LAKE WALES, Fla. – Even though it isn’t close to Washington D.C., Florida has been home to plenty of presidential history during our nation’s first 250 years.
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Teddy Roosevelt’s Rough Riders, Harry Truman’s Little White House, JFK’s final trip before Dallas. But one lesser-known president made his presence felt in — of all places — Polk County.
Bok Tower Gardens
What we know:
The 30th president, Calvin Coolidge, helped open one of Tampa Bay’s signature attractions: the Bok Tower gardens.
“Our country is giving an increasing amount of attention to art,” Coolidge said during the dedication.
Coolidge was invited by Edward Bok, who wrote, “My dear Mr. President, I can truly imagine no more beautiful or unique dedication to mark what may be your last public appearance as president. No drawing or photograph can give even the slightest idea of the beauty of the singing tower. As you would be the first president of the United States to visit the Ridge Section, I need not dwell on the enthusiasm which would be accorded your visit.”
Coolidge — who took over the presidency six years before — was finishing an administration that he spent cutting taxes, enshrining Native Americans as citizens, and regulating air travel.
“The roads weren’t great, but anybody who had a car from Tampa to Miami to Orlando drove here,” said David Price, the president of Bok Tower Gardens. “We’ve got newspaper clippings that said the gas stations ran out of gas and ran out of food.”
Dig deeper:
To Coolidge, Edward Bok, with his success in business and publishing, represented a do-gooder of the best kind, emblematic of the roaring 20s.
“That wealth being used to create culture and art,” said Matthew Denhart, the president of the Coolidge Foundation, “what Coolidge might call the ‘things of the spirit’ that really give our life so much meaning.”
To certain American conservatives and libertarians of today, Coolidge has become something of a folk hero, representing their talking points of smaller government and quiet foreign policy.
Gov. Ron Desantis is marking America’s 250th birthday by installing statues around the state of people who, in his view, best represent American ideals. In April, he unveiled a Coolidge statue near the Bok Tower.
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“He viewed his job was to produce results, not necessarily to squawk about it, not necessarily go out there and put on a show,” said DeSantis.
The backstory:
For nearly a hundred years, Silent Cal has cast a shadow over the gardens. His presence is a reminder that sometimes silence is your best friend.
In fact, a few hundred feet from where he dedicated the gardens, Coolidge planted a tree that has grown, albeit silently, all the while.
“His remarks on that day celebrated not only the vision of Edward Bok,” said Price, “but also the enduring American ideals of peace, education, and public service embodied in the sanctuary.”
As Coolidge pointed out in his Bok Tower speech, “America had built cities, opened mines, cut down forests and laid out great systems of transportation. It is in only the last generation that our people have been sufficiently relieved from the pressing necessities of existence so that they could give some thought to the art of living.”
Maybe America’s 250th birthday is the perfect time to reflect on that point, during a time where things have only gotten faster and more impersonal.
“Edward Bok gave the gardens to the American people,” said Price. “He left it under their care. And it was to inspire beauty, to inspire doing good things in your community.”
After Coolidge
Soon after Coolidge left Polk County, America would be in a depression, under President Herbert Hoover. Within four years, a new era of politics was underway: FDR’s New Deal.
Calvin Coolidge was relegated to the list of largely forgotten presidents. But if there’s a place to stop and think about America’s long story, it can now be done in the presence of Calvin Coolidge, and the tower to which he gave meaning.
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