Bonnet House’s future unclear as two sides battle for control

The Florida Trust for Historic Preservation announced Thursday its intent to take over the historic Bonnet House, kicking off a fight for control of the beachfront, community treasure.

The 35-acre estate, spanning from the Intracoastal Waterway to the Atlantic Ocean, offers visitors a slice of what life was like before developers reshaped the Fort Lauderdale shoreline. Swans float in the pond and monkeys play in the tree limbs outside the 1920s Bonnet House, and orchids beautify the natural landscape.

But a bitter battle over development and dollars has thrown the estate — and its operations — into uncertainty. The Florida Trust sent a certified letter Thursday alerting the nonprofit Bonnet House Inc. that it will be ousted after nearly three decades running the museum and gardens, at 900 N. Birch Road, a bit south of Sunrise Boulevard.

“I was shocked,” a shaken Bonnet House CEO Patrick Shavloske said Friday, calling himself “disheartened and disappointed.”

The dispute cast a question mark over the Old Florida tourist attraction, which holds a spot on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places, hosts 70,000 visitors a year and is booked by many brides and grooms. For now, the Bonnet House will operate as usual, and both sides said they hope not to interrupt the public’s enjoyment of it as the feud plays out. But no one is sure what might happen.

“I’m going to get up every morning and do my very best to operate Bonnet House as a professional organization and as a cultural asset for the community,” Shavloske said, after fielding phone calls all morning from supporters — and one mother of a concerned bride. He intends to honor all booked events, he said. The estate generates a large portion of its budget hosting weddings and events, and he worried about the effect of the news.

The idyllic acreage has a full calendar of outdoor concerts, tours, orchid potting lessons, watercolor and acrylic workshops and much more.

“Be magically transported to the beginning of the 20th Century and the days of gracious living, charm and whimsy when Florida was one of the nation’s last frontier outposts,” the tourist attraction’s website touts.

The Florida Trust, which owns the estate, said it wanted a more active role. Its move was also motivated by fears that Bonnet House Inc. would attempt to develop part of the land, Florida Trust Executive Director Melissa Wyllie said. Bonnet House Inc. countered that the fight is over money: The Bonnet House wanted to stop sending part of its revenue to the Florida Trust each year, believing it violated the intent of the estate’s owner.

The Trust’s decision starts a 180-day period in which management would be transferred, Wyllie said.

“What our board would like is for them to say we understand, [and that] we, too, want what’s best for the Bonnet House,” Wyllie said from Tallahassee.

Friday, a seamless transition appeared unlikely.

“I do not believe that we would turn it over to the Florida Trust,” lawyer-lobbyist Stephanie Toothaker said. “As one of the executive board members, I have no intention of stepping aside.”

The Trust doesn’t have the staff to operate the Bonnet House estate but hopes to keep as many of the current employees as possible, as well as the many volunteers.

“There’s such expertise there we don’t want to lose,” Wyllie said.

Artist Frederic Clay Bartlett and his second wife, Helen Louise Birch — daughter of Hugh Taylor Birch — began construction of the Bonnet House in 1920. His third wife, Evelyn Fortune Bartlett, donated it to the Florida Trust in 1983.

The Trust said that Bonnet House Inc. “has no ownership claim to the Bonnet House property.”

Toothaker, a lawyer-lobbyist, said the Bonnet House Inc. board hasn’t held a vote yet, but she said she expects it to fight in court to wrest ownership away. Historical documents about the land donation suggest the owner didn’t want Bonnet House’s money going to the Trust, she said.

In a 1987 letter to the Bonnet House, Evelyn Bartlett wrote that “Bonnet House should not have to support the Florida Trust for Historic Preservation. That is not fair They should raise their own money.”

Budget documents show that since 1995, Bonnet House gave the Florida Trust $1.4 million. A recent budget summary for the Florida Trust showed it was relying on income from the Bonnet House for 64 percent of its budget.

“The Florida Trust looks at Bonnet House as a type of piggy bank,” Toothaker said.

Wyllie said the letter was “out of context and misleading” and that Bartlett didn’t object later to the revenue-sharing agreement that continues to this day.

“The biggest concern for us is the long term preservation of the property,” Wyllie said. “We have heard them say recently ideas about redeveloping the property.”

Toothaker noted that the 1982 preservation agreement does allow for development. It designates that one parcel “may be developed for restaurant purposes,” and another on the southwest portion of the property “for residential purposes, including high rise,multi-family uses.”

She said Bonnet House Inc. looked into adding a restaurant a few years ago but abandoned the idea. The red tape for an approval was intense — involving the county, the city, the Florida Trust, the National Trust, the Bonnet House Inc. and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Toothaker said developers have made offers for the other parcel, but there are no plans to develop it.

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