When it opened on October 1, 1962, on Kendall Drive off U.S. 1, Dadeland was dubbed ‘deadland’ because North Kendall Drive, which passes in front of it, was branded “The Road to Nowhere.” Built as an open-air strip center, Dadeland started up at 400,000 square feet with 62 merchants, including Burdines as its only anchor. […]
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Tropical Park, at Bird Road and Palmetto Expressway, was Tropical Park race track from 1931 to 1972. The 245-acre track opened Dec. 26, 1931, and closed after the 1972 racing season. For 40 years, it was a winter haven for northern and local gamblers, jockeys and horse owners. By 1971, the track was in financial […]
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The Miami Herald reported in 1952 on the burgeoning number of local drive-in restaurants staffed by scantily clad young women. “There seems to be a race going on among Miami drive-in restaurant owners to see who can clothe curvaceous curb cuties in the tightest sweaters and the briefest shorts,” a Herald story by reporter Pat […]
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The Museum of Science and Natural History spread its welcome mat on September 25, 1960. Miamians stared open-mouthed and wide-eyed at exhibits like the 14-foot Kodiak bear; a giant globe in the lobby (originally built for Pan American Airlines); Seminole and Tequesta Indians scenes; and a planetarium. The museum, originally conceived in 1949 by The […]
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For decades David Fairchild, botanist, horticulturist, and explorer, traveled the world collecting unique specimens of tropical plants and trees. In charge of the federal government’s Section of Seed and Plant Introduction, he first came to Miami in 1898 from his Washington, D.C., office to see a laboratory set up in a clearing in a wild […]
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Hialeah was named by a Seminole Indian named Willie Willie, when pioneer developer James Bright asked him to describe the property. He called it Hi-ale-ah, which means pretty prairie or high prairie. Bright, a cattleman from Missouri, came to Miami in 1909 and bought 640 acres of submerged land northwest of the city. Within a […]
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In years past, Miami’s skyline has been defined by the distinctive silhouette of the Freedom Tower, the I.M Pei-designed CenTrust Savings and Loan building or the arching MacArthur Causeway, connecting Miami Beach to the mainland. More recently, skyscrapers have increasingly populated the horizon and neon has punctuated the tropical night skies. What was once a […]
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Two decades in the making, Metrorail was the largest public works project in Florida history. Planning for Metrorail began in 1958. Construction began in June 1979. In 1981, county officials revealed that inflation and construction and land costs had caused the system’s budget to grow from $867 million to $987 million. There was also allegations […]
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The rush during the late ’20s was so great that Henry Flagler’s Florida East Coast tracks couldn’t handle all the business. So the Seaboard Air Line railroad reached down from North Florida, building stations along the way. On Jan. 8, 1927, a train called the Orange Blossom Special made its first journey into Hollywood and […]
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The Wynwood neighborhood, a local arts mecca and one of Miami’s hippest neighborhoods, was once known as the “golden gate” for Hispanic immigrants. A melting pot of Puerto Ricans, Cubans, Haitians, African-Americans, Nicaraguans and Dominicans that had been crippled by a bad image and a deteriorating economy. In the 1950s, Wynwood — originally spelled Wyndwood […]
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