Landmarks

Long before the days of giant suburban malls, smack in the middle of downtown Miami, there was Burdines.  The roots of the grand department store are modest. The first store opened by William Burdine, a retired Confederate army officer,and his partner, Henry Payne, was a dry goods store in Bartow, Fla. By 1912, Burdines moved […]

Parrot Jungle, symbol of all that was exotic and tropical in Miami, opened in 1936 in what is now Pinecrest. Austrian-born Franz Scherr rented 20 acres of cypress and oak hammock and opened the tourist attraction, charging 25 cents admission to see the brightly colored birds and eventually the lush gardens. Generations of children grew […]

In the early 1950’s the seaplane base for Pan American World Airways at the south end of 27th Avenue became the Dinner Key Auditorium. The exhibition hall and auditorium is best known for the infamous 1969 concert where rocker Jim Morrison, lead singer of The Doors, was arrested on charges he exposed himself onstage.

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. […]