
The Freedom Tower, opened in 1925 and modeled on Seville’s Giralda, served as the Cuban Refugee Center from 1962 to 1974 — "the Ellis Island of the South."
The Great Miami Hurricane of September 18, 1926 ended the 1920s land boom, and the city rebuilt through the 1930s in the pastel Tropical Deco style.
Why People Visit Miami Florida
Miami offers a founding story with an orange blossom at its center, a refugee tower that welcomed the community that remade the city, cafecito through walk-up windows, boom-era Mediterranean fantasies, and tropical light on Biscayne Bay. Visitors come for Little Havana, the Deco-era heritage, the bay, the Everglades at the back door, and the winter that made the city famous. Magic City since 1896.