FREDERIC CLAY BARTLETT
FREDERIC CLAY BARTLETT
Born in Chicago to the family of Adolphus and Mary Pitcairn Bartlett, Frederic was one of four children whose lives revealed a cultural influence.* His father had climbed the ranks from office boy to president of the wholesale hardware firm of Hibbard, Spencer & Bartlett gaining a firsthand knowledge of the meaning of success. After receiving an education in preparatory schools through the age of eighteen, Frederic left for Europe in 1893 to study art. During his seven years of academic training, he not only became an accomplished artist, but also an enthusiastic collector of art and Old World treasures discovered on his travels. His passion for foreign cultures, particularly Munich, inspired a life rich in creativity, romance and artistic expression. Frederic's work as a commissioned artist opened vast horizons and opportunities. Mr. Bartlett was twice a widower and the father of one son, Clay, before marrying Evelyn Fortune Lilly.
THE BONNET HOUSE
Bonnet House is the legacy of Frederic Clay Bartlett's visions and talent which translated his years of exposure to the arts and architecture of Europe into a native Floridian house. Built in 1920, Mr. Bartlett's personal interpretation of a plantation house was designed to promote a gracious indoor-outdoor lifestyle filtered by coastal breezes from the Atlantic Ocean and to express his sense of whimsey with decorative delight. The life and love shared at Bonnet House radiates from within the artistry of the home and tranquility of its thirty-five acre setting. Bonnet House, named after the yellow water lily that once grew in the property's marshland, exemplifies the lives of the families who owned the property for nearly a century.
The marriage of Frederic Clay and Evelyn Fortune Bartlett (1931 - 1953) inspired a sophisicated, yet idiosyncratic lifestyle which fluorished in the privacy of their home environment. Frederic Bartlett's experience as an artist, craftsman and designer was compatable with making his own architectural statement. Evelyn Bartlett's innate sensitivity to color, design and composition blossomed into her talent as an artist. Their individual talents and collections compose the personality of Bonnet House uniquely blended with the natural riches of Florida.
*(Note: Mr. Bartlett's sister, Maie Bartlett Heard founded the Heard Museum in Phoenix, Arizona in 1926 and Florence Dibell Bartlett founded the Museum of International Folk Art in Sante Fe, New Mexico in 1953.)
HAUNTED FORT LAUDERDALE
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