South Beach History

South Beach history doesn't reveal the roots of the present day glamour, but today South Beach is one of the world's most chic, urban, trendy and luxurious resort destinations, as well as a mecca for the hip and top choice spot for photographers and models. Yet, as little as just over one hundred years ago, it was a bug-infested sandbar off the coast of a small town called Miami. See how South Beach Miami rose from the ground to become what we know it today, as the up most in chic luxury travel and shopping. From these humble beginnings of South Beach history, it's hard to tell how it ever became the mecca for glamour it is today.

Humble Beginnings as a Sandbar

The east coast of southern Florida is a new development, developed in the early 1900s. South Beach history is really a short story! Before the 20th century, there were Indians in the area, but the land was undisturbed and unchanged by human forces. In the late 1800s, white settlers began to arrive and drain the area from Lake Okeechobee southward. They also began to make settlements in the Miami area around the close of the century. Miami was still a backwater small town, and Miami beach was a deserted island off visible from that backwater, separated by a nasty swamp. If you ventured out to South Beach Miami anytime before the 1920s, you'd find swamp, mosquitos, mangroves, and that's about it. It wasn't even as big as it is today, only about as wide as three blocks. It really was just a small sandbar.

Plantations on South Beach Miami

In 1868 a man by the name of John Lum was traveling from Havana by steamer. His steamer eased by Miami Beach, and he was drawn to what he saw there, as many New Jerseyans such as himself would be in the coming decades. However, he wasn't drawn to South Beach Miami for its retirement and travel possibilities, as were the New Jerseyans who came later on. He saw lines of coconut palms, and envisioned a coconut plantation. When he got home he got busy putting his plan into action. He searched out investors, and when he had enough cash, bought the whole island and his own role in South Beach history for $.35 an acre!

Unfortunately his coconut plantation dream became a nightmare. The mosquitos were just too much, and made working on South Beach Miami a living hell for anyone who attempted it. Not only that, but the soil there was infertile and his crops died. On top of that, there was blight which really ruined the palms. He gave it his all, and didn't quit until 1890, at which point he just deserted the island and left it for the mosquitos.

Around 1910 South Beach Miami attracted another New Jerseyan to its shores, and his name was John Collins. You can probably tell already that he made some kind of mark on the island, since the most famous and prestigious addresses on South Beach Miami are Collins Ave, facing the beach. John Collins was actually one of the people who had invested in Lum's plantation on Miami Beach. But he was to play a different role in South Beach's history. He was a horticulturist, and also had visions of plantations on South Beach Miami. He had taken the brand new Florida East Coast Railway down to South Beach Miami to take a look at where he had lost his investment money. He quickly decided to take Lum's ruins of a plantation and grow avocados. Taking advantage of Florida's year-round sunshine and good weather, he planted crops that gave fruit all year. It worked, and he had bumper crops. But he too had obstacles: there was no easy way to get his crops off the island and into Miami for transport to market.

John Collins didn't give up easily, and began work on building a canal and bridge that would connect South Beach Miami to the mainland and railroad, and carry his avocados to market for sale. Unfortunately, he ran out of money and never finished the project.

Fairy Land

Two banker brothers who had financed John Collins' bridge to South Beach Miami were forced to buy out the project, and were now owners of a half-completed bridge, canal, and real estate. Their names were John and James Lummus. Their vision was completely different from Lum's and Collins': they saw what they called Fairy Land. This would be a bathhouse on the ocean for tourists who would arrive on the new East Coast Railway. The bridge wasn't finished, so visitors could reach the bathhouse on a ferry from the Miami coast. This was the beginning of South Beach Miami as a resort destination. So, you can't say ol' John Lum's coconut plantation came to naught. He began the chain of events and connection of people that led to modern chic South Beach Miami. A very important role in South Beach history!

The American Riviera

Carl Fisher is the next man to edge South Beach Miami further along into its modern state. He was a mover and shaker in the early part of the twentieth century, and he had visions and dreams for South Beach Miami, too. He was already rich and important, with a winter home in Miami. He was a marketing genius, and created the Indianapolis Speedway, and was the first to market the headlight for cars. As he boated around the waters in Miami's Biscayne Bay, he noticed the unfinished bridge left by Collins, half standing in the water. Fisher approached Collins with a deal. Together, the men with teams of black workers from Missippi and from the Bahamas and by 1913 the tiny sandbar had become a giant island with its first luxury hotel. Fisher had finished Collins' bridge for him in return for some of Collins' land which was next to land owned by the Lummuns brothers. The Lummuns brothers and Carl Fisher were the ones who brought in the workers, the heavy equipment and skyrocketing costs. They tore down the thick mangroves, dredged the bay with machines powered by burning mangrove wood, and used the scooped out sand to add to the sandbar, extending it from three blocks wide out to nine blocks. Then they brought in soil from the Everglades and planted grass. Trees were brought in to line the street and voila we have South Beach!

