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55-438: The property was originally acquired in 1895 by Hugh Taylor Birch, a Chicago lawyer, and given to his daughter Helen and her husband, artist Frederic Clay Bartlett , as a wedding gift in 1919. Bartlett built a plantation-style home on the property and wintered there with his wife and child from a previous marriage, Frederic Jr, until Helen died in 1925. As a memorial to his late wife Bartlett donated his extensive art collection to

110-588: A close friend of Dora. Birch, born February 27, 1883, was thirty-six years old, compared to her husband who was forty-five. Prior to her marriage, Helen Birch was both a published composer and poet. She studied music with the German expatriate Bernhard Ziehn , a music theorist and teacher of harmony and composition in Chicago. She was an avid supporter of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and

165-631: A filming location. It was the Finish Line for the seventh season of the hit CBS reality show The Amazing Race . It also was a filming location for the movie Hoot . In May 2008, the National Trust for Historic Preservation listed the building on its list of America's Most Endangered Places . The same year, the Bonnet House settled a lawsuit against a developer planning an 18-storey hotel nearby. The settlement included almost half

220-526: A founding member of the Arts Club of Chicago, a pioneering organization dedicated to the advancement of modern art. In 1902, the Bartletts moved into their new home at 2901 Prairie Avenue , Chicago. This home, designed by Frost & Granger , would be named " Dorfred House ", a combination of the names Dora and Fred. Constructed just two blocks away from his boyhood home on historic Prairie Avenue,

275-589: A million dollars for landscaping to obscure the view of the new building. The proposed hotel had been controversial, many people both in favor and opposed spoke at public hearings on the subject. Also in 2008 it was featured in the book, Great Houses of Florida . In 2012, the Bonnet House joined the Riverwalk Arts and Entertainment District as a cultural partner. In 2017, Patrick Shavloske was named chief executive officer. Frederic Clay Bartlett Frederic Clay Bartlett (June 1, 1873 – June 25, 1953)

330-562: A more personal endeavor in 1904. He completed a frieze in stained-glass depicting a medieval tournament procession for the Frank Dickinson Bartlett Memorial Gymnasium on the campus of the University of Chicago . The gym was a memorial to Bartlett's younger brother, Frank, who died of an appendicitis in 1900. Bartlett's father, Adolphus funded the construction of the facility while being

385-464: A private ceremony attended only by Senator Albert Beveridge and his wife Catherine Eddy Beveridge and Mrs. Marshall Field Sr. , the former Delia Spencer, both cousins of Birch. For their honeymoon, the couple traveled throughout Asia, traveling to Japan, China and the Philippines . It was during this trip that Bartlett would be inspired to create twenty-one paintings that would be exhibited in

440-601: A romantic friendship that had begun in childhood and ended only when Bartlett married. On October 4, 1898, Bartlett and Tripp would get married in upstate New York and spend the next year in Paris, studying under American painter James Abbott McNeill Whistler 's Académie Carmen . After Whistler's school closed, Bartlett enhanced his painting prowess by studying mural art with the direction of French master, Puvis de Chavannes . The following year, Bartlett and his wife would return to Munich to complete his art education. In 1900, at

495-564: A school teacher and one summer as a clerk in a country store. In 1863, at the age of nineteen, Bartlett moved to Chicago and took the position of office boy for Tuttle, Hibbard & Company, a wholesale hardware business. After earning a meager wage while working tenaciously for three years, he worked his way into a profit sharing, management position within the company. Bartlett was known for working more hours than any other employee, arriving first and leaving last each day. He also developed an organized sales force and handled every order that

550-695: A trustee for the university. In 1909 Barlett completed a series of individual paintings that covered over fifty ceiling panels of the Michigan Room in the University Club of Chicago . Soon after he painted a series of murals—which were destroyed in a fire in 1957—for the Chicago City Council chambers in the new City Hall-County Building . On March 3, 1917, Bartlett's wife, Dora, died after nineteen years of marriage. Prior to Dora's death, Bartlett's son, Frederic Clay Bartlett Jr.,

605-470: A variety of sources, including antique , Renaissance , and 19th-century fine and decorative arts . In the early 1920s, their collecting activities became more focused. Leading a cosmopolitan lifestyle, the couple traveled regularly to Europe, where they acquired a collection of modern art . Concentrating on the contemporary French avant-garde , they purchased works by André Derain , André Dunoyer de Segonzac , André Lhôte , and Amedeo Modigliani . In

