Mountain Lake is a private community and

U.S. The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 contiguous ...

historic district A historic district or heritage district is a section of a city which contains historic building, older buildings considered valuable for historical or architectural reasons. In some countries or jurisdictions, historic districts receive legal p ...

north of the City of

Lake Wales Lake Wales is a city in Polk County, Florida, United States. It is part of the Lakeland-Winter Haven, Florida Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 16,361 at the 2020 census. History Early history A survey by W.A. Williams and J ...

Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...

, United States, off the FL 17 (formerly US 27A) Scenic Highway. Mountain Lake was founded in 1915, with major development of the property commencing in the 1920s. It was designated as a historic district (Mountain Lake Estates Historic District) in August 1993. It has also been designated as an

Audubon International Audubon International is a not for profit 501(c)(3) environmental education organization based in Troy, New York. Established in 1987, the organization works with communities, developments, resorts, and golf courses in 36 countries to plan and ...

leader in community sustainability. Mountain Lake is located in the ridge country of Central Florida, and was developed by Baltimorean Frederick S. Ruth. According to the

National Park Service The National Park Service (NPS) is an List of federal agencies in the United States, agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government, within the US Department of the Interior. The service manages all List ...

, Ruth purchased 3,500 acres of "lush land in the richest and most elevated real estate in the area" consisting of Florida's "liveliest hills, lakes, forests, and groves". The developers wanted Mountain Lake to be an exclusive residential area created "to attract the nation's business elite". With proximity close to trains from the North which would bring residents down for ‘the season,' Ruth engaged Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. to lay out 600 acres of the property for the residences and

Seth Raynor Seth Jagger Raynor (May 7, 1874 – January 23, 1926) was an American golf course architect and engineer. He designed approximately 85 golf courses in about 13 years, his first in 1914, at age 40. His mentor was Charles Blair Macdonald, the crea ...

to design the golf course. This same trio of Ruth, Olmsted and Raynor went on to design and develop

Fishers Island Club The Fishers Island Club is a country club located near the eastern end of Fishers Island in New York. The club includes an eighteen-hole golf course designed by Seth Raynor that was ranked ninth in the 2023 ''Golf Digest'' list of America's 100 ...

in the 1920s, while Olmsted and Raynor also designed Yeamans Hall Club. There are some notes in the archives at Mountain Lake that Ruth spoke to Donald Ross prior to selecting Raynor; however Raynor was chosen and Mountain Lake became the first development of its kind. Such wealthy and widely known people as Edward W. Bok (long-time editor of ''

Ladies' Home Journal ''Ladies' Home Journal'' was an American magazine that ran until 2016 and was last published by the Meredith Corporation. It was first published on February 16, 1883, and eventually became one of the leading women's magazines of the 20th centur ...

'' and Pulitzer-Prize-winning author),

August Heckscher August Heckscher (August 26, 1848 – April 26, 1941) was a German-born American capitalist and philanthropist. Early life Heckscher was born in Hamburg, Germany. He was the son of Johann Gustav Heckscher (1797–1865) and Marie Antoinette ...

(benefactor of the

Heckscher Museum of Art The Heckscher Museum of Art is an American art museum. It is named after its benefactors, Anna and August Heckscher, who in 1920 donated 185 works of art to be housed in a new Beaux-Arts building located in Heckscher Park, in Huntington, New ...

), and Irving T. Bush (of

Bush Terminal Industry City (also Bush Terminal) is a historic Intermodal freight transport, intermodal shipping, warehousing, and manufacturing complex on the Upper New York Bay waterfront in the Sunset Park, Brooklyn, Sunset Park neighborhood of Brooklyn ...

, Bush Tower, and

Bush House Bush House is a Grade II listed building at the southern end of Kingsway between Aldwych and the Strand in London, England. It was conceived as a major new trade centre by American industrialist Irving T. Bush, and commissioned, designed, ...

fame) subsequently became early "

snowbirds Snowbird may refer to: Places * Snowbird, Utah, an unincorporated area and associated ski resort in the United States * Snowbird Lake, a lake in the Northwest Territories, Canada * Snowbird Glacier, a hanging alpine glacier in the Talkeetna Moun ...

