Bonnet House Museum and Gardens
A 1920s oceanfront estate in Fort Lauderdale where an eccentric artist couple lived, painted, and collected for 60 years. The monkeys in the garden are real.
Frederic Clay Bartlett built the Bonnet House on 35 acres of barrier island between the Intracoastal and the Atlantic in 1920. He and his second wife, Evelyn Fortune Bartlett, spent decades there painting, collecting art, and filling the property with animals — including a colony of squirrel monkeys that still lives in the grounds today. Evelyn donated the estate to the Florida Trust for Historic Preservation in 1983. She was 109 years old.
Evelyn Bartlett lived to 113. She painted until her final years. The murals she made for the house are still on the walls. The monkeys she introduced to the garden are still in the trees.
The estate encompasses five distinct ecosystems — beach dune, mangrove, freshwater marsh, subtropical forest, and ornamental garden — compressed into 35 acres between two bodies of water. The house itself is a rambling, hand-built structure that grew organically over decades, filled with the couple's art and collections. It is one of the most personal historic house museums in South Florida.
Located at 900 N Birch Rd, Fort Lauderdale. Open Wednesday through Sunday; guided tours available. Admission charged. The squirrel monkeys are most active in the morning. The orchid collection in the greenhouse is extraordinary. Allow at least two hours.