Miami history

Whereas Miami's other early property developers build cheap and fast in search of a quick Park, the creator of Coral Gables, George Merrick, fired by the city beautiful movement, was equal parts entrepreneur and aesthete.  He was inspired by the Shaker Heights suburban Ohio, a city beautiful project plan by a pair of wealthy brothers that boasted wide green spaces and fancy buildings.  Merrick's pedigree was impeccable-his preacher grandfather had made millions with a questionable cure-all called “Franks Magic Oil”-and he himself would become a fleeting millionaire or a combination of idealism, ego, and sheer salesmanship.  Merrick appointed his uncle, artist Denman Fink, as Coral Gables created director; recruited Phieas Paist, one of the architectural masterminds behind Villa with cayenne, to plan the plazas, fountains, and artfully aged stuff go-fronted building; and Lloyd Franklin, a landscape gardener who'd worked on Chicago's Lincoln Park enlargement, to oversee all the greenspaces.
Merrick envisioned Floridian Venice, a city floating on, and by, the water.  He further declared that no two houses could be the same, and that all designs had to be approved by the official city architect.  The layout and buildings of Merrick's own suburb quickly took shape, according to his plans, often working around potential disasters.  He transformed an abandoned quarry into the Venetian Pool and disguised the construction ditches that ringed the infant Coral Gables into a network of canals.
As the city took shape, Merrick focused on his own flair for selling, combining snappy sloganeering with publicity stunts like a Spanish-themed land auction in 1921, or the 90 coral pink buses he bought the ferry in perspective residents from across Florida.  This relentless Hartselle worked-after all, Merrick spent have been mind-boggling-$3 million on marketing in less than four years; in that time, the city had brought in more than 150 million.
Coral Gables heyday was short-lived, though-soon after the Biltmore Hotel first opened, Mamie was devastated by a major hurricane in 1926, and his tourism lifeblood was cut off.  Ironically, the carefully built, ornamental city of Coral Gables was the district least damage by the winds-even the towering Biltmore held firm.  But the Great Depression said and for the local economy to recover, and Merrick's money soon disappeared.  He retreated to Matecume Key in Florida Keys to run a resort that his wife Eunice's parents had bequeathed her until it, too, was wrecked by hurricane.  Merrick finally returned to the area to serve as postmaster of the city of Miami into his death in 1942; he's buried next to Eunice in Woodlawn Cemetery.
Merrick Stream is on, however, as local residents have collectively embraced his grand design, and acting stringent ordinances on everything from appropriate color schemes to the size of for sale signs in yards and even at times during which unsightly trucks may be parked outside a private house.  As affluent, second-generation Cuban Americans have begun to move into the area, some say that Coral Gables, not little than a, is the new center of Miami's Cuban community.  Still, there's little commercial evidence of Cuban presence here-this is one place in Miami where it's hard to find a quick cafecito.

The Entrances

Merrick was an entrepreneurial showman, and his plan to ring Coral Gables with eight impressive entrance gates was another theatrical flourish; he reasoned that these entrance ways would evoke a sense of place before there are even houses here.  He had originally planned on the entrances to frame the main access roads, only four were completed before funds ran out.  Three of these, all along a two-and-a-half-mile stretch of SW 8th St, are well worth seeking out.
In conjunction with Douglas Road, the million-dollar Douglas entrance, also known as the Puerta Del Sol, was the most ambitious, consisting of the delay and tower were too expensive wings of shops, offices, and artists’ studios.  During the 60s, it was almost bulldozed to make room for supermarkets, but survived to become a well-scrubbed business area, still upholding Merrick's Mediterranean themes.  Sadly, it's soon to be dwarfed by the inevitable high-and condo complex set to be built on it South side where there is currently a parking lot.  Further West, at the junction with Renate Blvd., 60-foot-high vine-covered Granada entrance is based on the entrance to the city of Granada in Spain-and massive renaissance gateway erected by Carlos V. in the 16th century.  The country club Prado entrance, at the junction with country club Prado is an elaborate three-created Italian garden, bordered by freestanding stucco and brick pillars topped by ornamental earns and gas lamps.  The fourth entrance, commercial, also known as the Alhambra, is at the corner of the Alhambra Circle and Douglas Road but doesn't come close to matching the others in flair or style.
If you don't particularly wish to see the entrances, the best way into Coral Gables from points east is along SW 24th St, coral way, which turns into the Miracle Mile between Douglas Road and Lejeune Road.

