Cover: Office of Commodore Hugh Matheson Sr. in 1928
Figure 1: Ad in Miami Herald for Canned Honey in 1925
The cover photo provides a view of Commodore Hugh Matheson Senior’s office at 418 SW Second Avenue looking north from the Miami River on September 15, 1928. The office was located on the north side of the Miami River and once served as the clubhouse and administrative offices for the Biscayne Bay Yacht Club for six years after the clubhouse in Bayfront Park was closed following the hurricane of 1926.
Matheson was instrumental in securing land on South Bayshore Drive in Coconut Grove for the construction of the Walter DeGarmo designed contemporary club house. The club has been located at 2540 South Bayshore Drive since its opening in 1932.
The office location was also used by Matheson for canning fresh honey, selling boats and marine generators, as well as growing and selling coconut palm trees. The trees were grown on and around the property seen in the photograph.
Figure 2: Ad for Entrada in Miami Herald in 1924
By 1924, during the peak of the real estate boom, Matheson was also marketing 30 plots of land in a small development in Coconut Grove called ‘Entrada’, which was located south of Matheson Avenue and east of Douglas Road. By the 1940s, the land in the picture would become a marina for Miami Marine Engineers. Today, the location of the buildings seen in the cover photo is green space behind (to the south), the City of Miami’s Building and Zoning Department offices at 444 SW Second Avenue.
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Photos:
- Cover: Office of Commodore Hugh Matheson Sr. in 1928. Courtesy of the Miami-Dade Public Library, Romer Collection.
- Figure 1: Ad in Miami Herald for Canned Honey in 1925. Courtesy of Miami Herald.
- Figure 2: Ad for Entrada in Miami Herald in 1924. Courtesy of Miami Herald.