Chalet Suzanne of Lake Wales, legacy of world fame and excellence

 

Chalet Suzanne 2009,
Florida State Archives

By Jane Feehan

I usually focus on stories about South Florida, but take an occasional foray into other counties when a topic or place claimed state-wide notice.

Chalet Suzanne in Lake Wales earned world-wide attention. A small inn with a gem of a restaurant, it was described in many ways since opening in 1931: as a “doll’s village;” a “Scandinavian fairy tale; a “rambling Swiss colony; a place with an old Florida look; a “rambling rose-colored inn.” It was all that and more.

Lafayette, Indiana residents Bertha and Carl Hinshaw moved to Lake Wales in 1929 or 1930. According to news accounts, they arrived with plans to convert an estate into a “residential hotel” along with a partner. Carl died of pneumonia at age 47, not long after their move. Bertha had to support their two children, Suzanne and Carl, Jr. 

With a vision but no partner, she proceeded to establish an inn.

That vision was influenced by earlier trips to Europe where Bertha collected items that reflected Old World culture. These “curios,” displayed at the new inn, shaped the inn’s décor and ambiance. 

She readied the small hotel with 30 guest rooms—arrayed in a rambling footprint— and a dining room. Located in the citrus-laden hills of Polk County, her Chalet Suzanne sat at the side of one of many lakes in the area, enhancing its appeal to tourists. But how to get the word out to those tourists?

Bertha had a knack for marketing. In an interview she described the signs she had placed on highways advertising her new business. 

Chalet Suzanne welcomed its first customer a week after the first sign went up on a Florida highway. Later, signs were installed north along the U.S. East coast to within 200 miles of New York. That was before crowds took to the skies to visit Florida; road signs proved to be the right marketing tool for the time.

1931 Chalet Suzanne postcard
Florida State Archives

Within a very few years, Chalet Suzanne was known as a venue for weddings, civic club luncheons and pleasant amenities, including morning delivery of coffee and orange juice to each guest room. Newspapers published the inn’s recipes for orange bread and other orange-based delectables.

Daughter Suzanne married there in 1940 and moved to New York. Son Carl, Jr. signed up with and flew for the U.S. Air Force during World War II. He married his high school sweetheart, Vita, and returned home to help run Chalet Suzanne.

By 1941 Orlando’s Sunday Sentinel Star wrote that Chalet Suzanne was “one of the South’s unique and outstanding inns and eating places.” It was also noted for having one of the largest collections in the U.S. of old, in perfect condition, horse-driven carriages (about 12 at the time). Horses were available on the 100-acre Chalet Suzanne property to pull the carriages. 

The inn burned down partially in 1943 and was rebuilt with materials from old rabbit hutches, chicken coops and wood from the stable. Because of the war, construction materials were scarce; it may explain why guest rooms sit at varying, uneven levels, imposing a rambling or Old World look on the inn.

Carl and Vita (a WAVE, U.S. Naval Reserve), helped run the kitchen when they returned to civilian life. Their hotel assistance included presenting water ski shows on the  lake for inn patrons. Carl skied while Vita drove the boat.

Carl’s love of flying (he was also a test pilot) likely prompted the construction of an air strip on the property. That air strip welcomed celebrities including Johnny Carson, Burt Reynolds, TV host Mike Douglas, Don Johnson, Robert Redford and astronaut Lt. Col. James Irwin who became a family friend.

Chalet Suzanne’s popularity extended into outer space. The family opened a canning factory on its property in1956 after garnering fans for soups such as asparagus potato, seafood Newburg bisque, and their signature Romain in a spinach-mushroom base. When Apollo astronauts complained about flight food, Chalet Suzanne's soups were suggested; they passed NASA muster for dried versions and were sent up with an Apollo and a joint Apollo-Soyuz mission in the 1970s.

In 1970, The New York Times placed Chalet Suzanne on their list of the world’s great restaurants. The inn also repeatedly received Florida Trend magazine’s Golden Spoon Award.

Matriarch Bertha Hinshaw passed away at 90 in 1975. Carl Jr. died at 75 in 1997 and Vita at 89 in 2012. Carl’s son, Eric carried the tradition of excellence forward until 2014, when he decided to close Chalet Suzanne. 

The accolades kept coming but not  younger customers. Eric was not keen on making changes that would appeal to a younger crowd. Perhaps it was the right time to exit with reputation intact, bright memories firmly established and plenty of stories to pass forward…a legacy of 83 years of excellence.

Chalet Suzanne was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1990. The property, about 130 acres was still held by the Hinshaw family in 2016. It is now the site of a faith-based drug and alcohol rehabilitation center for men, Refuge on the Ridge. It was first operated by the Hinshaws, but now by someone else. As of last check, early 2026, the Hinshaws remain owners of the property.

