Cà d'Zan: House of John! - The Bill Beaver Project

What Is the Cà d’Zan?

This Venetian Gothic mansion was the winter home of John & Mable Ringling from 1926 until 1936!

What Makes It Historical?

What does an Iowa-born circus magnate have to do with Sarasota, Florida? Well, it began in 1870 with the five Ringling Brothers building a circus, which grew and grew until it picked up an appetite for other circuses! It swallowed up the Barnum & Bailey circus in 1907, followed by the Adam Forepaugh and Sells Brothers Circuses, which the Ringlings scheduled for national tours all through the first World War and the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic!

Three of the Ringling Brothers died between 1911 and 1919, leaving only John and Charles to manage an empire, part of which they ran from their real estate speculation hub: Sarasota! After Charles died, leaving only John as the last of the Ringlings, John and Mable commissioned a magnificent mansion by New York architect, Dwight James Baum, inspired by their many trips to Venice. This, they called the Cà D’Zan, which meant “House of John” in Venetian!

For the next ten years, John Ringling continued to buy circuses until he practically had a monopoly on circus entertainment in America! He was chairman of the board for Madison Square Garden, president of the White Sulphur Springs & Yellowstone Railway, and founder of the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art!

Sadly, he’d made some bad investments. After Mable died in 1929, the Roaring Twenties came to an end. By 1932, he’d been voted out of control of his business and died on December 2, 1936 with only $311 in his bank account. In his will, Mr. Ringling left his home and art collection to the state of Florida, and today the Ringling estate is preserved as a museum and botanical garden!

How Can I #HelpTheHelpers?

Volunteer at The Ringling!
Become a member of The Ringling!
Be a responsible visitor! Please respect the signs and pathways, and treat all structures and artifacts with respect. They’ve endured a lot to survive into the present. They’ll need our help to make it into the future!