Miami Florida — Retro Vintage History

Miami holds the world's largest concentration of Art Deco architecture. The Tequesta people lived at the mouth of the Miami River on Biscayne Bay for thousands of years before European contact. The Spanish came in 1513, the British in 1763, and the territory passed to the United States in 1821, with Florida becoming the 27th state on March 3, 1845. The modern city began with a Cleveland widow named Julia DeForest Tuttle, who in 1891 sold her late husband's iron foundry and bought 640 acres on the north bank of the Miami River, at the old Fort Dallas military site, and began a relentless campaign to convince the Standard Oil baron and Florida East Coast Railway builder Henry M. Flagler to extend his railroad south to the wilderness she could see from her porch. When the Great Freeze of 1894-1895 wiped out the citrus belt of central and northern Florida, Tuttle sent Flagler an orange blossom dispatched by courier as proof her south Florida coast had been spared. The order to extend the tracks came. On April 22, 1896, the first Florida East Coast Railway train rolled into the Miami River, and on July 28, 1896, 502 male residents met in a downtown pool hall and voted to incorporate the City of Miami; Julia Tuttle is the only woman ever to have founded a major American city, and Flagler's Royal Palm Hotel opened its doors at the river's mouth in January 1897. The 1920s land boom built three of the city's defining works of architecture, all in the space of about three years: James Deering's Vizcaya estate on Biscayne Bay in Coconut Grove (built 1914-1922 in the Italian Renaissance and Mediterranean Revival style by architect F. Burrall Hoffman with artistic director Paul Chalfin and the Colombian landscape architect Diego Suarez, designated a National Historic Landmark in 1994); the Freedom Tower on Biscayne Boulevard (opened July 26, 1925, designed by Schultze and Weaver as the Miami News Tower and modeled on the Giralda bell tower of the Cathedral of Seville, later the Cuban Refugee Center from 1962 to 1974 — the "Ellis Island of the South" — and designated a National Historic Landmark on October 6, 2008); and George Merrick's Coral Gables, the Mediterranean Revival planned city of 1925, with its 1924 Venetian Pool and its 1926 Schultze and Weaver Biltmore Hotel. Across the bay on the Miami Beach barrier island, between 1923 and 1943, eight hundred buildings went up in the Tropical Deco style that adapted Art Deco to a subtropical climate — pastel facades, eyebrow ledges, porthole windows, neon signage, nautical motifs — and the entire one-square-mile district was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on May 14, 1979, as the nation's first 20th-century urban historic district. Henry Hohauser's Colony Hotel of 1935 sits on Ocean Drive at the center of it. The Great Miami Hurricane of September 18, 1926, ended the land boom, and the city rebuilt through the 1930s under the same Tropical Deco vocabulary that defines South Beach today. On Biscayne Bay since the Tequesta.

What's with the After the Storm of Miami? When a squall passes, the city can look freshly washed: neon feels sharper, palms drip, and the sky turns a clear, loud blue. After the Storm is the nickname for that reset, when heat rises off pavement and the air suddenly smells like salt and wet concrete. A quick cue is the puddle mirror: if the street holds shallow reflections for more than a minute, the humidity is high enough to keep the evening glowing. That is evaporation and warm air, not magic. Then sunset hits the wet surfaces, and Miami looks like it was polished on purpose, bright and humming again.

The Tequesta fished and hunted at the mouth of the Miami River for thousands of years before European contact. The Spanish came in 1513 with Juan Ponce de León, lost Florida to the British in 1763, took it back in 1783, and surrendered it to the United States in 1821; Florida became the 27th state on March 3, 1845. The American territorial era brought the Seminole Wars — Fort Dallas, on the north bank of the Miami River, was one of the military installations of that long campaign, and it was on the Fort Dallas land that Julia Tuttle would later build her city. William and Mary Brickell were already there when she arrived, trading on the south bank of the river; Mary Brickell became, after Tuttle, the Other Mother of Miami, and the Brickell name stayed on the downtown financial district south of the river.

