The home at 1000 Belmont Place was the epitome of style and class during the 1920s Florida land boom ― a Mediterranean Revival beauty designed by a confrère of none other than Addison Mizner himself.
It was featured in hand-sketched advertisements for West Palm Beach’s new Hillcrest community and lauded for its open second-floor loggia and barrel tile roof.
But that was a century ago. Belmont Place is gone, so is Hillcrest.
The house, however, has endured, and is being restored to a single-family home after decades of uncertainty.
Called the Riddle House for its original owner, West Palm Beach’s first city manager Karl Riddle, it’s been moved twice since its 1925 construction, first to downtown after the Hillcrest neighborhood was razed because of airport noise, and now to a more permanent address in the Sunshine Park Historic District.
Work is already underway at its new address at 432 Ardmore Road, and the home is expected to go on the market this month for $2.52 million.
“There is still pecky cypress, all wood floors and a dramatic staircase to the second floor,” said Joseph Molina, who owns the land where the home was moved and is now in partnership with developers to restore and sell it. “It’s a worthwhile exercise to save a piece of property that has historical value and put it in a historic community.”