First Mayor’s Mansion to House of Worship

Nestled in the heart of Little Havana is a mansion that was once the residence of Miami's first mayor, John B. Reilly. It has served as the home of a Russian orthodox church since 1954.

Cover: Saints Peter & Paul Russian Orthodox Greek Catholic Church at 1411 SW Eleventh Street in 2024. Courtesy of Casey M. Piket.

In the heart of the Little Havana neighborhood can be found an architectural gem situated on a generously proportioned corner lot at SW 14^th Avenue and SE 11^th Street. It is clear that the building harkens back to a foregone time period in Miami. In fact, the mansion at 1411 SW Eleventh Street has not only experienced nearly a century of history, but given the association with the first Mayor of Miami, the person who constructed the residence, it was tightly intertwined with the city’s early history.

When a building has lasted nearly 100 years, as is the case with this historic white mansion, it is not uncommon for that structure to have more than one act. In the case of Miami’s first mayor’s residence, its second act is one of a spiritual nature. At the time John Reilly, Miami’s first mayor, and his wife, Marie, constructed this mansion at 1411 SW Eleventh Street, they were planning on it being their last residence. As it turned out, the time spent in their dream home was much shorter than they expected.

The couple’s daughter, Eleanor, and husband, Joseph Pero, moved into the opulent manor in the mid-1930s after her mother’s passing. The Pero family raised their children and lived in the mansion until the mid-1950s, at which time they sold it to an unlikely buyer.  It is not often that a single-family residence gets a second act as house of worship, but that was the case with the Reilly / Pero home when a Russian orthodox church acquired the property in 1954. This is the story of the first mayor of Miami and how his mansion found a higher calling years after his passing.