The Miracle Mile and around

The so-called miracle mile wasn't for the Main commercial drag and Merrick's plan; rather, the strip of stores was cooked up in the 1940s by George and reveals Main, married entrepreneurs who moved to Coral Gables from New York.  Until recently, this strip was rather forlorn, filled with cobwebby ladies botiques and bridal Emporia, yet is now recharging its retail batteries with an aggressive redevelopment plan that's luring casual cafés and shops, like local designer René Ruiz, back to the main street.  Another major incentive to pedestrians is the new free trolley service that shuttles along to roots downtown that intersect at the heart of Miracle Mile: one North-South John's runs along Ponce de Leon Blvd. from the Metrorail stuff together will choke, the other East-West from the Alhambra Circle moves along the miracle mile to the Biltmore Hotel. There are shops on almost every block.
As for the nightlife, the local government has also loosened liquor laws, allowing bars to remain open until 2 a.m. in the hope of reenergizing this segment of downtown.  In large part, is working; the areas at its liveliest envies hollow on weekday evenings when staff for many of the day-name businesses that have offices locally stop by for drinks or dinner after work.  Architecturally, the strip is filled with the Mediterranean revival buildings of only passing interest, save for the occasional standout.

The Actors’ Playhouse at the Miracle Theatre

Originally built in the 1940s as Coral Gables’ main cinema, the actors Playhouse, at 280 Miracle Mile, was converted to a theater in the mid-19 90s to provide a home for an acting company displaced by Hurricane Andrew.  The classic theater has been sensitively restored, and stylish accents like the intricately etched glass in the lobby and the gleaming, metallic ticket booth and balance the otherwise rather plain Art Deco building, a standout among Coral Gables’ usual-year-old building style.  In addition to hosting traveling productions, the playhouses two small auditoria feature readings by local writers and performances by the resident children's Theatre Company.  For to information, see page 162, “performing arts and film”.

The Omni Colonnade hotel

Halfway West along with the miracle mile, the Omni colonnade hotel at the corner of Ponce de Leon Blvd..  The colonnade building initially was to has Merrick's local real-estate sales office-it was completed only months before the 1926 hurricane that wiped him out.  And he never moved its offices from across the road.  It served as a sometime movie soundstage in the 1930s and 1940s into Los Angeles decisively eclipsed Miami is the home of America's infant film industry; during the war, it became an Army training facility and parachute factory.  Today, it's an upscale yet unremarkable hotel and one of the more architecturally impressive buildings on the miracle mile-be sure to take note of its ornate center fountain, as well as it stylistics spiral and peak flourishes on the structure itself.

The Coral Gables Museum

Set to open in late 2006 early 2007, the Coral Gables Museum, a 25 Aragon Ave., will finally showcase decades of memorabilia that has been stashing boxes in the Coral Gables Merrick house.  The collection, ranging from line drawings and plans for the Biltmore to old letters, will be housed in a former police and fire station, designed by Phineas Paist.  A Depression-era WPA project, it was built later than many of his other designs-look for the muscular busts of firemen sculpted as reliefs above the garage doors.

Coral Gables City Hall

At the western end of the miracle mile, coral Gable City Hall, at 45 Biltmore way, is planned as the heart of the city.  The score rock building, designed by the prolific Paist, is set at the busiest intersection in downtown Coral Gables-a pity, since the noise and traffic diminish its impressive decade: fronted with tall stately columns as well as a replica of the city seal, it's topped off by a multi-tiered, Spanish-inspired clocktower and plenty of ornamental moldings.  Paist drew direct inspiration from the City Hall Philadelphia, he tweaked the design by incorporating local elements like marine animals frolicking on the columns capitals.  Inside, you'll see sales poster from Coral Gables’ heyday, as well as newspaper clippings to illustrate how frenzied the Florida land boom of th e1920s truly was.  There's also a blandly decorative mural of the four seasons, painted by the ubiquitous  Denman Fink, in the belltower; it was recently spiffed up after years of neglect-note that while three of the seasons are represented by young women, Winters the old man.