The Magic City was built in three short bursts. The first was the founding decade: Flagler's railway, the pool-hall vote of July 28, 1896, the Royal Palm Hotel of January 1897, and the riverfront and bayfront blocks that grew up around the station. The second was the 1920s land boom: George Merrick laid out Coral Gables in 1925 as a Mediterranean Revival planned city with the 1924 Venetian Pool, the 1926 Schultze and Weaver Biltmore Hotel, and the long Granada and Coral Way boulevards lined with banyans; James Deering's Vizcaya, finished in 1922 on Biscayne Bay, anchored Coconut Grove; the Freedom Tower, the Miami News Tower of July 1925, anchored downtown with the Giralda silhouette that Schultze and Weaver would use again for the Biltmore in Coral Gables and the Roney Plaza on Miami Beach; the Venetian Causeway opened in 1925 and ran the island-hopping route from Miami to Miami Beach; and on the Miami Beach barrier island itself, the first wave of what became the Art Deco Historic District began going up in 1923. Then the Great Miami Hurricane of September 18, 1926, came ashore as a Category 4 and ended the boom — but the rebuild through the 1930s, in the Tropical Deco style of Henry Hohauser and his contemporaries, gave South Beach the eight hundred Art Deco hotels, apartments, and storefronts that the Miami Design Preservation League fought to save in the 1970s and that the National Register recognized as the country's first 20th-century urban historic district on May 14, 1979.

Miami's third building burst came after Castro. The 1959 Cuban Revolution sent hundreds of thousands of Cuban exiles north to South Florida, and the federal government opened the Cuban Refugee Center inside the Freedom Tower from 1962 to 1974 — the "Ellis Island of the South" — where Cubans arriving with nothing received medical care, paperwork, and resettlement support. Calle Ocho, the Southwest 8th Street corridor through Little Havana, became and remains the cultural main street of Cuban-American Miami: the cigar rollers, the café cubano windows, the painted Mediterranean Revival façade of the 1926 Tower Theater at 1508 SW 8th Street, the domino tables of Máximo Gómez Park at the corner of 15th Avenue. The Versace mansion — Casa Casuarina at 1116 Ocean Drive, built in 1930 by Alden Freeman as a Mediterranean Revival reimagining of the Alcázar de Colón in Santo Domingo — is one of the architectural anchors of the Ocean Drive Art Deco frame, even though the building itself predates the high Deco of the 1930s rebuild. On Collins Avenue, Morris Lapidus's Fontainebleau opened December 20, 1954, and gave Miami Beach a third architectural vocabulary, the MiMo (Miami Modern) resort-hotel style that ran through the 1950s and 1960s.

Our Miami retro logo carries Florida's alligator and the date "1845" stamped beneath, for the year Florida became the 27th state of the Union. The black-and-white styling is retro, in the vocabulary of crate labels, mid-century beach signage, and the painted hotel placards that once ran the length of Ocean Drive. The alligator and the date do the work of placing the design in the founding generation of the state — and the city that was incorporated by a Cleveland widow with an orange blossom, built three times in three short bursts, and that has held the world's largest concentration of Art Deco architecture longer than any other city has held a 20th-century historic district.

Today Miami is, above everything, a coastal city of architecture: the 1916 Vizcaya on Biscayne Bay, the 1925 Freedom Tower with its Giralda silhouette downtown, the 1925 Coral Gables Mediterranean Revival blocks of George Merrick, the eight hundred buildings of the 1923-1943 Miami Beach Art Deco Historic District running south to north up Ocean Drive and Collins Avenue, the 1954 Fontainebleau and the 1963 Bacardí Building and the 1963 Miami Marine Stadium on Virginia Key as the MiMo continuation, and the long Cuban-American main street of Calle Ocho running west from Brickell through Little Havana. Our Miami designs are made for that architecture — the Magic City built three times in three short bursts since Julia Tuttle's orange-blossom envelope, and that has carried the world's largest Art Deco concentration through every decade since 1923.

Miami Florida — Travel Guide

Visiting Miami Florida Today

Miami sits on Biscayne Bay between the Atlantic Ocean and the Everglades, on the southeast coast of Florida. The high season runs November through April with mid-70s to 80s daytime temperatures and dry skies; summer is hot, humid, and punctuated by daily afternoon thunderstorms; hurricane season runs June through November, peaking August through October. The Art Deco District is open year-round.

