A single county commissioner may be delegated to broker a deal that would move the historic home of a three-time presidential candidate onto the historic property of landmark Vizcaya, built by an industrialist of the same era and long a county museum. A county committee this week is to vote on deleg ating to Commissioner Raquel Regalado alone the negotiations to move Villa Serena, built for orator and politician William Jennings Bryan, from Brickell Avenue property owned by Citadel chief Kenneth Griffin to nearby Vizcaya. Mr. Griffin in 2022 purchased Villa Serena and a much more modern home next door at 3031 and 3115 Brickell Ave. from businesswoman and philanthropist Adrienne Arsht for $106.875 million, at the time a Miami record for a residential sale. He then said he wanted to remove Villa Serena elsewhere. The chosen site for the move is the farm village on Southeast Bayshore Drive that is part of the property of Vizcaya. The farm village is in the process of being developed with new structures and landscapes, include a large community-based agricultural space anchoring the village. The museum, which is county owned but in the care of the nonprofit Vizcaya Museum and Gardens Trust for operation, has a master plan that includes renovating five buildings in the farm village and is in early stages of a comprehensive fundraising campaign to find support for the unfunded renovation and construction work. Mr. Griffin has pledged a $5 million endowment to the trust to support Villa Serena’s long-term care and public access. The county legislation that would cement the deal comes from Commissioner Regaldo, who represents that area of the county. It would move the home built in 1913 for then U.S. Secretary of State Bryan to an undeveloped space in the farm village “surrounded by a grove of ornamental and fruiting trees.” Space was created in the village when the former Miami Museum of Science building was razed after that museum moved to downtown Miami. The village is the historic property across the street from the main antiquity-filled house and gardens that businessman James Deering began building in 1912 on 180 acres. A member of the Deering Harvester Co., he had an avid interest in landscaping and plant conservation, both of which played a role in the design of Vizcaya. Mr. Deering, who was advised by doctors that sunshine and warmth would help alleviate symptoms of anemia, planned to restore his health at Vizcaya but died in 1925 and left the villa and estate to his half-brother, Charles. In 1953, the Deering family gave the property to the county, with the deed specifying it preserve the historic integrity of the house and garden, which would be used as a museum. Mr. Bryan also was involved in the growth of the county’s real estate stock. He was the best-known spokesman for the sale of George Merrick’s Coral Gables community. Mr. Bryan had been the unsuccessful Democratic Party nominee for president in 1896, 1900 and 1904. At the time, he was one of the nation’s most admired statesmen and orators, building his political campaigns on ending the gold standard for U.S. currency. He had earlier built Villa Serena in 1913, and by 1917 he considered Miami his home. Called Miami’s “First Citizen,” he drew thousands of people to his weekly Sunday school classes in Bayfront Park. He also reminded the crowd repeatedly about how much money he had made investing in Florida real estate. In July 1925 Mr. Bryan unexpectedly died in his sleep in Ohio after his emotional testimony in the so-called Monkey Trial in Tennessee of John Thomas Scopes over the teaching of evolution. Villa Serena now sits on a high coral ridge 15 feet above sea level, with long frontage along the majestic waters of Biscayne Bay. The two-story house was designed by renowned architect August Geiger in the Spanish Revival style along what was then Millionaire’s Row. In 2012, after a scrupulous restoration, Villa Serena was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It was initially priced with the modern home next door where Ms. Arsht had resided at $150 million, with 100% of proceeds to be donated by its owner to charity. The move of Villa Serena to Vizcaya is on this week’s agenda of the county’s Recreation, Tourism and Resilience Committee. If it passes there, it’s to face a final county commission vote Oct. 6. The post Deal would bring a second historic home to Vizcaya appeared first on Miami Today. ...read more read less