Great Houses of Florida

This book should be titled The Great Houses of Dade County. Once the writers finally get north of Fort Lauderdale the text, written like a critique in the Miami Herald, starts to get interesting. The obvious omission of Henry Flagler's Whitehall in Palm Beach seems both intentional and bizarre. The last minute inclusion of a few houses in North Florida seems haphazard and once again poorly researched and written. Lets hope that some day more competent authors will address this important chapter in Florida history.

This book, like the Great Houses of the Hudson River Valley, is well done and nicely put to together. It's not a great book, like, Great Houses of Long Island, but it's well worth a look. It covers most of Florida's famous houses, most importantly, James Deering's Viscaya. Really any discussion on great houses in Florida, begins and ends with this Coconut Grove Icon. The text is informative, not exactly scholarly, but informative, none the less. The images are vivid and well presented. If you have any interest in Florida or interesting, often spectacular houses, then I believe you will be pleased with this book.