Palm Beach clears repairs to the Mizner mansion its architect said he drew to look small

A landmark gets its repair plan

Palm Beach's landmarks board signed off on a major restoration plan for Addison Mizner's 1922 Warden House, the Palm Beach Daily News reported. Mizner later claimed he drew the house at half scale so its owner would think it small.

Why it matters: One of the six apartments it holds was listed for sale at nearly $26 million in 2025, the paper reported. The owners' association has owed the town $250 a day since Sept. 18, until the stone is repaired. By our arithmetic that is $13,000 by Nov. 8, if the fine still runs.

A house drawn to look small

William Gray Warden of Philadelphia, an industrialist and the son of one of Standard Oil's founders, hired Mizner in 1921. Warden wanted a small winter house; his wife wanted a larger villa. Mizner later claimed he sketched it at half scale, with a large courtyard between the wings, so it looked "truly insignificant" to Warden. Then he told Warden's wife of his trick.

The house had 32 rooms in a U around a courtyard 100 feet by 85. Cooper C. Lightbown, who built most of Mizner's big commissions, built it and was elected mayor of Palm Beach the same year.

Mizner's own stone is what crumbles

Mizner built it almost entirely from his own factory's work: cast stone for walls, balusters and stairs, handmade tiles and pecky cypress ceilings. That cast stone is crumbling on the building's northeast side. On Sept. 17 the town's code board voted unanimously for the $250 daily fine, the paper reported. The association's lawyer said repairs will likely take over a year.

The plan, filed by the association, repairs what it can and replaces missing pieces in kind, with no additions, the town's packet shows. Under a 1987 easement, the Preservation Foundation of Palm Beach, a private nonprofit, must approve the work and the contractor in writing. It turned down one stonemason. "Our first and foremost goal is always to preserve and repair as much as possible, and not to replace," said Aimee Sunny, its director of preservation and planning.

Saved by cutting it up

In 1977 the house faced demolition for townhouses. After two years in court, Robert Eigelberger, a local businessman, won permission to restore it and divide it into six condominiums. The project spurred the creation of Palm Beach's landmarks commission, Historic Preservation magazine reported in 1984. The town landmarked the house in 1979, and it joined the National Register of Historic Places in 1984.

What's next

What's next: The minutes of the Oct. 21 landmarks meeting go before the commission on Wednesday, Nov. 18.

Their side

"We are certainly going to adhere to whatever is required to be fully compliant with all our obligations," the association's president told the code board in 2025, the paper reported.

Sources we read

Town of Palm Beach Landmarks Preservation Commission agenda and backup packet for Oct. 21, 2026 (item 10, the staff report, the applicant's letter, the zoning history), and the agenda for Nov. 18, 2026. National Park Service, National Register nomination for the Warden House, June 14, 1984. Historic Preservation magazine (Stephanie Ferrell), June 1984. Palm Beach Daily News: Jodie Wagner, Nov. 2, 2026; Diego Diaz Lasa, Aug. 1, 2025, Sept. 25, 2025, March 24, 2026 and Sept. 28, 2026; Darrell Hofheinz, Oct. 27, 2023.