Bok Tower Gardens

Yesterday we spent part of the day at Bok Tower Gardens. Bok Tower Gardens was established in 1929, by Edward W. Bok. The 50-acre garden was designed by landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. to be a contemplative and informal woodland setting. There are acres of ferns, palms, oaks and pine as well as flowering foliage. I spotted azeleas, camelias and magnolias.


Visitor Center & Museum where we viewed a nine-minute orientation video.




Before starting our trek of the gardens we stopped at the Blue Palmetto Café. We ordered a Turkey and cheese sandwich with coffee and sat on the café terrace overlooking the gardens.






Analemmatic sundial located in the Endangered Plant Garden showing the time of day from a person’s shadow. Here you see Tony standing on the current month and his shadow is pointing to 11:00 AM.






Window By the Pond. wildlife can be viewed and studied in this natural habitat.

If you look closely you can see a green gecko on the leaf of the fern.

Reflection Pool

The 205-foot marble and coquina Singing Tower is the focal point of the gardens with tile mosaics, animal carvings and custom iron-work. It was dedicated by President Calvin Coolidge, carillon music is played daily.

Next we visited Pinewood Estate. Pinewood Estate was the winter residence of American industrialist Charles Austin Buck. Buck was a vice president of the Bethlehem Steel Company. Mr. Buck purchased 7.59 acres of land for his new home and hired landscape architect William Lyman Phillips. He had nine children but were all grown at the time so he built the house for him and his nine servants to live in six weeks out of the year.

Floor tiles are terracotta,the floor patterns change from room to room. The wall tiles are hand painted, the doors are made out of cypress and they change pattern from section to section.

Powder Room

Butler's Pantry

Cement spiral staircase hidden behind a door in the living room allowing Mr. Buck to quietly exit social gatherings while guests continued to enjoy the evening.

After visiting the first floor we climbed the stairs to the second floor.

This is the only room in the house with a balcony.

The bathroom, with tiles representing Dutch occupations, is the only bathroom on the second floor without a shower as Mr. buck preferred bathing in a tub.

Blue Bedroom. All the wood, hardware and lighting fixtures are original to the home. Guests could push the call button to ring for a servant if anything was needed.