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660-467: Is not known, the aforementioned watercolors are in the Art Institute.) The Bartletts' lack of interest in collecting modern American art occurred despite the fact that Frederic was a founding member of the Art Institute's Friends of American Art , established in 1910 as the first organization in any museum to purchase current work by American artists for the collection. This group, which lasted into

715-549: The Art Institute of Chicago . Bartlett was a self-taught architect; the main house is based on his interpretation of Caribbean plantation-style architecture. Bartlett then married Evelyn Fortune Lilly , ex-wife of Eli Lilly , and they continued to use the home as a winter residence until his death in 1953 and hers in 1997. She deeded the property in 1983 to the Florida Trust for Historic Preservation, which maintains

770-546: The Art Institute's American Exhibitions of 1919 and 1920, as well as in his one-man exhibition at the Montross Gallery in New York City in 1921. The Bartletts were a dynamic couple. From like upbringings, they had similar interests and played off each other's strengths. They were fixtures of Chicago's civic-minded elite during the early 1900s. Prior to their marriage, Frederic's art collection focused on

825-781: The Heard Museum in 1929 in order to house their personal collection of art. Much of the archaeological material in the Heards' collection came from La Ciudad Indian ruin, which they purchased in 1926. Frederic attended preparatory schools such as St. Paul's in Concord, New Hampshire , and the Harvard School for Boys in Chicago, however; he chose not to go to college. Instead, at the age of nineteen, he left Chicago to study art in Europe. Chicago's World's Columbian Exposition of 1893

880-623: The Old People's Home , and a director of the Art Institute. Bartlett was born in Stratford, New York in 1844 to parents Aaron Bartlett and Delia Dibeli Bartlett. When he was ten years old his father died and his mother relocated to Salisbury Center, New York where he attended school until he was sixteen years old. He completed his education by attending Danville Institute for one year and Clinton Liberal Institute for an additional two. After finishing school, Bartlett worked one winter as

935-692: The Royal Academy in Munich, an honor that very few Americans would earn. It was during his time in Germany that Bartlett would meet Dora Tripp from White Plains, New York , the woman that would eventually become his wife. In 1896, after completing their studies in Munich, Allerton and Bartlett would study under masters Aman-Jean and Collin during their enrollment at Ecole Collin. They would study drawing under Collin and Painting under Aman-Jean for two years while in Paris. Allerton and Bartlett enjoyed

990-582: The 1940s, provided the Art Institute with the substance of its collection of twentieth-century American painting and sculpture but it tended to overlook the work of the American avant-garde. Bartlett married Evelyn Fortune Lilly (1887–1997) of Indianapolis , Indiana , in June 1931. Following Helen Bartlett's death, the one-time acquaintances reunited in Beverly, Massachusetts . Bartlett was 58 years old; Lilly

1045-513: The 90-minute tour of the site. Evelyn Bartlett had a pet monkey and bought 30 to 40 monkeys to live in the trees of the estate. When a local bar, LeClub, that featured monkeys closed they fled to the Bonnet House. In 2014 at least three of them still lived there. Bartlett's sister Maie Bartlett Heard founded the Heard Museum in Phoenix with her husband Dwight B. Heard . Since 2003, the Bonnet House has sought to increase revenue by serving as

1100-553: The Art Institute of Chicago in May 1926. A portion of the Helen Birch Bartlett Memorial Collection has been permanently displayed in the museum continuously since the donation. During the 1920s and 30's, Bartlett would swap-out paintings in order to add pieces that would be a better representation or example of the work or artists displayed. The twenty-five paintings in the collection are still in

1155-577: The Art Institute staged a memorial exhibition comprising nearly twenty of his paintings. In subsequent years, Evelyn Bartlett would donate many paintings and sculptures to the Art Institute. Her interest in Chicago's art scene continued even after her husband's death. In 1982, the Smithsonian Institution organized a retrospective exhibition of the Bartletts' work that also traveled to the Art Institute. Adolphus Clay Bartlett Adolphus Clay Bartlett (June 22, 1844 – June 1, 1922)

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1210-514: The Bonnet House in Florida. They opened a studio in Munich, Germany and, with her husband's encouragement, Evelyn took up painting. She moved quickly from watercolors to oils and developed her own style. Her interests included vividly colored portraits, still lifes and flower paintings. Her creations bore little resemblance to her husband's murals, landscapes and figurative works, executed in muted tones. In 1932, Toulouse-Lautrec's "Ballet Dancers"

