Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Henry Flagler's Royal Palm Hotel - 1900

Photograph by William Henry Jackson.
via Library of Congress.
(Click images to enlarge.)





Miami Archives, May 26, 2012: Henry Flagler's Royal Palm Hotel



Thursday, February 20, 2014

Miami skyline - July, 1941


Miami skyline. July, 1941.
(Click here to enlarge.)
via Library of Congress




Venetian Causeway - July, 1941


ORIGINAL CAPTION: "Daily temperature readings 
are seen on Venetian Causeway between 
Miami and Miami Beach, Florida."
July, 1941. 
(Click here to enlarge.)
via Library of Congress




Wednesday, February 19, 2014

Clay Hotel, Miami Beach - July, 1941


Clay Hotel, Washington Ave., Miami Beach. July, 1941.
ORIGINAL CAPTION: "Washington Boulevard, shopping 
district in Miami Beach, Florida."
(Click here to enlarge.)
via Library of Congress


Miami Daily News, June 2, 1940.
(Click to enlarge.)



Monday, February 17, 2014

1925 newspaper ad for Coral Gables real estate

From the Miami Daily News, Aug. 24, 1925.



Click here to enlarge.



Musa Isle was Miami's first tourist trap


Musa Isle Fruit Farm. (1912)
Original caption: Lady Lou entering the mouth of state 

drainage canal, Miami, Fla. 
All images via the Library Congress.
(Click here to enlarge.)

The city even had its first tourist trap, a place called Musa Isle, three miles up the Miami River, not far from such present-day monuments as the Metro Justice Center and the Orange Bowl.

A launch, the Sallie, ferried tourists to Musa Isle from the dock at the Royal Palm Hotel. The trip was de rigueur for Royal Palm guests, no less so than a round of golf on the hotel links or a lesson from Percy Cavill, hotel swimming pro.

As the Sallie puttered through the mangroves, tourists craned to glimpse their first alligator. At the Musa Isle gift shop, they bought post cards and guava jelly. There was a three-story observation tower, admission one dime, from which a visitor could gaze westward over "the mysterious Everglades, where only Indians dare go." -Miami Herald, Oct. 8, 1989.

_________


Detail from above photograph.
(Click here to enlarge.)


Avenue of Royal Palms, Musa Isle, Miami, Fla.  (1912)
(Click here to enlarge.)

Miami Daily Metropolis, Nov. 26, 1919.

Miami Daily Metropolis, Oct. 25, 1921.
(Click here to enlarge.)

Miami Daily News, Jan. 15, 1929. 

Miami Daily News, July 31, 1942. 


From the Miami Herald, Oct. 16, 1987...
Miami at the turn of the century was so close to the Everglades that the River of Grass dropped several feet in a fall near Northwest 30th Avenue and 18th Terrace, creating rapids dramatic enough to power a starch mill and attract tourists in sightseeing boats. Earlier, it was a settlement that briefly supported a 1,000-acre riverside plantation until Indians scared off the newcomers. In the 1830s, the mouth of the river became home to the soldiers of Fort Dallas (where the DuPont Plaza Hotel stands today), and by the end of the era several enterprising gentlemen had found lucrative ways to use the river.

Charles Richardson, whose citrus groves upstate were devastated in the freeze of 1895-96, settled on Musa Isle at Northwest South River Drive and 25th Avenue, where he and his son set up a fruit stand. On their outings to the rapids, tourists stopped there to buy produce. Soon riverboats were plying the waters, carrying sightseers to a 60-foot wooden observation tower with a vista of the rapids and the glades beyond and to another attraction on the south bank at Northwest 19th Avenue, Coppinger's Tropical Garden and Indian Village. It was there that Henry Coppinger Jr. practiced the art of alligator wrestling, which he taught to Indians, who carry on the tradition to this day.

Undated tourist brochure for Musa Isle.
The attraction was closed in 1964. 





Sunday, February 16, 2014

Surf Motel in Key West - 1950s


The Surf Motel at 521 United Street, Key West.
(Click image to enlarge.)



[via]



el Prado Restaurant in Key West - 1950s


Click here to enlarge.



[via]


Mobile post office in Key West, Florida - 1960s

Mobile Post Office in the Food Fair Shopping
Center at 2500 North Roosevelt, Key West. (1960s)
(Click to enlarge.)



[via]


Saturday, February 15, 2014

Newspaper ad for the Miami Pop Festival - 1968


Miami News, Dec. 27, 1968.
(Click here to enlarge.)






Sidewalk Cafe, Key West - 1950s


Sidewalk Cafe,  423 Duval Street. (1950s)
(Click image to enlarge.)



[via]


Dania, Florida - Jan. 1937


Dania welcomes you. Jan. 1937.
All photographs by Arthur Rothstein. 
(Click here to enlarge.)

Toilets and showers for occupants of
a trailer camp near Dania, Florida.
(Click here to enlarge.)

Original caption: Scene in an auto trailer camp near Dania, Florida,
where 200 cars are encamped. This is one of Florida's higher class
trailer camps, the rates being $5.00 weekly including electricity.
(Click here to enlarge.)



[via]



Thursday, February 6, 2014

1948 newspaper ad for the Colonial Inn in Hallandale

From the Miami Daily News, Feb. 15, 1948.






Tuesday, February 4, 2014

1928 newspaper ad for the Venetian Hotel

From the Miami Daily News, Jan. 14, 1928.






Miami Archives: Miami's Venetian Hotel