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691 North County Road - Villa Oheka, Graham Eckes School/Otto Khan Residence, 1924, Landmark Designation

 File

Scope and Contents

From the Collection:

The Property File Collection houses over 3,000 property files that document vital information about the built environment of Palm Beach. The collection is arranged by address and contains brochures, photographs, newspaper articles, historic designaton reports, and other relevant property information. All files can be scanned upon request, although a majority are already digitized.

Dates

  • 1924
  • Event: Landmark Designation

Creator

Biographical / Historical

Built ca. 1924 by Maurice Fatio for Otto Kahn, a banker and railroad consolidator, as his second Palm Beach residence. The original name of the residence, “Oheka,” comes from the first letters of Kahn’s full name: “O” from Otto, “He” from Herman, and “Ka” from Kahn, a naming convention that matches Kahn’s first Palm Beach residence and original residence in New Jersey.

The Otto Kahn residence, later to be part of the Graham Eckes School, is a fine example of the formal Italian Renaissance architecture of Maurice Fatio. The mansion, which faces the Atlantic Ocean, was constructed ca. 1924 to resemble an elegant Tuscan Villa. In terms of architectural design, it is the best surviving example of Fatio's formal designs on Palm Beach.

The Graham-Eckes School was a college preparatory boarding school for grades 7-12 with aa peak enrollment at under 200 students. Founded in Daytona Beach in 1926 by Inez Graham and her half-sister Evelyn Eckes, the school moved to Palm Beach in 1941 until its closure in 1989. The school emphasized a focus on an Ivy League level education and proper customs and etiquette. The estate was designated May 22, 1980.

Extent

2 File(s)

Language of Materials

From the Collection: English

Repository Details

Part of the Preservation Foundation of Palm Beach Repository

Contact:
311 Peruvian Ave
Palm Beach FL 33480 United States