1265-570: The Chicago-based Poetry magazine . Helen Birch was the daughter of Maria Root Birch and Hugh Taylor Birch . After the Great Chicago Fire , Hugh Birch became a named partner in the law firm of Galt, Birch and Galt . In 1872, he would become the first State's Attorney of Cook County, Illinois and eventually move to the area that currently is Fort Lauderdale, Florida . Helen's maternal great uncle, Frank Spencer, ran

1320-485: The Woods , its construction began in 1905 and was completed in 1909. The June 1909 Ladies Home Journal featured the house and called it one of the most beautiful country houses in the nation. Bartlett's children demonstrated success in their lives, Maie married Dwight B. Heard on August 10, 1893. The next year the couple moved to Phoenix, Arizona and begin to collect Native American artifacts. Together they founded

1375-813: The age of 70, Bartlett became the chairman of the board of directors. By taking on this role within the company, Bartlett achieved the ultimate " rags to riches " scenario, from sweeping floors to managing a worldwide corporation. The son of a sawmill operator turned school teacher, Bartlett was an only child and learned to appreciate his prosperity as he grew older. He married Mary Pitkin on August 27, 1867, together they had four children, Maie Bartlett Heard , Frederic Clay Bartlett , Frank Dickinson Bartlett, and Florence Dibell Bartlett . The family set up home at 2720 Prairie Avenue in Chicago. Bartlett's wife died in 1890, he remarried in June 1893 to Abbey Little Hitchcock of Toledo, Ohio . Together they had one child, Eleanor Collamore Bartlett . Hitchcock, born in 1862,

1430-517: The age of twenty-seven, Bartlett moved to Chicago where he rented a studio in the Fine Arts Building on Michigan Avenue . It was here that he received his first commissioned piece of art, a portrait that he was paid $ 75 upon its completion. An active and successful painter, Bartlett was committed to promoting the work of fellow contemporary artists, beginning in 1905, as a member of the Art Institute's Art Committee, and later, in 1916, as

1485-555: The age of twenty. As a memorial to his son, Adolphus constructed a gymnasium on the campus of the University of Chicago , completed in 1904. Frank would have graduated from Harvard University in 1902, while preparing for college at the Douglas and Manuel Training Schools in Chicago and at Stone's School in Boston. During his time in Chicago, Bartlett had several civic appointments as well as numerous philanthropic endeavors to better

1540-454: The business, ironically, prospered. It was Bartlett's persuasive letter writing style which convinced suppliers to maintain their relationship with the company during the reconstruction. After fully recovering, the company continued to grow and in 1877 began to offer profit sharing to all members of the firm, increasing its overall value. In 1882, the business incorporated under the name of Hibbard, Spencer, Bartlett & Company and Bartlett

1595-697: The city and contributed to the original Parliament of the World's Religions , which was an attempt to create a global dialogue of faiths. Bartlett was a director of the First National Bank , Liverpool and London and Globe Insurance Company , a member of the Chicago Board of Education , trustee of Beloit College , University of Chicago, president of the Home for the Friendless, vice-president of

1650-653: The city. He was appointed a member of the Chicago Board of Education in 1878. He was a member of the Chicago Union League , the Quadrangle Club , as well as the Caxton and Chicago Literary Clubs . Bartlett was appointed to the board of trustees during the inaugural meeting for the incorporation of The Orchestral Association which was held at the Chicago Club on December 17, 1890. Bartlett

1705-447: The city. There are five different ecosystems within the property: primary and secondary dunes, mangrove wetlands, a fresh water slough and a maritime forest. The first building completed was the art studio. The ceiling of the drawing room in the main house is of mahogany from a large log that washed ashore in a storm. A motif of pairs throughout the house reflects an interest of Frederic and Evelyn Bartlett. In 1987, 6,000 visitors took

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1760-399: The company received, keeping a meticulous record in a ledger complete with all correspondence with buyers. By 1869, after six years of working within the company, Bartlett was made general partner . During his time as partner, the Great Chicago Fire occurred, nearly destroying the city as well as the company, however; due to the high demand for hardware during the rebuilding of the city,

1815-420: The final donation to the Art Institute. Still others were by artists whose names are no longer easily recognized, such as Lotiron , Beaudin , Waroquier , Pruna , and Marmorek . Among the few Americans represented in the collection were John Mann and Charles Demuth , whose watercolors The Brook and Flowers , respectively, the Bartletts acquired in 1924. (While the present whereabouts of most of these works

