique dealers, while others are musicians and gardeners. Each guide is likely to emphasize one aspect of the museum over another.

There’s one constant: the home’s decorations haven’t changed since Helen Bartlett’s days, Schaller said, who added Bartlett lived to be 109.

Schaller said the attraction’s busy months span from January through April, when 200 or more people visit. During the summer months, that number drops to about 60 people a day, she added.

They come from as far away as China, Russia and Germany, she said.

Visitors also include students. Fourth graders learn about Florida’s history, which aligns with the state’s educational fourth grade guidelines. Third graders, meanwhile, learn about ecology, which meets state learning guidelines for that grade.

Educational and recreational opportunities exist for all ages at Bonnet – “a historic estate sharing the past and building today’s community,” reads its website.

IF YOU GO

WHAT: Bonnet House Museum & Gardens

WHEN: 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday. Closed Mondays and holidays.

WHERE: 900 N. Birch Road, Ft. Lauderdale.

For more information about events, classes, exhibitions and workshops, visit bonnethouse.org or call 954-563-5393.

Teen Poet Wins National Award

by Candice Russell

Karina Benitez, 13, of Coral Springs, is a gold medal winner of a National Scholastic Art and Writing Award. Competing with others in the 7th to 12th grade category, she didn’t feel she was experienced enough as a poet to even enter the contest. But her teacher at Mary Help of Christians Catholic School and her mother, Yvette Benitez, strongly encouraged her to enter the contest.

The title of her wining poem is “What a Tragedy,” about how people can perceive problems. “The inspiration was from my own experience,” Karina said. “There are some truly serious problems in the world, like the real struggles of other people which would be hunger literally, or people who are oppressed and not given opportunities, or were backstabbed.”

Only two other seventh graders won in the same category, a high honor for Karina. She travelled to New York City for the awards ceremony at Carnegie Hall. “It was a huge event,” she said. “Alec Baldwin and Tim Gunn were singing my praises with 2,000 winners on hand. I felt the comments were very personal and said with such sincerity. It was amazing.”

At an adjunct event at the Pratt Institute, Karina got to exchange ideas with other winners and even met Billy Collins, one of her favorite poets. She also enjoys the poetry of Emily Dickinson and Robert Frost.

Karina is the only writer in the family. “My parents are very academic, and emphasize good grades,” she said.

Though her career ambitions are taking her in another direction to become a medical lawyer, she said she would always pursue poetry as a hobby. “I never plan to give it up because it is a comfortable place for me,” she said. “It was always be there and it’s reliable because I like doing it.”

Karina’s circle of friends has been supportive. She also enjoys painting and drawing as another hobby.

Karina Benitez is an example of the hope of a new generation, whose thoughts and ideas about the world have universal application.

by David Volz

As you walk into the Fort Lauderdale Antique Car Museum you’ll hear music playing from the early to mid-twentieth century. As you look around you’ll see a replica of a service station, one from a time when an attendant pumped your gas and serviced your car. But the main attraction of this unique museum is the showroom of expertly restored Packards.

The museum is dedicated to the preservation of the history of the Packard Motor Car Company. There are 39 Packard cars on display, the oldest a 1909 model and the latest, a 1958 model. Most of the cars can still be driven. One can learn about each car on display and its unique features. You can see advertisements for the cars, and gain a sense of how the automobile industry developed.

When Packards were being produced, they were considered high-end luxury cars that were known for high quality workmanship. The cars were expensive and owned by wealthy and famous people. There is a gallery dedicated to the late President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. The late President Calvin Coolidge owned one of the Packards. The museum display includes Roadsters with compartments for golf clubs, a doctor’s coupe with a compartment for a medical bag, and a 1929 645 Dual Cowl Phaeton that can self-lubricate its chassis as it drives. The oldest car on display was built in 1909 at a time when headlights were considered an innovation. The museum also includes a large red truck and a police vehicle, along with thousands of automobile memorabilia items. There are hundreds of dashboard clocks that are hand wound, hood ornaments from all makes of cars, rare carburetors, side lamps, custom gear shift knobs, and many other items.

The Fort Lauderdale Antique Car Museum is the work of the late Arthur and Shirley Stone. They had a love for Packard cars and a passion for collecting them. They actually began collecting Packards in the mid-1940s at a time when these cars were considered the top luxury car in production in the U.S.

Arthur Stone, 90, died in 2010, and Shirley, 97, passed in 2016.

In a quote left by Arthur Stone he said, “It’s the great American love story! Americans have had an incredible love affair with their cars. This museum is a place for everyone to revisit that.”

As you spend time learning automotive history, you may begin to feel part of a bygone era, a time when cars were new and people were excited by the latest innovations. It was a time when going for a drive was an important family activity, and getting a new car was a big event.

The Packard was a luxury car built by Packard Motor Car Company of Detroit, Michigan and later by the Studebaker-Packard Corporation of South Bend, Indiana. The first Packard cars were produced in 1899 and the last in 1958. One of the last concept cars was built in 1956, the Packard Predictor. The brothers James Ward Packard and William Packard and their partner George Lewis Weiss founded Packard in Warren, Ohio. They produced 400 cars there from 1899 to 1903. Investors were brought in and the operation was moved to Detroit where it was named the Packard Motor Car Company in 1902.

The Fort Lauderdale Antique Car Museum is located at 1527 SW First Ave., Fort Lauderdale. Hours are Monday through Friday, 9am to 3pm. Saturday and Sunday, call for hours. For information, call 954-779-7300.

The Museum is available for corporate functions, private parties, weddings, special events, group tours, and school field trips. There is even an antique style bar for events.