So, Collins finally got his bridge, and Carl Fisher built his first luxury hotel, The Flamingo. It has a glass tower that rose to eleven stories and was lit up in the night. He also built himself a new winter home on the island, and created the Lincoln Road shopping area, known as the "Fifth Avenue of the South". Tourists flocked to South Beach Miami in their yachts, to the newly-dug deep canals, to stay in the hotel and shop at the expensive stores on Lincoln Road. Seeing all this, more visitors came, along with people who wanted to buy land and more hotels. By 1921 there were five hotels. So many people came to South Beach Miami that they sometimes couldn't find room at the hotels, and slept in the park.

Segregation in South Beach Miami

John Collins and Carl Fisher owned property on the northern part of Miami Beach, and they made it a point to keep that area exclusive. It was, after all, where Fisher had his new winter home. They marketed their real estate sales to wealthy mid-Westerners and absolutely did not allow the sale of land to Jews. Jews were to buy land in the southern end of the island, what is now known as South of Fifth. The Lummus brothers owned the land in this southern part of South Beach Miami, and therefore their sales were mainly to middle-class Jews from New Jersy and New York. Even after World War II, the northern part of Miami Beach was fancier and meant to be reserved for wealthy Gentile clientele. The hotels north of South Beach Miami actually had signs in them saying No Dogs or Jews Allowed, right up until as late as 1949. In 1949 such signs were banned on South Beach Miami.

African Americans had it even worse, and segregation continued for them after it had officially ended for the Jews in 1949. They were required to carry passes onto South Beach Miami stating they had jobs there. Harry Belafonte performed in 1963 at the Eden Roc hotel, and stayed there too. This was the Civil Rights movement in South Beach Miami, and a year later the Civil Rights Act made it illegal to discriminate in South Beach Miami, as well as the rest of the country.

Neglect

As South Beach Miami lost its lustre for many travelers in the 1960s and 1970s, and buildings fell into decay, middle class Jews from the North continued to arrive for retirement. They stayed at the old hotels, enjoying the sunshine and creating social networks that sustained them. South Beach Miami was so known as a retirement mecca, it was called God's Waiting Room. This was a depressing time in South Beach history.

Revival

Now the upswing of South Beach history. The preservation movement in South Beach Miami took hold in the late 1970s and early 1980s. It was led by Barbara Capitman, Leonard Horowitz, and a group of other dedicated artists, writers, and photographers determined not to let the faded beauty of old Art Deco buildings fall into complete ruins. There were also David Kaminsky, Richard HOberman, Linda Plansky, Dennis Wilhelm, Lynn Bernstein, and Woody Vondracek. The list goes on and on. The fruit of their labors was and is the MiMi Beach Art Deco District, or South Beach. The radical new pastel colors of the restored buildings made people notice the area and its cause, and helped put South Beach back on the map. South Beach Miami got listed on the National Register of Historic Places. There was new recognition for the South Beach art world.

The Mariel Boat Lift

The early 1980s brought 125,000 Cuban refugees in the Mariel Boat Lift to the greater South Beach Miami area. Many of them stayed in South Beach and this resulted in a slow decline in population of the area of Jewish elderly. It also resulted in an increase in crime, and the neighborhood was in a terrible state for quite a while. The refugees were destitute and changed the area's flavor considerably. What had happened, was that Castro opened up the flood gates in 1980, allowing Cubans to leave the country. South Floridians flocked to harbors in Cuba by the thousands to pick up refugees, anyone who wanted to leave. Cubans jumped on any boat, and boats took anyone back to Miami, South Beach and the Keys. What they realized too late was that Castro had played an enormous joke on the US, virtually opening up his prisons, mental health facilities, and emptying out all the undesirables from Cuba. He also sent us his homeless, prostitutes, and gays as well. All these people descended on Miami and South Beach Miami, causing terrible strain on resources, and violent wave of crime, and nightmares for the citizens and property owners of the area. In South Beach Miami, where the remaining residents were mainly retired Jewish folks, people literally stayed shut inside their apartments, fearing the chaos outside their doors. South Beach Miami was seedier than ever, and now it was dangerous too. You could get a room for $7 well into the mid 1908s here, before renovation and upscaling really took hold.

Miami Vice

1984 was a big year for the South Beach Miami area, because it was in this year that Miami Vice first aired on television. It brought national attention to the wonderful mix of glamor and risky behavior of the area, and drew lots and lots of people here. From Miami Vice, there began a new parade of taste makers who wished to use South Beach Miami as a backdrop for their products. Calvin Klein shot his underwear ads here, as well as countless other apparel makers. Models, agencies, and photographers began to form the regular scene on South Beach Miami. Then came gays and artists who renovated so much of South Beach Miami and brought all sorts of flavor to the neighborhood. Now started pouring in the rich wealthy trendy New Yorkers. They demanded glitzy clubs, restaurants, shopping, and real estate developers soon followed. South Beach was now officially what it is today.

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