The Art Deco District, Vizcaya, Coral Gables, and the Freedom Tower

For visitors searching for things to do in Miami Florida:

• Walk the Miami Beach Art Deco Historic District — the world's largest concentration of Art Deco architecture, with 800-plus buildings built between 1923 and 1943 in the Tropical Deco style on the South Beach barrier island. The district was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on May 14, 1979, as the nation's first 20th-century urban historic district. Start at the Art Deco Welcome Center on Ocean Drive at 10th Street and walk north up Ocean Drive past the Colony Hotel (Henry Hohauser, 1935), then west along Espanola Way and Lincoln Road.
• Tour Vizcaya Museum & Gardens at 3251 South Miami Avenue in Coconut Grove — James Deering's Italian Renaissance and Mediterranean Revival winter villa built 1914-1922 by architect F. Burrall Hoffman with artistic director Paul Chalfin and Colombian landscape architect Diego Suarez. Thirty-four rooms in the main house, ten acres of formal gardens on Biscayne Bay, and the stone barge breakwater out in the water. Designated a National Historic Landmark in 1994.
• Visit the Freedom Tower at 600 Biscayne Boulevard — the Schultze and Weaver Mediterranean Revival 17-story tower opened July 26, 1925, modeled on the Giralda bell tower of the Cathedral of Seville, that served from 1962 to 1974 as the Cuban Refugee Center, the "Ellis Island of the South." Listed on the National Register of Historic Places September 10, 1979, and designated a National Historic Landmark on October 6, 2008.
• Walk Coral Gables — George Merrick's 1925 Mediterranean Revival planned city. See the Venetian Pool (1924), the Biltmore Hotel (Schultze and Weaver, 1926), Miracle Mile, and Coral Way under the banyans.
• Stroll Calle Ocho through Little Havana — the historic Cuban-American main street, with the 1926 Mediterranean Revival Tower Theater at 1508 SW 8th Street, the rollers at El Titán de Bronce, the café cubano windows, and the domino tables of Máximo Gómez Park at 15th Avenue.
• Walk Ocean Drive past Casa Casuarina at 1116 Ocean Drive — built in 1930 by Alden Freeman as a Mediterranean Revival reimagining of the Alcázar de Colón in Santo Domingo, now part of the architectural frame of the Art Deco District. Continue north up Collins Avenue to the Fontainebleau (Morris Lapidus, 1954), the defining MiMo (Miami Modern) hotel.
• Visit the Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM) at Museum Park — the 2013 Herzog & de Meuron building on Biscayne Bay.
• Walk Wynwood Walls and the Wynwood arts district — outdoor murals and galleries north of Downtown.
• Drive across the Venetian Causeway (1925) for the island-hopping route from Downtown Miami to Miami Beach, or the Rickenbacker Causeway south to Key Biscayne, or the Julia Tuttle Causeway across mid-bay.
• Visit Bayfront Park downtown on Biscayne Bay — see the Julia Tuttle sculpture by Daub and Firmin honoring the city's founder.
• Drive south to Biscayne National Park and the start of the Florida Keys at Key Largo, or west to Everglades National Park.
• See the Miami Marine Stadium on Virginia Key — the 1963 Brutalist concrete grandstand by architect Hilario Candela, listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Why People Visit Miami Florida

Miami offers the world's largest concentration of Art Deco architecture in the Miami Beach Historic District, the Italian Renaissance villa of Vizcaya on Biscayne Bay, the Schultze and Weaver Freedom Tower with its Giralda silhouette, George Merrick's 1925 Mediterranean Revival Coral Gables planned city, the long Cuban-American main street of Calle Ocho through Little Havana, the MiMo continuation up Collins Avenue from the Fontainebleau, and the bay and barrier-island geography that runs from Coconut Grove north through downtown to Bal Harbour. It is a coastal city that was incorporated by a Cleveland widow with an orange blossom and built three times in three short bursts since 1896. Magic City since 1896.

