BISCAYNE BOULEVARD AND ITS NEIGHBORHOODS: Miami's gateway for 150 years. Thoughts on promoting a sense of place. By Antolín García Carbonell, R.A. THE BAY Biscayne Bay has been an attraction to visitors since the 16th century when Spanish galleons stopped to replenish their water tanks before crossing the Atlantic. Julia Tuttle saw its potential as the heart of a great city while visiting her father, Charles Torrey Simpson studied its mangroves and migrating birds and taught us how to live in the tropics, Vivian Larramore Rader wrote poems about the clouds that cast shadows on its waters and the moon in her backyard's mango trees and validated our sense of place, Christo and Jean Claude wrapped its islands in pink polypropolyne and made it into a work of art. They all changed how we view Miami's greatest asset. They all lived or worked in North East Miami. THE RIVER Little River provided the easiest access from the bay, past the mangroves onto dry land on the coastal ridge. The Tekesta paddled their canoes upstream to a mound in today's El Portal, American settlers in the 1870's used to take their citrus to market before the railroads came, bootleggers in the 1920's used it to bring in liquor, boatyards still sell recreational craft from its north bank and throughout, manatees have swum upstream in season. Little River runs east-west between N.E. 77th and N.E. 78th Streets. It turns north around N.E. 5th Avenue, then turns west again between N. E. 84th and 86th Streets. THE SETTLEMENTS Dry land with waterfront access has always been desirable in South Florida. Lemon City, along N.E. 61st Street was the only place in the upper bay where this happened naturally. In 1889, this became our first urban center. The Florida East Coast Railroad in 1896 built stations at Buena Vista ( N.E. 36th Street) , Lemon City (N.E. 59th Street), Little River (N.E. 79th Street), and Biscayne (N.E. 103rd Street). These stations became the core our earliest settlements. THE ROAD The U.S. Army blazed the Military Trail between Fort Lauderdale and Fort Dallas on the Miami River along the coastal ridge in 1857, building the first bridge over Little River. In 1892, Dade County built its first paved road between Lantana and Lemon City using this same general alignment. In 1925, the U.S. government built the highway now known as U.S. 1. It incorporated the alignment of the 1892 county road between N.E. 90th Street and N.E. 61st Street. At N.E. 55th Street, it met up with a privately developed road called Biscayne Boulevard. It is still known as Biscayne Boulevard from downtown Miami to the Broward county line. THE PEOPLE Julia Tuttle: Fell in love with South Florida while visiting her father, Ephraim Sturvestant at his Biscayne farm between Biscayne Bay and the Military Trail around N.E. 100th Street. She eventually settled in Miami and acquired land all over North East Miami that became part of the deal that brought the Florida East Coast Railroad to Miami. Charles Torrey Simpson: Built a house he designed in 1903 on land he owned along N.E. 69th Street between the Lantana-Lemon City Road and Biscayne Bay. He catalogued the mangroves along the bay and Little River and documented the many varieties of plants growing in his neighborhood, promoting their use to newcomers. He hosted nature photographer John Kunkle Small and David Fairchild and his father-in-law, Alexander Graham Bell at his home, the Sentinels. In later years, the first meetings to save a portion of the Everglades as a park took place in this house. The ecological movement in South Florida started on N.E. 69th Street. A silkwood tree and 6 oaks that he planted survive on the grounds of the Palm Bay Club. Vivian Larramore Rader: Moved to Miami in 1920 and became poetry editor for the Miami News, publishing a weekly column, Miami Muse. One of the first meetings of the Laramore Rader Poetry group took place at Mr. Simpson's gardens where its members learned first hand about Florida's tropical flora and Mrs. Rader starter a life long love affair with Poincianas. After she was named Florida's Poet laureate in 1931, she started regular poetry readings and workshops at her homes, first on N.E. 35th Street and then at 8260 East Dixie Highway until she died in 1974. Mrs. Rader promoted Florida imagery in poetry, validating its use as a literary place making device. Her workshops prefigured the creative writing programs now offered in academic settings. A Poinciana she planted in front of her house on Dixie Highway in 1949 is still thriving. Christo and Jean-Claude: Fell in love with the islands in Biscayne Bay in the early 80's and conceived the Surrounded Islands project, taking their cue for the pink polypropolyne petals, from among other sources, Architect Laurinda Spear's Pink House on Biscayne Bay at N.E. 93rd Street. The Surrounded Islands, along with Art-Deco and later Miami Vice, contributed to turning Miami's image around after the riots and drug wars of the early 80's. The islands involved in this project have been restored and replanted with native vegetation by Miami-Dade County's Department of Environmental Regulation. The neighborhoods of north East Miami have numerous parks and 3 boat ramps for the public to view and visit these islands. THE INSTITUTIONS Cushman School: Founded in 1924 by the Cushman family, and displaced to its present location the following year by construction of Biscayne Boulevard it has maintained its high educational standards for over 80 years. Cushman family members still live in Belle Meade. Its main school building, designed by Architect Russell Skipton received historic designation prior to the creation of the MiMo-Biscayne Boulevard Historic District. MADAM SHERRY'S "Moorish Castle": Built in 1929 with the profits from bootlegging, this unusual building with a coral stone encrusted tower topped by a Hershey's kiss shaped dome located just west of the FEC railroad tracks at N.E. 54th Street , operated as Miami's second-best brothel ( Gertie Walsh's place on N.W. 22nd Avenue was number 1) until it was forced to close down at the start of World War II. Madam Sherry became a notorious figure after her tell all memoir, co-written with author Robert Tralins , Pleasure Was my Business was banned in Florida in 1961. The case went all the way to the Supreme Court, where in a landmark ruling, the ban was overturned. The "Moorish Castle" was demolished in 1958. American Legion Harvey Seeds Post 29: Moved in 1934 into the former William B. Ogden estate known as the Tee House, a coral stone faced mansion. Playboy Club: In 1963 Playboy Club founder Hugh Heffner opened the first franchise of his Chicago Club at the former Saratoga Inn on Biscayne Boulevard next to the Little River Bridge. The club's non-discrimination policy set it at odds with Miami's white establishment in the waning days of Jim Crow. While in its early years it provided a venue for top entertainment, by the mid 1960's, it had become a catalyst for attracting prostitutes and later drug dealers from their previous haunts on N.W. 79th Street to the sidewalks and motels of Biscayne Boulevard. The club finally closed in 1978. Only a retaining wall remains of the original building. THE ARCHITECTURE In the summer of 2006 the city of Miami 27 blocks of Biscayne Boulevard Miami's first commercial historic district. There are 115 buildings within its boundaries, but only 65 are classified as contributing. The Mimo-Biscayne Boulevard Historic Designation Report contains extensive descriptions and histories of individual buildings, building types and styles. Some of the adjacent neighborhoods constitute historic districts, but residential examples of the same architectural styles are present throughout North East Miami. THE MAIN STYLES ARE: MEDITERRANEAN REVIVAL: Most of these residences and commercial buildings are clustered around the Cushman School in Morningside between 55th and 60th Streets in the Bayshore subdivision. ART DECO: There is a cluster of 3-story hotels and 2-story mixed use buildings between N.E. 71st and 74th Streets. MiMo: Approximately 16 out of over 20 motels designed in this style survive long the length of Biscayne Boulevard. The surviving dynamic, multi-colored neon signs on pylons or building facades constitutes the most memorable architectural component of this district.