Coral Gables Arts Center

Merrick was careful to keep his sales and artistic staff separate: he built what's now the colonnade for the former, while Denman Fink, Phineas Paist, and their staffs are housed at the Coral Gables arts center at 20 yeah no one Ponce de Leon Blvd..  Each person had an office that overlooks the magnificent spiral staircase in the main turret; the blue and white cloud painting on the ceiling was Merrick's nod to the buildings artistic purpose.  Today, the Art Center is simply a multi-tenant office building, but there's free public access to the turret’s lobby during business hours.

Coral way and DeSoto Blvd.

The forced to rebirth of downtown Coral Gables is most glaring as the Miracle Mile turns back into Coral Way immediately west of Lejeune Road.  Here, Mediterranean revival high-rise as proliferates, nurtured by a canny scheme that rewards those who construct in a locally appropriate style: called a Mediterranean bonus, which allows any such new structure to be 20% larger than a modernist counterpart, say 16 stories rather than 13.  Even so, Coral Way is an oddly soulless strip, and there's little to detain the casual visitor.  The most pleasant detour is a wander round the residential streets south of coral way, can be with enormous banyan trees.  Stop by thinks De Soto fountain near the Venetian Pool: it's an imposing centerpiece at the junction of Granada and De Soto boulevards and another example of Merrick's determination to provide aesthetic as well as civic amenities, in accordance with city beautiful precepts.  Most streets here are name for Spanish provinces and towns, usually pilfered by Eunice Merrick from Washington Irving's book, The Alhambra.  The few that aren't were chosen not by officials of Dade County and honor notable early locals.
Move West along coral way annual come across three interesting houses after crossing Toledo Street.  Merrick house, the first, was George's family home and is now Museum.  Further West stands Poinciana Place at number 937, one of the earliest structures in the city, though close to Merrick's home when he married Eunice Peacock in 1916: it's Mediterranean Revival style would serve as a template for later constructions.  Dock Dammers house, at number 1141, is unfortunately hard to see, stashed behind lush greenery a large corner plot at Columbus Boulevard.  This elaborate two-story home belonged to New York or Dammers, a smooth-talking auctioneer who come to the area on the bidding of Carl Fisher to sell land in Downtown Miami. He was then employed by Merrick to bring his magic to Coral Gables: tactics included gifts like boxes of grapefruit and trinkets given to the audience in between each lot, which guaranteed him a healthy crowd.  Once a plot had been sold, the building plans and coral rock needed to construct a house were provided free of charge.  When the city was incorporated, his fame among locals was high enough to secure him the post of first Mayor of Coral Gables.

The Coral Gables Merrick House

Designed by Georgia's eccentric and artistic mother Althea, the Coral Gables Merrick house, at 907 coral way, has been ably restored into a compact showpiece of Florida in shotgun design, its central ventilating hallway and wraparound veranda ideal for money South Florida summers.  The simple wooden structure at the rear of the building was home to the Merrick's when they arrived here in 1889 from New England to run the hundred and 60-acre for vegetable farm.  The venture was such a success that the shack was later augmented by a grander house of coral rock and termite-resistant local pine: it was christened Coral Gables, passing its name on to the city that later grew up around the family farm.  The dual blows of the property crash in a citrus plight led to the gradual deterioration of the house, until restoration began in the 70s.  The house now showcases artwork by Denman Fink, as well as various Merrick Herb Ely a, along with an informative video that gives an overview of Coral Gables history.  Upstairs, look for the chest Merrick received from King Alonso XIII of Spain, who decorated him in 1927 for creating a Spanish-inspired city in North America, is a pleasant rustic grotto decorating the entrance to the small servants house at the rear: the grotto was once much larger, until Merrick's practical mother sold some land to pay for her grandson's dental work.
By the entrance to the car park, don’t miss one oddball remnant of Coral Gables’ past that demonstrates how aesthetic considerations always overruled practical ones in Merrick's vision.  His traffic stop signs originally at ankle level to avoid interrupting this does until, of course, they proved rather and save; there's an example of one in the undergrowth here.

