By the 1970s the Deco district had faded into a stretch of peeling paint and aging retirees, and the bulldozers were circling. It was saved by an unlikely crusade: a preservationist named Barbara Capitman and the Miami Design Preservation League fought to protect the old hotels, and in 1979 the district became the first twentieth-century neighborhood listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The pastel was repainted, the neon relit, and South Beach — SoBe — reinvented itself as one of the most photographed places on earth.
Here’s the strange part: almost none of this was supposed to exist. A century ago Miami Beach was a barrier island of mangrove swamp and sand, good for coconuts and not much else. Then a New Jersey farmer named John Collins planted avocado groves and dredged a canal to ship them, and an Indianapolis millionaire named Carl Fisher — the man behind the Indy 500 and the first bright automobile headlights — looked at the tangle of mangroves and saw a resort. Fisher cut down the jungle, dredged up the bay bottom, and literally built the island into shape. The city they incorporated in 1915 was, in large part, made by hand.
Why People Visit Miami Beach
Miami Beach rewards visitors who want style with their sand: the world’s great Art Deco strip, a wide Atlantic beach, walkable streets, and neon nights. Add the South Beach glow and the year-round Florida sun, and the man-made island makes an easy case for itself.
