Prolific Classicist- John L. Volk Oct. 15, 1901 - Feb. 20, 1984

John L. Volk belonged to an exclusive club of early Palm Beach architects: Mizner. Fatio. Wyeth. Urban. The men whose vision of grand Mediterranean-style villas and lush tropical gardens became the trademark look for one of America’s toniest towns.
But Volk was one of the few who churned out designs well into his later years, more than 1,000 by his own estimate.
“From the inlet, all the way down to the south end of the island, there’s hardly a street in Palm Beach that doesn’t have something that I’ve done,” he once remarked. “After all, you’ve got to have something to show for more than 50 years of work.”
That work includes some of the area’s most notable landmarks: Good Samaritan Hospital, the Royal Poinciana Plaza and Playhouse, the 1944 redesigned Bath and Tennis Club and the Parker Playhouse in Fort Lauderdale.
He designed homes for the rich and famous - George Vanderbilt, Nicholas DuPont, Henry Ford II - as well as the not-so-rich. Over the years, his work encompassed Spanish, Italian, Classical, Oriental and British Colonial styles. He championed preservation, despised condominiums, and always looked back fondly on the splendor of the ’20s.
“It was a happy era back then.”
- HEATHER GRAULICH