Ron McCarty displays a photograph of "Ca' d'Zan" under construction in 1924 or 1925. The photograph is important as a visual record of how the John and Mable Ringling Mansion was constructed during the final years of the Gilded Age. Maintaining the state-owned structure is a full-time job for McCarty, "keeper" of the ornate mansion. Staff photo / Harold Bubil; 8-31-2012.
Ron McCarty, the keeper and curator of Ca’ d’Zan, will lecture on the famed mansion of John and Mable Ringling at 7 p.m. Tuesday, April 12, at the Crocker Church, 1260 12th St., Sarasota.
The event is part of the Historical Society of Sarasota County’s “Conversations at the Crocker” series.
Historical Society members and students are admitted free; while other guests pay $10 at the door.
Ca’ d’Zan, or House of John, was built in 1925 as the Ringlings’ bayfront winter residence. Last year more than 400,000 people toured the Venetian Gothic mansion to see how the rich and famous lived in the 1920s, to learn about Florida history, art and architecture, and to see for themselves how Ca’ d’Zan has played a significant role in shaping Sarasota as an arts and culture destination.
McCarty, an expert on Ringling history, calls the building “Mable’s House” because of the role she played in designing it with architect Dwight James Baum. McCarty will share facts and stories about the mansion that everyday tour-goers never hear.
“I’ll be talking about some great house museums in America and the special importance of Ca’ d’Zan to our city and to the museum world in general,” said McCarty, who has been at the Ringling Museum for 35 years and oversaw, with the museum’s conservator, Michelle Scalera, the $15 million restoration of the Ringling residence in 2002.
“The art museum was essentially John’s project,” McCarty said, “but the mansion, while it reflected the intention of both John and Mable, was really hers. Mable’s vision guided the architecture, the interior design and the gardens, and she also personally did the shopping for all the furniture and accessories. Some decorative features she included on the facade of the home, such as Masonic symbols, honored her husband, and, of course, the grand scale of the home was meant to impress because it was built by one of the wealthiest men in America.
“The house was Mable’s ideal of what a great house should look like and how it should function. She believed it should be used for entertaining, and that everyone who came through the doors should be comfortable and have a grand time. She was a wonderful hostess. Mable had four sisters and a brother and she had guest rooms for all of them because she wanted family to always be welcome.”
Over the years, through research, accumulating photos of Mable and the house and her collections, and by talking to family members, McCarty believes he has special insight into Mable Burton Ringling’s personality and preferences. McCarty also discovered that they collected many of the same things — Georgian silver, antique furniture and art. McCarty is a botanical painter and has enjoyed many museum shows throughout America.
“I feel a special kinship with Mable Ringling,” he said. “And everything I do in the house — from researching original paint colors and fabrics to collecting clothes that she and John owned at Ca’ d’Zan, to putting her favorite flowers in vases in the rooms — is done as if she is still in those rooms, taking care of her beloved Sarasota home.
“I have been employed by the Ringling Museum longer than anyone in the history of the museum,” McCarty said, and have many stories to tell.”
For more information, contact HSOSC Site Manager Linda Garcia at 941-364-9076.
