Grave of Johnnie Brown the Human Monkey

Little Johnnie Brown was the pet of Addison Mizner, the famed Palm Beach architect and Boca Raton developer. Mizner loved to shoulder Johnnie and another monkey, Deuteronomy, and even hand-stitched a silk-lined sombrero, with chin strap, for Johnnie. In 1925, Mizner’s monkeys were invited to the “Monkey Trial” in Tennessee, where a high school teacher was criminally charged for teaching evolution. Mizner declined. And he and his pets were forced out of their residence at the exclusive Everglades Club, which he’d designed, after he and the club’s president argued over money and the president banned animals from the apartments. Mizner survived Johnnie by only six years. The animal’s marker reads: “Johnnie Brown. The Human Monkey. Died April 30, 1927.” Beside Johnnie’s plot is a grave for Rose Sachs’ dog, Laddie. Sachs and her husband, Morton, bought Mizner’s villa and lived there for 47 years. When she wanted to bury her dog next to Johnnie, the town permitted it, but she had to have Laddie cremated first. The dog’s marker reads, “Our Laddie 1949-1959.” The graves are now in the courtyard of a restaurant called "Pizza Al Fresco".