The SunPost

William Jennings Bryan ran for president three times and lost, served as secretary of state under President Woodrow Wilson, despised the theory of evolution and died five days after losing the Scopes Monkey Trial in 1925.

But when Bryan wasn�t campaigning for women�s suffrage, fighting for prohibition or prosecuting a teacher for teaching Darwinism, the Nebraska lawyer and politician stayed in a bayfront house in Miami.

Now, his old seven-bedroom Florida home, Villa Serena at 3115 Brickell Ave., has been designated historic by the Miami Historic and Environmental Preservation Board.

Designed by architect August Geiger, Villa Serena was constructed in December 1913, just a few blocks from Vizcaya. Although city officials felt the villa deserved the historic designation, the home�s previous owner feared it would hamper his efforts to sell the house, Historic Preservation Officer Kathleen Slesnick Kauffman said.

That opposition disappeared after Adrienne Arsht, the former owner of TotalBank, purchased the home and surrounding two acres from Veronica Nagymihaly for $12 million. �We are so fortunate and pleased it was bought by someone who wants to preserve it,� Kauffman said.

Indeed, Jorge Uribe, a real estate agent affiliated with Sol Sotheby�s International Realty, told Miami Today in October that an earlier contracted buyer �was going to tear it down� and �build something new� when the city commenced its historic designation process, temporarily protecting the home from the wrecking ball.

Arsht, who lives in Coconut Grove just north of Villa Serena, initially bought the home �because she did not want someone to knock it down,� her attorney, Lucia Dougherty, said. Later, Arsht figured she would use it as a guest house. Now she wants it to be her main residence, Dougherty said. Arsht hired architect Richard Heisenbottle to prepare restoration plans for the home.

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