Venetian Pool

 South of the Coral Gables Merrick house, along DeSoto Blvd, you'll find the magical Venetian Pool, at number 2701, originally known as the Venetian Casino.  As local coral rock was plundered to built the original homes in Coral Gables, and unsightly quarry developed in the heart of the area, which Merrick, along with the uncle and artist Denman Fink, ingeniously transformed into one of Miami's most appealing attractions.  Merrick knew from the outset it was one of Coral Gables most appealing features-this was his makeshift sale center in the earliest days of the city.  Officially intended as another civic project for the benefit of local residents, it's a delightful place to spend an afternoon.
Despite its ornamentation, the pool was never designed with the social elite in mind; admission was cheap and open to all, and even today, local residents get a special discount.  Surrounded by shade porticos, rocks-iron railings, and Palm-study pass, and Venetian-style bridges, and deep-Bluewater wins its way through coral rock caves and spills over to waterfalls-there's even a landlocked speech for sunbathers.  Locker rooms are spotless, as are the tiled colonnades that display photographs of the pool in its heyday, when water sports celebrities like Johnny Weissmuller and Esther Williams performed here, or the Olympic champion Peter Desjardins gave daily diving exhibitions.  Until recent changes in labor laws, one of the perks of employment as the head lifeguard at the pool was to live on site, in the ornate turret above the ticket booth.

Coral Gables Congregational Church

Just Southwest from the Venetian Pool, the Coral Gables Congregational Church, 3010 De Soto Blvd., is another of Merrick's lofty civic projects, designed as a replica of a church in Mexico-he donated the land and dedicated the building to his late father, a Congregational minister.  The church itself is a bright, ornate Spanish revival flurry whose belfry echoes the imposing tower of the Biltmore across the street.  The interior is dark-more Spanish Inquisition than Spanish revival-with much elaborately-wrought-iron work and fine acoustics, especially notable during the regular jazz and classical concerts held here.  Sunday services are held at 9:15 a.m. and 11 a.m.

The Biltmore Hotel

Merrick's crowning achievement-aesthetically if not financially-was no doubt the Biltmore Hotel, at 1200 Anastasia Ave, which raft is brought wings around the southern end of De Soto Blvd., the third in a trio of Miami towers inspired by the Geralda Belltower in Seville, Spain.
Surprisingly, given its grand scale, the hotel took less than a year to construct: from March 1925, workers lived in a tent city nearby and work 24 hours a day to meet the opening date of January 15, 1926.  1000 VIPs were brought down from New York luxury train and genuine Venetian gondoliers punted guests through the Coral Gables waterways to the nearby beach.  Since then, the Biltmore has weathered rough seas: the hotel sold to new owner string of depression, became a military hospital for burn victims after World War II-the pool was fenced in, a small store opened in the lower corner to sell candy in the giant ocher building was whitewashed.  Then, following the hospital's closure, it was an illicit hang-at per local teenagers, eventually, they became renovated at a cost of $55 million, a project that included partially filling in the pool, as it is to even modern safety regulations.  The Biltmore reopened as a hotel in 1993 but the new owners probably went bust and it closed again for two years before current management of covert. If you can't afford to stay here, at least step in to marvel at the space.  It's easy enough to wander round without a guide: otherwise, they're free tours every Sunday at 130, 230, 3:30 p.m.-though these are mostly disappointing.  For a sprightlier take on its history, stop by each Thursday evening when a local historian recounts the grisly stories of ghosts and murders at the Biltmore-including the death of El Cajon's bodyguard, that's Walsh, killed while his boss was something at the prohibition-era speakeasy stashed on the 13th floor of the tower.  Meet at the main lobby with a fireplace at 7 p.m.
the neighboring Biltmore country club, also open to the public, is as daily as it sounds.  You can you’re your head inside for a closer look at its painstakingly renovated though artsy features, but most will turn up to knock the ball along the lush fairways of the Biltmore golf course, which, in the glory days of the hotel, posted the highest paying golf tournament in the world.

South Coral Gables

The southern reaches of Coral Gables are primarily residential, aside from the campus of the University of Miami, built in the 1920s on land donated by Merrick.  The school almost went bankrupt in its early years, but is now a thriving institution, known especially for the successful Hurricanes football team.
Merrick late additions to the city plan, architectural stunts known as the International Villages, are mostly in this area, and it's here you'll find the canals which sparked Coral Gables claimed to be the Venice of America.  In fact, much like the Venetian Pool, or simply dolled-up byproducts of the construction: having hewn chunks of coral rock from the ground to build houses, Merrick simply filled the holes with water and called them canals, employing real gondoliers every night to authenticate his claim.

