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0560956266 Albert Coya

Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden

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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Staff Photographer The Miami Herald / John Rogers P

Miami Dolphins

In 1965, the American Football League awarded an expansion franchise to Joe Robbie and television star Danny Thomas for $7.5 million. The naming of the franchise was left to the public. “Dolphins” was submitted by 622 entrants in a contest that attracted 19,843 entries.”The dolphin is one of the fastest and smartest creatures in the […]

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Hialeah - Misc. (File 1) Bob East

Hialeah

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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Soccer-Pro-Miami Toros

Miami Toros

The Miami Toros only played for five seasons before moving to Ft Lauderdale and becoming the Strikers in 1977. In their first year, the Toros were called the Gatos, which is Spanish for “cat”. John Bilotta, a Rochester, N.Y., businessman, had mistakenly thought soccer, not baseball, was the national sport of Cuba and that Cubans […]

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Miami Womans Club Dave Didio

Women’s Club

Women’s clubs have played a significant role in Miami’s social and cultural life, going back to about 1900, when the Miami Women’s Club was established as “The Married Ladies’ Afternoon Club.” Other early women’s clubs were founded in Coral Gables in 1923, in Miami Beach in 1926 and in Coconut Grove even earlier. The Miami […]

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Miami Skline - Prior to 1967 City Of Miami News Bureau

Miami Skyline

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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Tropic Covers

Take a look at the cover art of the Miami Herald’s award-winning Sunday magazine that ran from 1967 to 1998.

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Metrorail Passengers Al Diaz

Metrorail

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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Houseboat (File - 2) John Pineda

Houseboats

Free spirits looking for an aquatic lifestyle and spectacular views created laid-back waterfront communities that have been a staple of South Florida life.  The floating homes were popularized in the 1960s by Travis McGee, the rough and romantic detective who lived on a houseboat and also by a popular TV series called Surfside Six, based […]

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Seaboard Railroad Albert Coya

Seaboard Railroad

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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