Place

YMCA Building in 1920 from McAllister Hotel

YMCA in Downtown Miami (1918 – 1978)

Sixty years is a good run for a building in Miami. Many of the city’s early twentieth century structures had a far shorter lifespan. When the YMCA building at 40 NE Third Avenue, aka Short Street, was opened in 1918,…


Former William Brickell III residence at 631 Brickell Avenue in 1950s

William Brickell III Residence in 1958

By the mid-1950s, a lot of the fine residences lining Brickell Avenue had begun to disappear in the name of progress. The neighborhood was evolving from single family residences to mid-rise commercial and apartment buildings during the growth period in…


Lady Lou Sightseeing Boat and Cardale Tower in 1910

The Miami River Upstream (1896 – 1915)

It is hard to imagine a time when today’s NW 27th Avenue was once considered the edge of the Everglades. The original tributaries of the Miami River once included a very active north fork that included a majestic rapids which…


Miami Skyline in 1925

Miami’s Biscayne Boulevard Skyline in 1925

The cover photo was taken from a pier on Biscayne Bay at the end of NE Fourth Street and North Bayshore Drive looking southwest during the peak of the building boom in 1925. Within a year of this photograph, North…


Roper Building on October 19, 1950

Roper Building in Downtown Miami

A caption found in the Miami Daily News on October 18, 1949, announced that the First Presbyterian Church in downtown would be razed that week. It suggested that citizens can get one last look at the historic church before it…