paris singer and his good friend, the developer addison mizner (1872-1933), were visiting palm beach in the spring of 1918. singer decided to build a hospital with mizner as the architect. singer had already built three hospitals in france for the wounded. it was during world war i when only war-related buildings could be built. construction began in july. (the site at the west end of worth avenue formerly contained alligator joe's, a tourist attraction.) by november 1918 seven residential villas and a medical center had been built on the north side of worth avenue, across from the main building. singer purchased laboratory and surgical equipment and fittings for an operating room. singer sent out as many as 300,000 invitations to "eligible" army and navy officers, who had to be "screened" and had to be able to pay their own room and board.