William Jennings Bryan

George Merrick speaking at the Cornerstone Dedication.

University of Miami Cornerstone Dedication in 1926

More than seven thousand people converged on the site selected for the University of Miami in Coral Gables to witness the cornerstone laying ceremony on Thursday, February 4, 1926. The pomp and circumstance surrounding this event represented a seminal moment…


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,…


Cottages on Brickell Point on July 8, 1940

Cottages of Brickell Point

The headline in the Miami Metropolis on June 3, 1910, read “An Old Landmark About to Become a Memory” which was referencing the end of the store building on Brickell Point. The structure was constructed by William Brickell and others…