Via Mizner is the oldest and most elaborate of the arcaded lanes (vias) that run off Worth Avenue into a maze of small courtyards. Addison Mizner designed it in the 1920s alongside the Worth Avenue buildings as a series of pedestrian passages giving access to small shops and studios behind the main street frontages. The result is a miniature Spanish village grafted onto the back of a luxury shopping district.
The via contains a small fountain, hanging plants, tiled floors, arched doorways, and several floors of small studios and galleries rising above the ground-level shops. It is shaded, quiet, and looks nothing like the public streets surrounding it. Mizner lived in an apartment above the via for much of his later life, which perhaps explains why it is the most carefully composed of the several vias on Worth Avenue. Freely accessible from Worth Avenue (look for the arched entrance roughly at the midpoint of the south side of the street), it is one of the most rewarding short detours in Palm Beach and completely free.