For deeper reading on Miami, Florida history described here — the Tequesta heritage of the Miami River mouth on Biscayne Bay for thousands of years before European contact, the 1513 Spanish arrival, the 1763-1783 British Florida period, the 1821 American territorial transfer, the March 3, 1845, Florida statehood, the Seminole Wars-era Fort Dallas on the north bank of the Miami River, Julia DeForest Tuttle's 1891 purchase of 640 acres at the Fort Dallas site, the Great Freeze of 1894-1895 and Tuttle's orange-blossom dispatch to Henry M. Flagler, the April 22, 1896 arrival of the Florida East Coast Railway, the July 28, 1896 incorporation of the City of Miami in a pool hall by 502 male residents, the January 1897 opening of Flagler's Royal Palm Hotel at the river mouth, the 1914-1922 construction of James Deering's Vizcaya estate in the Italian Renaissance and Mediterranean Revival style by architect F. Burrall Hoffman with Paul Chalfin and Diego Suarez, James Deering's Christmas Day 1916 first winter residency, the 1923-1943 construction of the Miami Beach Art Deco Historic District in the Tropical Deco style, the 1924 Venetian Pool in Coral Gables, the July 26, 1925 opening of the Schultze and Weaver Freedom Tower as the Miami News Tower modeled on the Giralda of Seville, the 1925 George Merrick founding of Coral Gables as a Mediterranean Revival planned city, the 1925 opening of the Venetian Causeway from Miami to Miami Beach, the January 15, 1926 opening of the Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables, the September 18, 1926 Great Miami Hurricane that ended the land boom, the 1930s Tropical Deco resurgence under Henry Hohauser and contemporaries, the December 20, 1954 opening of Morris Lapidus's Fontainebleau Hotel, the 1959 Cuban Revolution and the subsequent Cuban exile arrival in Miami, the 1962-1974 Cuban Refugee Center operation at the Freedom Tower as the "Ellis Island of the South," the May 14, 1979 listing of the Miami Beach Art Deco Historic District on the National Register of Historic Places as the nation's first 20th-century urban historic district, the 1994 designation of Vizcaya as a National Historic Landmark, and the October 6, 2008 designation of the Freedom Tower as a National Historic Landmark — it may be useful to consult (1) HistoryMiami Museum on West Flagler Street in downtown Miami, the primary scholarly repository for Miami-Dade County history, the Florida East Coast Railway archive, the Julia Tuttle and Brickell papers, the Cuban exile experience holdings, and the photographic collection of the city, (2) the Miami-Dade Public Library System Local History Collection at the Main Library on West Flagler Street for the Miami News and Miami Herald microfilm runs, the Sanborn fire insurance maps, and the city directories, (3) the Florida State Archives in Tallahassee for the 1845 Florida statehood records, the territorial-era papers, and the Seminole Wars Fort Dallas military records, (4) the Vizcaya Museum & Gardens Archive at 3251 South Miami Avenue for the James Deering, F. Burrall Hoffman, Paul Chalfin, and Diego Suarez papers and the 1914-1922 construction records, (5) the Miami Design Preservation League (MDPL) at 1001 Ocean Drive for the 1976-forward Art Deco Historic District preservation records, the Capitman papers, and the National Register nomination documents, (6) the Coral Gables Museum at 285 Aragon Avenue for the George Merrick planned-city records, the 1925 founding papers, and the Biltmore and Venetian Pool documentation, (7) the MDC Museum of Art + Design at the Freedom Tower for the Miami News Tower / Cuban Refugee Center archive, the Cuban Legacy Gallery, and the Exile Experience collection, (8) the National Park Service National Historic Landmarks file for the 1994 Vizcaya designation and the 2008 Freedom Tower designation, and (9) the Wolfsonian-FIU at 1001 Washington Avenue, Miami Beach, for the 1885-1945 design-history collection that anchors the Art Deco district. For deeper local Miami research, it may be useful to reach out to (1) HistoryMiami Museum, (2) the Miami-Dade Public Library Local History Collection, (3) the Vizcaya Museum & Gardens Archive, (4) the Miami Design Preservation League, (5) the Coral Gables Museum, (6) the MDC Museum of Art + Design at the Freedom Tower, (7) the Wolfsonian-FIU, and (8) the Florida State Archives. For travel and visitor information in Miami, it may be useful