Bok Tower - March 2012
Page 1: Arrival
You get to it by rolling down old U.S. Highway 27, out in the middle of nowhere, a wonderfully refreshing distance from all that Rubber Mouse garbage.
Old Florida.
We went there a few times when I was a little kid, growing up around here.
Nowadays, hardly anybody at all goes there. Hell, hardly anybody at all even knows it exists
It's on top of the highest bit of ground in all of peninsular Florida, and is visible for a surprising distance, owing to the profound low flatness of everything else all around it. Go see it when the oranges are ripe, if you can. Adds a really nice touch to things. The tower looms off in the distance as you approach it, looks like nothing you've ever seen, and has a vaguely sinister air to it somehow.
Lisa took one look and immediately remarked that we were following the yellow brick road and that Dorothy, The Tin Man, The Scarecrow, and The Cowardly Lion would all fit right in around here.
And she nailed it. We were entering Fairyland.
Two hundred feet tall, pink marble and coquina. Exquisite design combining Gothic revival with real McCoy 1920's Art Deco, executed by the best talent of the day. Inside, a sixty-bell carillon. Outside, a ridiculously beautiful botanical garden.
Edward William Bok spared nothing when he had this thing put together, and it shows. The below is lifted directly from their web page at boktowergardens.org/the-tower and describes things far better than I can. I hope they don't mind my using it, 'cause it's right on the money.
Looking up at the 205 foot neo-Gothic and art deco Singing Tower carillon is an experience like no other. Designed by famed architect Milton B. Medary and ornately crafted by noted stone sculptor Lee Lawrie, the Tower houses one of the world’s finest carillons. Concerts from the 60 bell carillon at 1 and 3 p.m. fill the Gardens daily.
Bok, Medary and Lawrie made it a goal to create perfect unity and symbolism in the design of the Tower. The scheme for the sculptures and grille work is mostly birds and plants with a few other forms of wildlife depicted. Besides various flowers and trees, you can find cranes, herons, eagles, seahorses, jellyfish, fin fish, pelicans, flamingos, geese, swans, fox, storks, tortoise, hare, baboons, Adam and Eve, and the serpent.
The colorful tiles found only in the top third of the Tower were designed by J. H. Dulles Allen depicting the perfect balance in nature, species and gender.
The Great Brass Door and wrought iron gates on the north side of the Tower were the masterpiece of Samuel Yellin, America’s premier metalworker. The door depicts the Book of Genesis, starting with the creation of light and ending with Adam and Eve being ousted from the Garden of Eden. The iron gates leading to the Tower were hand-wrought and showcase zoomorphic figures with various expressions and wings for flight.
The sundial on the south side of the Tower was set in place on October 26, 1928. The gnomon, which indicates time by casting a shadow on the dial face, is made with a bronze rod supported by a bronze snake – the ancient symbol of time. The hours are marked by the 12 signs of the zodiac. A correction table for different periods of the year is located at the base of the sundial.
Edward Bok’s Singing Tower was sited at the highest elevation south of the reflection pool, so the water reflects its full image.
Lake Wales, and just as soon as I heard "Lake Wales," I immediately said,
"We're going to Bok Tower," and was promptly met by a completely blank look.
"Bok Tower?"
"Yeah, Bok Tower. One of the bitchinest places on the whole planet, to-die-for
gorgeous, utterly unique, right here in Central Florida, and hardly anybody
knows anything at all about it. It's a Wonder of the World."
As things turned out, Lisa never did go down to Lake Wales to look for a new dog,
but we sure as hell went to Bok Tower anyway.