Copyright © 2026. All rights reserved. Jane Feehan

Sources:

Tampa Daily Times, May 3, 1934

St. Augustine Record Jan. 24, 1937

Orlando Sentinel, Dec. 10, 1937

The Miami News, May 7, 1937

Washington Daily News, April 2, 1938

Sunday Sentinel Star, Feb. 16, 1941

Tampa Tribune, May 7, 1940

Tampa Tribune, March 12, 1950

The Tampa Tribune, Jan. 26, 1969

The Tampa Tribune, May 19, 1969

The Tampa Tribune, Aug. 24, 1970

The Ledger, Sept 30, 1980

Indian River Press Journal, July 22, 1990

The Tampa Tribune Sept. 4, 1997

The Ledger, April 26, 2012

The Ledger, June 20, 2012

The Orlando Sentinel, July 4, 2014

Tags: Chalet Suzanne, Bertha Hinshaw, Lake Wales

An American story: the remarkable Edward Bok, man behind Bok Tower Gardens, Lake Wales

By Jane Feehan

Bok Tower Gardens, north of Lake Wales in Florida, has drawn about 23 million visitors since it was dedicated by President Coolidge in 1929. Its gardens, bird sanctuary, and Singing Tower was among the state’s earliest tourist attractions. A stop there includes an introduction to Edward Bok (1863-1930), the man who conceived of and financed the landmark, but his biography—and impact on American culture—is even more significant.

His is an inspiring story, a testament to the possibilities America held for immigrants at the time. Born Eduard Willem Gerard Cesar Hidde Bok in the Netherlands, he emigrated to the United States with his parents and brother in 1870. The very poor family settled in Brooklyn and first sold pieces of coal found on the street to pay for food. When he was 10, Bok sold ice water to passengers of a trolley line. At 13, Eduard, or Edward as he became known, took a job washing windows at a bakery for 50 cents a week.

He also had a knack for writing though he never had more than six years of school. Invited to a birthday party, he wrote up the affair, knowing it would please the hostess to see it published in the newspaper. He pitched this idea to the editor of the Brooklyn Eagle and was offered $2.50 per social function to write about attendees who wanted to see their names in print—the real hook. Enterprising.

At 15, Bok went to work at Western Union where he served as office boy. Here’s where it gets interesting—no, remarkable. During this time, he bought a copy of the Encyclopedia of American Biography. He was enthralled by the American experience and the Americans who defined it. Bok started writing letters to the giants he read about, asking for more information. They answered him. Bok actually met with many, a who’s who of the era: James A. Garfield as he ran for president, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Oliver Wendall Holmes, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Mary Todd Lincoln, Louisa May Alcott, General William T. Sherman and Ulysses S. Grant, who invited Bok to dinner.

He started writing biographies for money. He was offered $10 a piece but had so many requests from a publisher he had to enlist the help of reporters whom he paid $5 per biography, keeping the remaining $5. Bok learned shorthand, so was sent by the Brooklyn paper to watch and report on speeches, including that of President Rutherford B. Hayes with whom he remained friends until his death. At 19 he purchased a publication, naming it the Brooklyn Magazine; for it he established the first women’s page of U.S. publications.

A man on the move, Edward Bok got a high-profile, professional break with publisher Charles Scribner’s Sons where he rose to advertising manager. At 26 and with bona fides well established, Bok joined the popular Ladies Home Journal in 1889 in Philadelphia, where he remained until he retired at 56 in 1919. He increased circulation of the magazine from 600,000 to more than two million subscribers. In 1896, he married Mary Louise Curtis, the daughter of the magazine’s publisher, Cyrus W. Curtis, a publishing industry tycoon and one of America’s richest men.

Bok died in Lake Wales, where he wintered, in 1930 at age 66. He died a rich man worth about $24 million, some inherited from father-in-law Curtis. Edward Bok’s contributions to the American story are many; some, but not all, are listed below:

• Bok won the Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography in 1920 for his Americanization of Edward Bok.
• Bok fought for pure food laws that we benefit from today.
• He refused to take advertising in the Ladies Home Journal from the patent-medicine frauds, popular in the day.
• He hired architects to draw up plans for affordable housing, the first such plans in the U.S. and was praised by President Teddie Roosevelt as having changed architecture in the U.S.
• Bok changed the stuffy Victorian description of the room known as the parlor to the term used today, the living room.
• Bok campaigned against unsightly, unsanitary city dumps, suggesting they be consigned far away from inhabitants.
• He also campaigned for the removal of large highway signs that remain an unattractive form of advertising today.
• He planted flower bulbs from Holland along roads and at rail stations for a beautification initiative.
• Bok donated $100,000 for a plan for the U.S. to coordinate activities to attain world peace.
• Bok conceived of, paid for and constructed the Bok Tower Gardens (architect Frederick Law Olmstead, Jr.)  as bird refuge, a place to study southern planting and a garden to enjoy quiet contemplation. The Singing Tower (architect Milton B. Medary), is famous for its carillon—bells—and houses the largest carillon library in the world. The Bok Tower Gardens with its Singing Tower was added to the National Registry of Historical Places in 1972 and designated a National Historical Landmark in 1993.

 Sources:

Edmonton Journal, Jan. 10, 1930

Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Jan. 12, 1930

The Gazette, Nov 2, 1931

Arizona Republic, Jan. 7, 1940

Orlando Sentinel Aug. 13, 1950

Star Press, Sept. 18, 1938

https://boktowergardens.org/tower-gardens/

Tags: Lake Wales, Bok Tower Gardens, Singing Tower, Edward Bok, carillon, bells, Jane Feehan, famous Americans