Bok Tower Gardens
Rising from the highest point in the Florida peninsula, the Bok Tower’s Gothic-Art Deco carillon spire of Georgia marble and coquina stone has sounded across the central Florida landscape since President Calvin Coolidge dedicated it on February 1, 1929, a monument to public beauty commissioned by the Dutch-American publisher Edward W. Bok.
At a glance
The Bok Tower, set within a landscape garden designed by Frederick Law Olmsted Jr., stands on Iron Mountain near Lake Wales — one of the highest elevations in peninsular Florida, at approximately 295 feet above sea level. The 205-foot carillon tower, completed in 1929 to designs by Philadelphia architect Milton B. Medary, combines Gothic architectural vocabulary with Art Deco ornamental carving in pink and gray coquina stone and Georgia marble. Its 60-bell carillon (now expanded to 71 bells) sounds daily across the surrounding gardens, which extend to 250 acres of pine forests, ferns, and reflecting pools. The site was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1993 and remains one of the most significant works of landscape architecture and architectural patronage in the American South.
Key facts
- Location: 1151 Tower Boulevard, Lake Wales, Polk County, Florida
- Architect: Milton B. Medary (of Zantzinger, Borie & Medary, Philadelphia)
- Landscape: Frederick Law Olmsted Jr.
- Patron: Edward W. Bok (1863–1930), publisher and Pulitzer Prize winner
- Dedicated: February 1, 1929, by President Calvin Coolidge
- Tower height: 205 feet (62 m); coquina stone and Georgia marble
- Carillon: 71 bells; daily recitals at 1:00 and 3:00 PM
- Status: National Historic Landmark (1993)
History
Edward William Bok was born in the Netherlands in 1863 and immigrated to the United States as a child, eventually becoming editor of the Ladies’ Home Journal for thirty years and a Pulitzer Prize-winning author. Late in life, having retired to Mountain Lake, Florida, he resolved to give something beautiful back to the country that had given him success. He purchased Iron Mountain and commissioned a carillon tower that would sound music across the landscape as a gift to the American public, open free of charge.
Milton B. Medary, the senior partner of the Philadelphia firm Zantzinger, Borie & Medary, designed the tower in a style that drew on the Gothic traditions of English and French cathedrals while incorporating the Art Deco ornamental programme that had emerged from the 1925 Paris Exposition. The stone carving, executed in pink coquina stone quarried in Florida and gray Georgia marble, features stylised birds, flora, and water motifs suited to the natural Florida setting — alligators, herons, deer, and magnolia blossoms appear among the carved panels. The reflective moat at the tower’s base, and the formal approach designed by Olmsted, amplify the tower’s apparent height and anchor it in the landscape.
President Calvin Coolidge travelled to Lake Wales for the dedication on February 1, 1929. Edward Bok, whose health was failing, attended the ceremony but died the following year. His ashes are interred in a memorial garden on the grounds. The carillon was first rung on the day of dedication, and daily concerts have continued ever since. The site is now administered by Bok Tower Gardens Foundation, which maintains the horticultural collections and the carillon programme.
What you see
The tower is visible from a considerable distance across the flat Florida landscape, its pale stone catching the subtropical light in the early morning and at sunset. The approach through the Olmsted landscape — along shaded paths through pine and palmetto, past reflecting pools where ibis feed — was designed to build anticipation of the tower’s first full appearance. At the base, the iron entry gate designed by Samuel Yellin, the master blacksmith who worked on many of the major American buildings of the 1920s, is a benchmark of American decorative metalwork.
The carved stone panels on the tower exterior reward close examination: the Gothic lancet windows, the ornamental buttresses, and the carved reliefs represent months of work by skilled craftsmen in a vocabulary that moves between Gothic ecclesiastical and Art Deco secular decoration. Inside the tower, the carillon bells are audible rather than visible; the weekly bell concerts on Sundays, and the daily 1:00 PM and 3:00 PM recitals, fill the landscape for half a mile in every direction.
Practical information
- Open: Daily, 8:00 AM to 6:00 PM (last admission 5:00 PM).
- Admission: Fee charged; tickets available at the gate or online.
- Carillon concerts: Daily at 1:00 PM and 3:00 PM; Sunday recitals at 1:00 PM (45 minutes).
- Café: Blue Palmetto Café on-site for light meals and refreshments.
- Walking shoes: Gravel and root-crossed paths through the garden; allow 1.5–2 hours.
- Photography: Tripods permitted; restricted only inside the visitor centre during events.
Getting there
Bok Tower Gardens is at 1151 Tower Boulevard, Lake Wales, Polk County, Florida, approximately 55 miles southwest of Orlando and 45 miles east of Tampa. The site is not served by public transit and is most easily reached by car: from Interstate 4, take Exit 55 to US-27 South, then follow signs toward Lake Wales and Bok Tower Gardens (the final approach is on County Road 17A). Parking is free. The nearest airport is Orlando International (MCO), approximately 50 miles northeast.
Nearby
- Historic Bok Sanctuary Village — The small historic district of Lake Wales, with Craftsman-era buildings, is a five-minute drive from the gardens.
- Spook Hill, Lake Wales — The famous optical-illusion slope where cars appear to roll uphill, a Florida folk landmark two miles from the gardens.
- Legoland Florida, Winter Haven — Family theme park on the site of the former Cypress Gardens (one of Florida’s earliest botanical attractions), twelve miles north.
- Tampa Bay — Tampa and St. Petersburg, with Vizcaya-era architecture, craft distilleries, and the Dali Museum, are approximately 45 miles west.
Sources
- National Park Service, National Historic Landmark nomination: Bok Tower Gardens, 1993.
- Bok Tower Gardens Foundation. The Tower and the Garden. Official visitor guide, Lake Wales, 2020.
- Bok, Edward W. The Americanization of Edward Bok. Scribner, 1920. (Pulitzer Prize, 1921)
- Taves, Brian. “Milton B. Medary and the Bok Singing Tower.” Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, 2002.
- Wikipedia, “Bok Tower Gardens,” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bok_Tower_Gardens.
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