Bok Tower

Florida's Majestic Singing Tower

The Mountain Lake Singing Tower is located near Lake Wales, on the highest land in Florida, and it is surrounded by 48 acres of beautifully landscaped grounds - The Sanctuary.

The Sun Dial which is found on the South Side of Florida's Beautiful Singing Tower.  The Inscription reads "This Singing Tower with its adjacent sanctuary was dedicated and presented for visitation to the American people by Calvin Coolidge, President of the United States, February the First, Nineteen Hundred and Twenty-Nine.

Great North Door of Singing Tower

Mountain Lake Sanctuary

Lake Wales, Florida

Marble steps lead to the huge door of hand hammered brass.  This door is composed of twenty-six separate pictures, depicting in brass repousse the Genesis story of the Creation, up to the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden.

Spook Hill

Spook Hill is located at Lake Wales, Florida, near the Singing Tower Mountain Lake Sanctuary.

Stop on White Line, take out of Gear and let car roll back.

Seeing is Believing

Spook Hill is located at Lake Wales, Florida, near the Singing Tower Mountain Lake Sanctuary.

Stop on White Line, take out of Gear and let car roll back.

Seeing is Believing

Spook Hill - Lake Wales, Florida

Spook Hill is located at Lake Wales, Florida, near the Singing Tower Mountain Lake Sanctuary.

Stop on White Line, take out of Gear and let car roll back.

Seeing is Believing.

Spook Hill is located at Lake Wales, Florida, near the Singing Tower Mountain Lake Sanctuary.

Stop on White Line, take out of Gear and let car roll back.

Seeing is Believing.

Polk County Greetings

Top View:  Bougainvillea, at Florida's Cypress Gardens

Bottom View:  Singing Tower in Mountain Lake Sanctuary

Bok Tower Gardens - Lake Wales, Florida

Two jumbo (6.5" x 9") postcards today.

The Singing Tower near Lake Wales, Florida.  A Symbol of Florida, the Singing Tower rises 250 feet on the slope of Iron Mountain (324 feet altitude), now a Mountain Lake Sanctuary, established as a retreat for man, a refuge for birds and a sylvan setting for the Singing Tower by Edward Wm. Bok (1889-1930), Pulitzer Prize Winner and editor of Ladies' Home Journal.  He is buried in a crypt at the base of the Tower.

Here on Iron Mountain the Indians of Central Florida held their ceremony of the Rising Sun each spring.  A large stone circled by 13 smaller stones, representing the sun and the 13 moons of the Indian year, has been found there.

The Singing Tower near Lake Wales, Florida:  Rises 250 feet on the slope of Iron Mountain and became the Symbol of Florida.  Now a Mountain Lake Sanctuary, it is a refuge for birds in the memory of Edward William Bok, Pulitzer Prize Winner.

The Great Masterpiece - Lake Wales, Florida

Today we have a postcard book, a panoramic postcard and a giant postcard from The Great Masterpiece, an extinct attraction in Lake Wales, Florida.  In 2009 I posted a couple of the images from the postcard book (I don't know why I didn't do the whole thing) but today I'll post the complete thing.

Beautiful Garden View

The Great Masterpiece, Lake Wales, Florida

"The Last Supper" - The Great Masterpiece

Large Cypress Tree at the Great Masterpiece

Historic Fort Clinch at the Great Masterpiece

Mosaic reproduction of the Great Masterpiece

Mosaic Reproduction of the Great Masterpiece

The Glass Blowers at the Great Masterpiece

The Last Supper at the Great Masterpiece, Lake Wales

Spook Hill near the Great Masterpiece

Beautiful crimson Bougainvillea at the Great Masterpiece

Mosaic wall plaques from the mosaic gift center at the Great Masterpiece

The beautiful Court of Flags, at the famous Great Masterpiece, one of Florida's leading attractions.

Fort Clinch - Reconstructed December, 1954 - one of the extra attractions on the grounds of the Great Masterpiece, Lake Wales, Florida.

The Great Masterpiece - Masterpiece Gardens

The Great Masterpiece
Lake Wales, Florida

In a beautiful garden on the shore of Lake Pierce near the Singing Tower is lovated one of the great art treasures of modern times...a magnificently executed 300,000 piece mosaic in which is recaptured for all time the detail and meaning of Leonardo da Vinci's immortal "Lord's Last Supper".

Viewing the huge mosaic in its unusual outdoor setting, the visitor is easily transported to Milan where Leonardo's original painting, ravaged by time and war, is gradually fading from the wall of an ancient monastery.

Europe's most highly skilled mosaic artisians completed the Great Masterpiece in Germany in 1930.  Flown out of Berlin by U.S. Airlift it was brought to its permanent home here in the Gardens of Peace.

Bok Tower

The Singing Tower is located on the highest spot in Florida and is surrounded by beautifully landscaped grounds.  The Sanctuary.  The Tower is built of Florida coquina stone and Georgia pink marble, weight 5,500 tons, and took over two years to complete.  It contains one of the largest and the finest Carillons in the world, consisting of 71 bells the smallest weighing 17 pounds, while the largest weighs 12 tons.  This beautiful Sanctuary and wonderful Singing Tower were given to the people by Mr. Edward W. Bok as a symbol of beauty, and as an expression of his thanks to the American Flag.  The place has been rightfully called "The Most Beautiful Spot in America."

Edward Bok conceived and built the Singing Tower, inspired by his grandmother's words:  "Make you the world a bit more beautiful and better because you have lived in it."  The bas-relief shows primitive chimes - bells rung by hand with mallets.  This room is of coquina rock and marble, with teak wood stairway treads and hand wrought iron railings and lanterns.

The Singing Tower is located on the highest spot in Florida and is surrounded by beautifully landscaped grounds. The Sanctuary. The Tower is built of Florida coquina stone and Georgia pink marble, weight 5,500 tons, and took over two years to complete. It contains one of the largest and the finest Carillons in the world, consisting of 71 bells the smallest weighing 17 pounds, while the largest weighs 12 tons. This beautiful Sanctuary and wonderful Singing Tower were given to the people by Mr. Edward W. Bok as a symbol of beauty, and as an expression of his thanks to the American Flag. The place has been rightfully called "The Most Beautiful Spot in America."

Bok Tower, Lake Wales, Florida

Marble steps lead to the huge door of hand hammered brass.   This door is composed of twenty-six separate pictures, depicting in brass repousse the Genesis story of the Creation, up to the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden.

Anton Brees and the Carillon

This is the room in which Anton Brees, the world's greatest carillonneur, plays the carillon on the clavier, or keyboard, and makes the music which gives the Singing Tower its name.  The bells themselves do not seing but are rigid, and are struck by clappers worked by levers and operated my the manuals and pedals of the clavier in this room.

No brush can paint nor pencil trace,

The charm and beauty of this place;

Where stands a wondrous monument,

The Singing Tower magnificent.

The Singing Tower, Lake Wales, Florida

The Mountain Lake Sanctuary and Singing Tower were presented to the public by Edward W. Bok.  Everything that genius and art could devise have been done to make this garden spot beautiful and inspiring.  On Iron Mountain, the highest point of land in Florida, the Tower of Georgia marble and Coquina rock, rises 205 feet, to have its beauty duplicated by the reflection in the little lake at its base.  Music from the Carillon, one of the finest in the world, enhances the charm that makes this Sanctuary so memorable.