to contact (1) the Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau for citywide tourism information, (2) the Miami Design Preservation League for Art Deco District walking tours and the Welcome Center on Ocean Drive at 10th Street, (3) Vizcaya Museum & Gardens for tour hours, the historic gardens, and the village outbuildings, (4) Miami Dade College's MDC Museum of Art + Design at the Freedom Tower for exhibition hours and the Cuban Legacy Gallery, (5) the City of Coral Gables and the Coral Gables Museum for the Venetian Pool, the Biltmore Hotel, Miracle Mile, and the Granada/Coral Way Mediterranean Revival corridor, (6) the Viernes Culturales / Calle Ocho Cultural Friday program for monthly Little Havana cultural-walk events on Southwest 8th Street, and (7) the City of Miami Parks and Recreation Department for Bayfront Park, Bayside Marketplace, and the downtown waterfront. Readers interested in the broader cultural reception of Miami and its Biscayne Bay identity — the long Tequesta presence at the Miami River mouth before European contact, the 1513 Spanish arrival and the 1763-1783 British period, the 1821 American territorial transfer and the 1845 statehood, the Seminole Wars-era Fort Dallas, the 1891 Tuttle purchase and the 1894-1895 Great Freeze, the 1896 Flagler railway and the pool-hall incorporation vote, the 1897 Royal Palm Hotel, the 1914-1922 Vizcaya construction, the 1923-1943 Art Deco District build-out, the 1924 Venetian Pool, the 1925 Coral Gables founding and the 1925 Freedom Tower and the 1925 Venetian Causeway and the 1926 Biltmore Hotel and the 1926 Great Miami Hurricane, the 1930s Tropical Deco resurgence, the 1954 Fontainebleau, the 1959 Cuban Revolution and the 1962-1974 Freedom Tower as Cuban Refugee Center, the 1979 Art Deco Historic District National Register listing, the 1994 Vizcaya National Historic Landmark designation, and the 2008 Freedom Tower National Historic Landmark designation — will find that the named places (the Miami Beach Art Deco Historic District, Vizcaya Museum & Gardens, the Freedom Tower, Coral Gables and its Biltmore Hotel and Venetian Pool, Casa Casuarina at 1116 Ocean Drive, the Royal Palm Hotel site at the Miami River mouth, the Fort Dallas site, the Fontainebleau and the Bacardí Building and the Miami Marine Stadium, Ocean Drive and Lincoln Road and Collins Avenue and Espanola Way and Washington Avenue, South Beach, Calle Ocho and Little Havana and Máximo Gómez Park and the Tower Theater, Coconut Grove, Brickell, Downtown Miami, Wynwood and the Design District, Bayfront Park and Bayside Marketplace, Biscayne Bay and the Miami River and the Atlantic Ocean, Biscayne National Park and Everglades National Park, the MacArthur and Venetian and Julia Tuttle and Rickenbacker Causeways, and the adjacent Miami Beach, Coral Gables, Bal Harbour, Surfside, Sunny Isles Beach, Aventura, Hialeah, Doral, Homestead, Key Largo, and Fort Lauderdale), the named historical figures (Julia DeForest Tuttle, Henry M. Flagler, Mary and William Brickell, James Deering, F. Burrall Hoffman, Paul Chalfin, Diego Suarez, George Merrick, Henry Hohauser, the Schultze and Weaver firm, James M. Cox, Carl G. Fisher, and John S. Collins), and the named historical moments (the Tequesta heritage of the Miami River mouth, the 1513 Spanish arrival, the 1763-1783 British period, the 1821 American transfer, the 1845 Florida statehood, the Great Freeze of 1894-1895 and Tuttle's orange-blossom dispatch, the April 22, 1896 railway arrival, the July 28, 1896 pool-hall incorporation, the January 1897 Royal Palm Hotel opening, the 1914-1922 Vizcaya construction, the Christmas Day 1916 first Deering residency, the 1923-1943 Art Deco District build, the 1924 Venetian Pool, the 1925 Coral Gables founding and the 1925 Freedom Tower and the 1925 Venetian Causeway, the 1926 Biltmore Hotel and the September 18, 1926 Great Miami Hurricane, the 1930s Tropical Deco resurgence, the December 20, 1954 Fontainebleau opening, the 1959 Cuban Revolution and the 1962-1974 Freedom Tower as Cuban Refugee Center, the May 14, 1979 Art Deco District National Register listing, the 1994 Vizcaya National Historic Landmark designation, and the October 6, 2008 Freedom Tower National Historic Landmark designation) recur across all of these traditions as a shared cultural grammar of foundational Miami history grounded specifically on Biscayne Bay at the mouth of the Miami River.