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...Villa Vizcaya Opened Its Doors To The Public

Here's a historic Miami Moment, captured on unique TV news film: The opening of Villa Vizcaya as the Dade County Art Museum.

In a sound sequence I.D. MacVicar, Chairman of the County Commission, welcomes the gathered crowd and introduces the new museum's director, Robert Tyler Davis. Davis turns out to be a man of few words: After welcoming the museum's first patrons and noting that they have received guidebooks, he says, "You're on your own from now on."

Davis gets more talkative in the next part of the story, describing some of the treasures of Vizcaya's East Loggia and going on to talk about the formal gardens.

The second half of this clip is silent footage of the mansion, identified by notes as being produced by NBC.

Built by farm machine tycoon James Deering as a winter residence, Vizcaya passed to his nieces, Marion Chauncey Deering McCormick and Ely Deering McCormick Danielson. Miami-Dade County purchased the mansion and gardens for one million dollars; the Deering heirs donated the villa's furnishings and antiquities.

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This video and audio is copyrighted/owned by the Lynn and Louis Wolfson II Florida Moving Image Archives at Miami Dade College.

This clip is derived from news film in the WTVJ Collection. Accession numbers TVN0076-386-02 & TVN0076-386-06; airdates March 11 & 25, 1953.