1870-484: The first president of the Indianapolis Chamber of Commerce . Evelyn married her high school sweetheart, Eli Lilly Jr. (1885–1977), on August 29, 1907. Evelyn Fortune's father and Eli Lilly's grandfather, Colonel Eli Lilly , and father, Josiah K. Lilly Sr. , were one-time friends. The Lillys had two sons, one born in 1908 and the other in 1910, both of whom died in infancy. Their only surviving child

1925-467: The hardware company, Hibbard, Spencer & Bartlett in which Frederic's father became a partner in 1882. Between May 1, 1893, and March 1920, Hugh Birch and Helen Birch Bartlett purchased hundreds of acres of Floridian land that would eventually become Hugh Taylor Birch State Park as well as the Bonnet House . Construction of the Bonnet House, a plantation-style home, began in 1920 on land that

1980-507: The home boasted a studio measuring forty feet by twenty-five feet with a twenty foot high ceiling. Beyond the studio, the home offered a reception room known as the Pompeian Room , an Italian music room and library on the first floor with the kitchen, a Louis XVI dining room, laundry and servants rooms in the basement along with the upstairs private chambers, including bedrooms and powder rooms. During his marriage to Dora, Bartlett

2035-527: The main house, an art studio, a music studio and a guest house. They are all of vernacular architecture , designed by Bartlett. The estate is 35.4 acres (14.3 ha). It includes 100 feet (30 m) of beach. In April 2015, Bonnet House officials completed five years of negotiations with the city of Fort Lauderdale to designate the 700-foot (210 m) stretch of beachfront property in front of it private so that it can host wedding receptions and other private events there without having to get special permits from

2090-541: The next several years, with the intention of placing La Grande Jatte in an appropriate artistic context, the Bartletts purchased major paintings by key Post-Impressionist artists Paul Cézanne , Paul Gauguin , Vincent van Gogh , and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec , as well as important works by other modern masters, such as Pablo Picasso and Henri Rousseau . After only six-and-one-half years of marriage, Helen Birch Bartlett died of cancer on October 24, 1925. To honor his wife, Frederic presented their unique art collection to

2145-507: The possession of the Art Institute as well as other works from the same historical time-frame. In addition to the paintings in the Helen Birch Bartlett Memorial Collection, the Bartletts' private collection contained paintings by other modern European artists, among them Vlaminck , Dufy , Herbin , Foujita , de la Fresnaye , Valadon , Marcoussis , Severini , and Pascin , which were not part of

2200-597: The president of Hibbard Spencer Bartlett & Company , the company that originated the label True Value . He attended St. Paul's in Concord, New Hampshire , and the Harvard School for Boys in Chicago. However, at the age of nineteen, instead of pursuing a college degree, Bartlett traveled to Europe from Chicago to study art Bartlett attributed the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893 as his main source of inspiration regarding fine art. In 1894, Bartlett, along with fellow Chicagoan, Robert Allerton , would be admitted to

2255-508: The property as a historic house museum called the Bonnet House Museum & Gardens. The estate was valued at $ 35 million, the largest single private donation in state history. In 1988 Jon Nordheimer of The New York Times described it as "an unrivaled time capsule neatly preserved from an era earlier in the century when the wealthy elite could afford a cozy 35-acre winter hideaway in Florida." The principal buildings include

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2310-495: The spring of 1923, they acquired Henri Matisse 's, Woman Before an Aquarium . The following year, less than one year after Frederic succeeded his father as a trustee of the Art Institute, they acquired Georges Seurat 's, Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte . This purchase was made specifically with the museum in mind, at a time when the artist was not yet represented in any American or French public collection. Over

2365-614: Was 44. Evelyn Fortune was the oldest daughter of May (Knubbe) and William Fortune . Her father was president of a group of independent telephone companies that included the Indianapolis Telephone Company; a member of the board of directors of the pharmaceutical firm Eli Lilly and Company from 1919 to 1927; a founder of the Indianapolis chapter of the American Red Cross in 1916; and served as

2420-527: Was a daughter, Evelyn "Evie" (Lilly) Lutz (1918–70). Eli and Evelyn Lilly divorced in 1926. During his marriage to Evelyn, Frederic Bartlett's eyesight began to fail based on cataracts he had contracted. This affected his ability to paint, however; it heightened Evelyn's desire to create works of art. The couple gave up their Chicago apartment on Astor Street and their studio in the Fine Arts Building and moved to Massachusetts while wintering at

