A Dutch immigrant built a 205-foot singing tower in Florida to thank America

Edward Bok’s gift still rings across Iron Mountain

You’d never expect a 205-foot tower rising from the middle of Florida’s flat interior, but Iron Mountain isn’t your typical Florida landscape.

Edward Bok, a Dutch immigrant who came to this country with nothing and left it a Pulitzer Prize winner, built this place in the 1920s as a thank-you to America. President Calvin Coolidge dedicated it on Feb. 1, 1929.

More than 23 million people have walked through since. The story of why it exists is almost as good as the place itself.

From Brooklyn poverty to Pulitzer Prize winner

Edward William Bok was born Oct. 9, 1863, in Den Helder, the Netherlands.

His family moved to Brooklyn when he was young, and he worked his way up from nothing to become editor of the Ladies’ Home Journal for 30 years, from 1889 to 1919.

His autobiography, “The Americanization of Edward Bok,” won the Pulitzer Prize in 1921.

After he retired, he spent winters near Lake Wales, fell in love with the sunsets on Iron Mountain, and decided to give the hilltop back to the country that had given him everything.

Florida made the gardens a National Historic Landmark

It became a National Historic Landmark in 1993 and has been on the National Register of Historic Places since 1972. The elevation alone makes it feel like a different state.

Florida isn’t known for elevation, which is part of what makes this place so disorienting. Iron Mountain rises about 295 feet above sea level, putting it among the highest points in peninsular Florida.

The 250-acre garden and bird sanctuary that Bok created here sits on top of that ridge, surrounded by subtropical landscape on every side.

Coquina stone and Georgia marble built this tower

The Singing Tower stands 205 feet tall, built from coquina stone quarried in St. Augustine and pink and gray marble from Georgia.

Philadelphia architect Milton B. Medary designed it in a blend of neo-Gothic and Art Deco styles, work that earned him the American Institute of Architects’ Gold Medal in 1929.

Sculptor Lee Lawrie carved the Art Deco reliefs of Florida plants and animals that run up the tower’s exterior.

Near the top, colorful ceramic tile mosaics designed by J.H. Dulles Allen catch the light on clear afternoons.

The Great Brass Door tells 30 stories from Genesis

Walk up close to the tower’s entrance and you’ll find the Great Brass Door, crafted by metalworker Samuel Yellin. It shows 30 scenes from the Book of Genesis worked into the metal in remarkable detail.

The door alone draws people who haven’t even noticed the bells yet.

Above it, Lawrie’s carvings wrap around the tower in bands, mixing herons and palmettos with Gothic arches. The whole exterior reads like a field guide and a cathedral blueprint pressed together into one structure.

Sixty bells range from 16 pounds to 11 tons

Inside the tower, 60 bells cast by John Taylor and Co. of Loughborough, England, make up the carillon. The smallest bell weighs 16 pounds.

The largest weighs more than 11 tons. A carillonneur plays them from a keyboard-like instrument called a clavier, using both hands and feet to control the hammers.

Since 1928, the gardens have had only four full-time carillonneurs.

Live concerts happen every day at 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. The tower also holds the Anton Brees Carillon Library, which is said to carry the largest collection of carillon music in the world.

Olmsted shaped these paths around Florida’s own trees

Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. began designing the subtropical gardens in the early 1920s, working alongside William Lyman Phillips of the Olmsted Brothers firm.

Rather than clearing what was already there, they kept the existing pine stands and wove thousands of new trees and plants through them, live oaks, Sabal palms, magnolias, azaleas and camellias filling in around the older growth.

Shady paths wind through the result. A reflecting pool in front of the tower mirrors the structure, shifting with the weather and time of day. The whole layout feels deliberate without feeling designed.

Pinewood Estate was a steel baron’s winter retreat

On the grounds stands El Retiro, also known as Pinewood Estate, a 12,900-square-foot Mediterranean Revival mansion built in the early 1930s for Charles Austin Buck, a vice president at Bethlehem Steel.

Architect Charles Wait designed it with barrel-tile roofs, thick walls, carved doors and wrought iron details throughout. William Lyman Phillips of the Olmsted Brothers firm laid out the landscape.

The estate joined the Bok Tower Gardens property in 1970 and earned its own listing on the National Register of Historic Places in 1985. Tours are available for an additional fee.

Ancient sea fossils hide along the Pine Ridge trails

The Pine Ridge Preserve covers 100 acres of longleaf pine and turkey oak sandhill, one of Florida’s most endangered ecosystems.

A three-quarter-mile nature trail winds through it, and a longer 1.5-mile preserve trail connects the main entrance to the Visitor Center.

Look closely along the pebble-lined paths and you’ll find fossils of ancient sea creatures.

The Lake Wales Ridge sat as an island about 100,000 years ago, when sea levels ran much higher, and those fossils are left over from when this hilltop was shoreline.

Gopher tortoises here shelter 350 other animal species

More than 100 bird species move through Bok Tower Gardens, among them American kestrels, pileated woodpeckers and Bachman’s sparrows.

At ground level, the property supports gopher tortoises, eastern indigo snakes and Florida mice, all at-risk species.

The gopher tortoise digs burrows deep enough to shelter more than 350 other animal species, making each one a small ecosystem on its own.

The Endangered Plant Garden holds about 30 rare Florida species, and the Rare Plant Conservation Program works to reintroduce native sandhill plants, including the Florida Ziziphus, a plant once thought completely extinct until six populations turned up in 1987.

Kids can climb into a giant bird’s nest here

Hammock Hollow is the children’s garden, and it’s included with general admission.

Kids can sit in a giant bird’s nest, climb a spider-web play structure, and walk through a giant indigo snake sculpture.

Water play areas and a performance stage fill out the space, along with tuned acoustic instruments that let younger visitors make their own music, tied to the same carillon heritage the tower carries.

The Alexander Discovery Center at the garden’s entrance runs educational programs and handles school field trips throughout the year.

Edward Bok is buried at the foot of the tower he built

Edward Bok died Jan. 9, 1930, less than a year after the dedication, and he is buried in front of the Singing Tower’s Great Brass Door.

His neighbors funded a curved marble bench, called an exedra, in his honor, carved from the same marble as the tower.

The dedication plaque describes the sanctuary’s purpose plainly: a retreat of beauty for people and a refuge for birds.

The bells still ring twice a day, the trails still wind through the old pines, and the place still does exactly what he asked it to do.

Visit Bok Tower Gardens in Lake Wales, Florida

You’ll find Bok Tower Gardens at 1151 Tower Blvd. in Lake Wales, Florida, roughly halfway between Tampa and Orlando.

The gardens open daily at 8 a.m. with last admission at 5 p.m. and closing at 6 p.m., except on Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day.

Carillon concerts happen every day at 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. Pinewood Estate mansion tours cost extra, so check ahead for availability.

The gardens sit on the Great Florida Birding Trail, and two easy walking trails cover the natural sandhill landscape.

This article was created with AI assistance and human editing.

Read more from this brand:

• Florida doesn’t do mountains, so why is there a 205-foot marble tower ringing above the palms?
• America’s oldest masonry fort is made of shells and it’s in St. Augustine, Florida
• Why Central Florida locals skip Disney and float a 68-degree spring instead