Bok Tower Gardens

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Alternate meaning: The BOK Tower (formerly One Williams Center), a skyscraper in Tulsa, Oklahoma.


(National Register of Historic Places)
Bok Tower, January 1992
Location:	Lake Wales, Polk County Florida,
Built/Founded:	1927-1929
Added to NRHP:	August 21, 1972
Governing body:	National Register of Historic Places

Bok Tower Gardens (250 acres, 1 square kilometer) are botanical gardens located on the grounds of the Historic Bok Sanctuary, 1151 Tower Boulevard, Lake Wales, Florida, United States and are a National Historic Landmark. The gardens are open daily; an admission fee is charged.

[edit] History

The gardens began in 1921 when Edward W. Bok, editor of the popular women's magazine Ladies Home Journal, was wintering beside Florida's Lake Wales Ridge and decided to create a bird sanctuary on its highest hill (91 meters, 298 feet above sea level). Bok commissioned noted landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr. to transform what was then an arid sandhill into "a spot of beauty second to none in the country". The first year was spent digging trenches and laying water pipes for irrigation, after which soil was brought by the thousands of loads and plantings began. Olmsted planted some 1000 large live oaks, 10,000 azaleas, 100 sabal palms, 300 magnolias, and 500 gordonias, as well as hundreds of fruit shrubs including blueberry and holly. Under construction for over 5 years, the garden was dedicated by President Calvin Coolidge on February 1, 1929.

Today the garden's plantings also include bunya-bunya trees, camellias, tree ferns, creeping fig, yaupon and dahoon holly, Asiatic jasmine, justicia, crinum and spider lily, monstera, wax myrtle, date and sabal palm, papyrus, philodendron, blue plumbago, and horsetail rush (Juncaceae). It is a refuge for more than 100 bird species.

The gardens' centerpiece is the Singing Tower, a 57-bell carillon set within a 205-foot tall Art Deco tower designed by architect Milton B. Medary. Construction began on the tower in 1927 and was completed for the gardens' dedication. The tower is 51 feet square at the base, changing form at 150 feet high to an octagon some 37 feet on side, with sculpture designed by Lee Lawrie. It is surrounded by a 15-foot moat which serves as a Koi pond. Although the tower's interior is not open to the public, it contains the Anton Brees Carillon Library, said to be the largest carillon library in the world.