My Single Mom Life: Archives

Every time my friend Shell has come down to visit, the John and Mable Ringling mansion, the Ca d' Zan, was closed.
They spent years renovating it, restoring it, to all the beauty and amazement it held while they were alive.

In 1924, they commissioned New York architect Dwight James Baum, to build their dream house. Though Ca d'Zan may translate from the Venetian dialect into "The House of John," the project was always listed on Baum's plans as "the home of Mrs. John Ringling," and Mable was the principal contact for much of the construction and decoration of the interior. The mansion was completed in 1926, and would soon become the epicenter of cultural life in Sarasota, evoking the Venetian Gothic palaces admired by the Ringlings. Lavish parties were held with orchestras serenading guests from the Ringling yacht to the lovely marbled terrace.

Shell and I took the premium tour, that means being allowed to tour the rooms of the house that regular visitors do not get to see unless they pay extra.
It was just Shell and I, one tour guide who was a sweet old woman with a fear of heights, (I'll explain this later) and one security guard.
When touring these rooms, no more than seven people are allowed to go at a time, that includes the guide and the security officer, for safety reasons.
If there were ever a fire at the mansion, trying to get more then seven people back down all 89 steps, would be time consuming and dangerous.

The mansion is absolutely beautiful.
The exterior and interior, are simply gorgeous.
All images are clickable for bigger.

More pictures below the cut.

This solid marble tub is in John Ringling's bathroom.
It is 7 feet long, was cut and shaped into this solid marble masterpiece.

All of the mirrors inside the guest bathroom medicine cabinets, are hand painted with completely different paintings.
Each guest bedroom and bathroom, are different colors and styles.

Mable Ringling had most of the bed linens and bath towels monogrammed with her initials.
She thought they looked better than his.

This bed, called a viewing bed, was in the most popular guest room in the mansion. It was covered with windows on 3 sides, giving guests an almost panoramic view of Sarasota Bay.
The bed was used for displaying the dead bodies of loved ones. They would be laid out and candles placed on all 4 pillars, and then the viewings would begin.

During the prohibition, John Ringling actually had what we now call, a panic room, but during this period of time, he stored thousands of bottles of wine and alcohol in that room.
It was hidden behind a huge steel vault door, and then a wall panel covered it. When guests walked through the hallway, they had absolutely no idea there was another room behind the walls.
They now use the panic room during hurricane season to store the mansions most valuable items.
On the other end of that hallway, was John Ringling's parlor room.
The entire ceiling is covered with paintings of circus type people.
This is a portrait on the ceiling of John and Mable.

The poker table.

One of the most beautiful parts of this tour, was the solid marble steps, all 89 of them that wind up in spiral form, that took you to all of the floors.
We were taken to the very top of the mansion, to the deck overlooking Sarasota bay.

The grounds of the mansion are incredible.
Here is the gazebo of Mable's rose garden which grows hundreds of varieties of roses.

The grounds are full of all kinds of statues placed throughout the rose garden and hidden among the banyan trees.

Here is one statue being completely overtaken by a banyan tree, and the caretakers of the mansion and grounds, have chosen to let nature do what it wants.

It was a beautiful day at the Ringling mansion. I have many more pictures, but these were just some I thought you might find interesting and beautiful.