EXPLORING HISTORIC BOK TOWER GARDENS ‘SPOT OF BEAUTY SECOND TO NONE’ IN CENTRAL HIGHLANDS
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Written by: Dave Kelly
he beauty of Florida is all around us. We see it in the vastness of the Everglades and the sweep of sandy beaches. But did you know that Central Florida is home to mountains as well?
The Mountain Lake Sanctuary, just outside of Lake Wales, lays claim to Iron Mountain, one of the highest points in peninsular Florida at almost 300 feet and home to historic Bok Tower. Park namesake Edward William Bok, editor and Pulitzer Prize-winning author, was born in the Netherlands in 1863. After coming to the United States at age 6, Bok worked in New York as a young man in the publishing industry, and in 1886 he founded The Bok Syndicate Press, which took over editorship of Ladies’ Home Journal in 1889. Under his
management, it became a national sensation and the first magazine in the world to have over one million subscribers. His success afforded Bok the opportunity to champion social causes and become an environmental activist. As a noted philanthropist, Bok established numerous civic awards. But none of his projects were to impact Florida as much as his creation in 1925 of The American Foundation, known today as Bok Tower Gardens. When it was purchased in 1922 as a 14-acre site atop Iron Mountain, Bok hired renowned landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. and commissioned him to build “a spot of beauty second to none in the country.” Future land purchases expanded the area into the 70-acre garden that it is today.
THE SWEET SOUND OF THE BELLS RINGS OUT OVER FLORIDA’S CENTRAL HIGHLANDS.
Bok Tower Gardens isn't much changed than when Edward William Bok presented his grand vision to the American people in 1929.
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POSTCARD PHOTOGRAPHED BY DAVE KELLY; OTHER PHOTO COURTESY OF BOK TOWER GARDENS
FLORIDA CHARM