" and established winter homes in or near Mountain Lake Estates. '' Vanity Fair'' described Mountain Lake in 2001 as an "old, established Wasp enclave in rural central Florida". Well-known sites, the Mountain Lake Colony House and

Bok Tower Gardens Bok Tower Gardens is a contemplative garden and bird sanctuary located atop Iron Mountain, north of Lake Wales, Florida, United States, created by Edward Bok in the 1920s. Formerly known as the Bok Mountain Lake Sanctuary and Singing Tower, t ...

, are part of Mountain Lake.

Historic buildings

The Mountain Lake Historical District contains 65 historic buildings, including two that are listed on the National Register: El Retiro Estate, which is part of the landmark

, and Mountain Lake Colony House. Noted architect

Wallace Neff Edwin Wallace Neff (January 28, 1895 – June 8, 1982) was an architect based in Southern California and was largely responsible for developing the region's distinct architectural style referred to as "California" style. Neff was a student of ...

, known for his celebrity clients' mansions in southern California (see for example

Pickfair Pickfair is a mansion and estate in the city of Beverly Hills, California. The original Pickfair was an estate designed by architect Horatio Cogswell for attorney Lee Allen Phillips of Berkeley Square as a country home. Phillips sold the pro ...

), designed one home within Mountain Lakes Estates, one of his few commissions outside California.

Mission Revival The Mission Revival style was part of an architectural movement, beginning in the late 19th century, for the revival and reinterpretation of American colonial styles. Mission Revival drew inspiration from the late 18th and early 19th century ...

Colonial Revival The Colonial Revival architectural style seeks to revive elements of American colonial architecture. The beginnings of the Colonial Revival style are often attributed to the Centennial Exhibition of 1876, which reawakened Americans to the arch ...

, and other " revival" styles of architecture are most common. House lots within the historic district can be sizable; as an example, Irving T. Bush's estate covered five

acre The acre ( ) is a Unit of measurement, unit of land area used in the Imperial units, British imperial and the United States customary units#Area, United States customary systems. It is traditionally defined as the area of one Chain (unit), ch ...

s (about 2

hectare The hectare (; SI symbol: ha) is a non-SI metric unit of area equal to a square with 100-metre sides (1 hm2), that is, square metres (), and is primarily used in the measurement of land. There are 100 hectares in one square kilometre. ...

s). A significant building constructed in the 1920s by the

Olmsted Brothers The Olmsted Brothers company was a Landscape architecture, landscape architectural firm in the United States, established in 1898 by brothers John Charles Olmsted (1852–1920) and Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. (1870–1957), sons of the landscape ar ...

, the Mediterranean Revival style Mountain Lake Colony House near the golf course is used as a club for the residents and offers rooms for their guests. The House is listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

Notable people

Roger Babson Roger Ward Babson (July 6, 1875 – March 5, 1967) was an American entrepreneur, economist, and business theorist in the first half of the 20th century. He is best remembered for founding Babson College. He also founded Webber College, now Webbe ...

* Edward W. Bok * Irving T. Bush *

Henry M. Crane Henry Middlebrook Crane (June 16, 1874 – January 21, 1956) was an American engineer and pioneer in the automobile industry.Gardner, Lester D. (1922)''Who's Who in American Aeronautics''.New York: The Gardner, Moffit, Co. p. 37 – via Ha ...

* Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. * Charles Austin Buck * Alfred Robert Louis Dohme * Isaac T. Mann * Conrad Hubert

Eveready Battery Company Eveready Battery Company, Inc. is an American manufacturer of electric battery brands ''Eveready'' and ''Energizer'', owned by Energizer, Energizer Holdings. Its headquarters are located in St. Louis, Missouri. The predecessor company began in 1 ...

* Paul O'Neill

References

External links

Polk County listings
at

Polk County listings
a
Florida's Office of Cultural and Historical Programs
{{authority control Unincorporated communities in Polk County, Florida Unincorporated communities in Florida Lake Wales, Florida National Register of Historic Places in Polk County, Florida Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Florida