The International Villages

Even though for the great hurricane of 1926, the market for housing in Merrick's new city had begun to soften. To revive interest, he worked with Myers why.  Cooper, a banker and former governor of Ohio, to cook up a gimmick that's now one of the area signature features: the international villages.  14 were planned, each representing a different style and each overseen a different architects.  Unfortunately, constraints of time and money dictated only seven were built: the hoped-for remainders had showy themes like Japanese, African bazaar, Persian canal, and Tangier, as well as the more restrained Italian country, Neapolitan Baroque, and Mexican Hacienda.  Today, the seven standing are among the priciest in the city. They include.
The buildings of the Chinese village were designed by Henry Murphy, who lived in the far east entrance completed buildings for Yale University in China.  The arguably the most dazzling, notable for their brightly colored groups and ornately carved balconies; ironically, though, they are the least saleable and fetch the lowest real estate prices of all.  Another photogenic cluster, a French Normandy Village, looks thoroughly Elizabeth and, thanks to its thick, chocolate-brown-beam-studded stucco of decade and red-tile roofs.  It has weathered surprisingly well, too, given that it was once owned by the University of Miami and housed five fraternities, then was turned over to soldiers barracks in World War II. 
Close by, the Dutch South African village is less eye-catching.  Look for the cabled and dormer to roofs inspired by the houses that were built by wealthy poor settlers in South Africa, as well as connecting windows that make the two-storied houses look like bungalows.  In contrast, see the grand colonial-style mansions of the Florida pioneer village; in Greek revival style, they feature pillars and verandas as well as in Congress white-picket fences.
18th-century-style townhouses make up the French city village; you'll know them for the four-foot-high walls around the buildings, enclosing courtyards and kitchen gardens.  Its rural companion, the French country village includes buildings assigned to echo French farmhouses, with steeply pitched, crossed-gabled groups, rock-iron balconies, and, best of all, huge backyards.
Finally, the Italian village is a larger, busier collection of homes in a tiny country in Venetian styles, and as a result standout less from their Mediterranean revival neighbors; identify them, look for exterior stairways and walled gardens.
For some time, six of the seven quirky clusters were designated as national historic landmarks-with all the prestige and red tape that brings to the owners.  Until recently, though, residents of the French city village held that against this bothersome honor.  All it took for them to reconsider was one owners Girish exterior paint job-a deep mustard that had been approved by the city and his neighbors-for them to petition to join the other six settlements on the register.  Even the villages have become part of the development mania that is sweeping through Miami: real-estate speculators, following Merrick's lead, are planning a new round of villages, starting with the Bermuda-style cluster close to the South Dixie Highway.

The Lowe Art Museum

From its beginnings in 1950 as Miami's first professional exhibition space in a few rooms on the University of Miami campus, the low art Museum, at 1301 Stanford Drive, has grown through acquisitions and renovations to be one of the largest museums in Florida.  Its collection is large and diverse, featuring 19th-century, contemporary, Native American, and Renaissance art, even a sizable amount of Cuban ephemera, thanks to a donation from the controversial Cuban Museum of the Americas in Little Havana, which closed its doors in 1999.  Unfortunately, though, that diversity is its downfall: the Renaissance collection is growing and nondescript, while the Impressionist works are primarily small, early canvases by Sicily and Monet.  It works that do standout include the eerily lifelike football player by local sculptor Duane Hanson, and some paintings by pop innovator Roy Lichtenstien.  Overall, is pleasant enough, but not a patch on better collections at the Miami Art Museum Downtown or at the Margulies and Rubell collections in Wynwood.

The Miami Art Central

On the border with South Miami, Miami art central, and 5960 SW 57th Ave, is the newest are many amenities mushrooming modern scene.  A 30,000 ft.² space, it only displays temporary shows housed in a simple 1940s telephone building.  The place was organized and funded by Venezuelan philanthropist and art lover Ella Cisernos, who taps avante-garde artists to come in and carry exhibitions.  Past shows have included artistic reaction to the question “How do we want to be governed?” and “10 Floridians,” which, despite its title, and by the international curators to give their own perspectives on Miami.