2475-735: Was a major inspiration for this move. In 1894, he became among the few Americans admitted to the Royal Academy in Munich . Eventually, Frederic amassed a collection of Post-Impressionist and modernist paintings that were exhibited in several galleries. Florence Dibell Bartlett founded the Museum of International Folk Art in Santa Fe, New Mexico and Eleanor Collamore Bartlett married Mobile Alabama physician, Dr. William Perdue on September 5, 1916. Frank Dickinson Bartlett died of appendicitis while traveling in Munich , Bavaria , July 15, 1900, at

2530-539: Was a trustee on two university boards, Beloit College , in Beloit, Wisconsin and The University of Chicago , where he was chairman of the Committee on Finance and Investment, and vice-chairman of Instruction and Equipment. It was in this position that he produced his most philanthropic endeavor, the funding of The Frank Dickinson Bartlett Gymnasium . The gym was built at a cost of $ 150,000 and continues to be utilized as

2585-598: Was an American industrialist , the president of Hibbard Spencer Bartlett & Company , the company that originated the label True Value . Bartlett was a pioneer hardware merchant and business leader in Chicago . Besides being the president of Hibbard, Spencer, Bartlett & Company, he was an important donor to the Art Institute of Chicago , the Chicago Historical Society and the University of Chicago . He served on several powerful boards in

2640-520: Was an American artist and art collector known for his collection of French Post-Impressionist and modernist art. Bartlett was committed to promoting the work of fellow contemporary artists and was a founding member of the Arts Club of Chicago , a pioneering organization dedicated to the advancement of modern art. Bartlett was born in Chicago to Mary Pitkin Bartlett and Adolphus Clay Bartlett ,

2695-497: Was born on November 20, 1907. Bartlett Jr., who would be known as "Clay", would grow-up and become a talented artist and musician, however; he would unfortunately die at the age of forty-eight in 1955, only two years after the death of his father. Through his son Bartlett Jr., Frederic Clay Bartlett became the great grandfather of the TV actress, Ali Wentworth . On January 22, 1919, Bartlett would marry his second wife, Helen Louise Birch,

2750-588: Was eighteen years younger than her husband as well and an 1885 graduate of the University of Michigan . She died in 1938 at the age of 75 in Paris, France . Bartlett and both of his wives are interred in Oak Woods Cemetery , Chicago. During his marriage to Abbey, Bartlett had Howard Van Doren Shaw secretly construct a summer home in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin . The home was known as The House in

2805-426: Was given Amedeo Modigliani 's Bride and Groom . These would be the final museum gifts Bartlett would produce. In the last decade of his life, Bartlett focused his attention to the beautification of his Florida estate. He suffered a partially disabling stroke in 1949 and four years later on June 25, 1953, he died due to complications from his stroke. He was buried at Graceland Cemetery in Chicago. In May 1954,

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2860-632: Was given to the Bartletts as a wedding gift from her father. Currently on the National Register of Historic Places , the Bonnet House was intended to be the location for the Bartlett family to spend their winters. However, due to their constant travels in Europe, the family would spend summer days in Lake Geneva while maintaining their apartment in Manhattan near Columbus Circle . Helen Birch and Frederic Bartlett were married in Boston at

2915-538: Was made secretary of the company. Following the death of Franklin Fayette Spencer in 1890, Bartlett was named vice-president. On January 1, 1904, after the death of William Gold Hibbard , Bartlett was named president of the company. Under his leadership the company saw the completion of a new, fireproof, headquarters next to the State Street Bridge . In 1914, after 50 years in the company, at

2970-598: Was more active with his creativity regarding art, especially the creation of murals. In 1900, he was commissioned to create a mural for the Second Presbyterian Church in Chicago. After a fire destroyed the church, Bartlett and his friend, Howard Van Doren Shaw , integrated frescoes depicting the Tree of Life and a Heavenly Choir painted in the Byzantine manner. Bartlett followed this mural with

3025-494: Was the final addition to the Helen Birch Bartlett Memorial Collection as well as the last painting acquired by Frederic Bartlett. Bartlett would continue to gift institutions with artwork, although none was comparable to the collection given to the Art Institute of Chicago. In 1942, Bartlett presented the Indianapolis Museum of Art with a bust of Senator Beveridge created by Paul Manship . The Museum of Modern Art

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