1. James Deering was an American executive in the management of his family's Deering Harvester Company and later International Harvester, as well as a socialite and an antiquities collector.
16 Facts About James Deering
1. 2.
James Deering built his landmark Vizcaya estate, where he was an early 20th-century resident on Biscayne Bay in the present day Coconut Grove district of Miami, Florida.
3.
James Deering was born in 1859 in the western Maine town of South Paris.
4.
James Deering was the son of William Deering and his second wife, Clara Barbour Cummings Hamilton Deering.
5.
James Deering attended Northwestern University for a year and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for another year before joining the company at the same time as Charles.
6.
James Deering's name appeared in social columns as an arts connoisseur, socialite, international traveler, and cultural ambassador.
7.
James Deering hosted events for French dignitaries at his New York and Chicago residences.
8.
James Deering built Villa Vizcaya between 1914 and 1922 with visionary mastermind of the project, designer Paul Chalfin, his collaborator companion.
9.
James Deering introduced Chalfin to Deering for the interiors of his Chicago home in 1910.
10.
In 1910, Chalfin and James Deering traveled through Europe together for the first trip of many over the years, in part to collect ideas and begin acquiring art, antiquities, and furnishings for the new Florida estate.
11.
James Deering spent winters there beginning on Christmas Day 1916 when the residence was sufficiently complete and he arrived aboard his new yacht Nepenthe.
12.
James Deering immediately engaged in the Miami regatta season having had entered earlier from Paris by letter his 44-foot powerboat Psyche in all events for which the boat qualified in the January 1917 regatta.
13.
In 1923, he opened the gardens to the public on Sundays, and James Deering reportedly watched the visitors from his balcony, curious about who came, but not wanting to be recognized for his hospitality.
14.
In 1908, James Deering retired from the vice-presidency of International Harvester, as his health weakened, due to pernicious anemia.
15.
James Deering died on September 21,1925, on board the steamship SS Paris en route back to the United States.
16.
James Deering's estate, now named Vizcaya Museum and Gardens, is an accredited museum and National Historic Landmark.