Brickell Key on Claughton Island

The history of a spoil island that became an island of residential condominiums known as Brickell Key on Claughton Island today.

Cover: Brickell Key on Claughton Island

As of the 2010 Census, Brickell Key consists of over 2800 residents. It is home to a five star hotel, office and retail, as well as, a public park. Brickell Key is largely regarded as paradise in the heart of Miami. It has come a long way from being an aggregation of discarded dredge material. Like so many islands found in Biscayne Bay, Brickell Key is a man-made creation.

When the Brickells arrived to the south side of the Miami River in 1871, William Brickell built a home and trading post. The location of these buildings would later be referred to as Brickell Point. When the Brickells looked east from their home, they saw nothing but bay water from Brickell Point to the peninsula that would later become Miami Beach. It wasn’t until Henry Flagler began to develop the city of Miami in 1896 that that view started to change. Flagler’s team removed a sand bar at the mouth of the Miami River. The team also used a dredge to deepen the river and bay adjacent to Flagler’s Royal Palm Hotel to create the first port of Miami.

The dredging of the Miami River was a point of contention for William Brickell. As part of the effort to deepen the Miami River, those that Flagler put in charge of dredging began to dump limestone and river silt along and just off the shore east of the Brickell property. It was the discard off the shoreline that began to create the first of two spoil islands.