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. […]
Read more and view photos »
The yearly grind of hurricane season for South Floridians has given way to many interesting and at times strange methods of dealing with mother nature. Take a look at hurricane seasons of years past.
Read more and view photos »
Building your own bomb shelter was a Cold War-era survival tactic for thousands of families nationwide and in South Florida. Welcome to the late ’50s and early ’60s, when nuclear nervousness gave urgency to a trend that made headlines in 1961. Everyone was building a shelter — or should have been, according to the experts […]
Read more and view photos »
The first bookmobile in Miami began in January of 1928. Since then, bookmobiles have been the bearers of books and carriers of culture for patrons in outlying areas. At the program’s peak in 1979, the county maintained about 20 bookmobiles that fanned out all over Dade County. People checked out 293,000 books from the mobile […]
Read more and view photos »
Matheson Hammock was founded in 1930 when the pioneer Matheson family donated 85 acres of tropical hardwood hammock off Old Cutler Road to Dade County. The family wanted the land to be used only for the benefit and enjoyment of the public as a botanical park and that it be “preserved and protected in a […]
Read more and view photos »
On September 15, 1928, Capt. Edwin Musick took off from a dirt runway with 340 pounds of mail and two passengers bound for Key West. It was the first recorded flight from what would become Miami International Airport. Pan American Airways shifted its operations from Key West to Miami and purchased 116 acres of swampland […]
Read more and view photos »
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 […]
Read more and view photos »
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 […]
Read more and view photos »
Biscayne Bay became known as a party place in the early 1940s after Commodore Edward Turner built the Quarterdeck Club on a barge a mile south of Cape Florida, near an area eventually known as Stiltsville. The club, which had a bar, a dining room, a game room and charter members with vice-commodore titles, was featured […]
Read more and view photos »
The Miami Herald's photo archives offer a front-row seat to South Florida's past. Explore the town like never before with our historical trail app
Browse our many collections & find the perfect print for your home or office display, framed and matted.
Submit a request to use our editorial content (articles, photographs, graphics, headlines, or page images) in your publication or other media.
