Miami:: The Magic City

By Seth H Bramson

Miami sprang into existence on July 28, 1896, following the extension of the Florida East Coast Railway from West Palm Beach on April 15, 1896, and the publication of the soon-to-be city's first newspaper, The Miami Metropolis, on May 15, 1896. However, evidence suggests people lived in the area as early as the 1700s. Nicknamed "the Magic City" by publicists working for railroad and hotel builder Henry Flagler, Miami has weathered yellow fever epidemics, World War I, the 1920s boom and bust, World War II, and numerous other economic ups and downs to become one of the world's great cities and the catalyst for the growth of the South Florida megalopolis.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
• Release date: Sep 18, 2012
• ISBN: 9781439633588

Seth H Bramson

Seth Bramson is Miami's foremost local historian. He is America's single most-published Florida history book author, with sixteen of his twenty-two books dealing directly with the villages, towns, cities, counties, people and businesses of the South Florida Gold Coast. Bob Jensen retired in Homestead as a Navy Commander after serving 28 years. He served in Germany, the Philippines, the US Embassy in Cyprus, Iceland, and twice at the National Security Agency and at Naval Security Group Headquarters in Washington D.C.

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INTRODUCTION

The question Is another Miami book necessary is valid only to those who feel that they have a patent on proffering Miami’s history. The fact is that the last Miami history was done more than 10 years ago, in 1996, during the city’s centennial year, and this book is the first and only detailed photographic history, using primarily images from the author’s collection, of what is now one of the world’s greatest, best-known, and most exciting cities. Further, this is the first and only photographic history that focuses and concentrates solely on the city of Miami and does not extend into other areas of Miami-Dade County.

The story of Julia Tuttle, William and Mary Brickell, the Sewell brothers, Commodore Ralph Munroe, the Peacocks, Isadore Cohen, the Burdines, D. A. Dorsey, the Stirrups of Coconut Grove, Dr. James A. Jackson, and so many other pioneers is well known and has been told no few times, but the presentation of that story in a unique photographic format such as this is a first.

Miami’s springing into existence as a city on July 28, 1896, without ever having been a village, town, or other incorporated area is well documented, but in order to give a true and factual picture of how it happened, the Orange Blossom Myth must first be debunked.

The story that Julia Tuttle, the Mother of Miami, sent Henry Flagler, the builder of Florida’s east coast, some orange blossoms and that he then extended the railroad to what would become Miami is pure hype. Tuttle had, for several years, been beseeching first Henry Plant (famous for his building of railroads and hotels in Central Florida and on the state’s west coast) and then Henry Flagler to connect the settlement on the shores of Biscayne Bay to the rest of the state by rail, but neither felt that doing so would be economically viable.

Plant, tiring of Tuttle’s frequent missives, abruptly told her that he did not wish to hear further from her and that he had no intention of extending his railroad 160 miles across the Everglades to satisfy her ego. Flagler, who had known her father in Cleveland, was equally firm but much less final, simply thanking her for writing and explaining the reasons for his declination.

In December 1894 and January and February 1895, the worst freezes ever to hit the Florida peninsula destroyed the citrus crop all the way south into the center of Dade County, which at that time extended from Indian Key in the middle of the Florida Keys (all now Monroe County) to north of Jupiter in what is now Palm Beach County.

The region south of the New River below Fort Lauderdale, and particularly in the area closer to the Tuttle and Brickell homesteads, was untouched by the freezes. Tuttle wasted no time in contacting Flagler, and he, in turn, dispatched his now-famous lieutenants James E. Ingraham (for whom Miami’s Ingraham Building is named), the Flagler System’s land commissioner, and Joseph R. Parrott, Flagler’s railroad vice-president, to furthest South Florida to verify Tuttle’s claim and to report back to him. He was nothing if not skeptical.

Ingraham and Parrott returned to Palm Beach laden with citrus, produce, and whole boughs and limbs of fruit trees wrapped in wet cotton. Flagler was amazed, and he wired Tuttle, Madam, what is it that you propose?

Tuttle replied that if Flagler would extend his railroad to the shores of Biscayne Bay and build one of his magnificent hotels, she would give him half of her holdings north of the river plus 50 acres for railroad shops and yards, and Mr. Brickell would give Flagler half of his holdings south of the river. A deal was struck, a contract was signed, and the building of the railroad south of Palm Beach began.

Construction began almost simultaneously on the Royal Palm Hotel under the direction of Flagler’s man in Miami, John Sewell. On April 15, 1896, the first train, a materials and equipment train, reached the settlement. One week later, the first passenger train arrived. On May 15, 1896, the first edition of the Miami Metropolis (later to become the Miami Daily News) was published, and on July 28, 1896, either 343 or 344 (as with today’s Miami, the number of votes in any election varies, depending on who is counting) of the 502 eligible adults, including no few black people, voted to incorporate Miami as a city. On December 31, 1896, the Royal Palm opened with a gala New Year’s Eve ball. Sadly Julia Tuttle would die of influenza in 1898, never getting to see the city she was responsible for founding grow into the great metropolis she knew it would become.

In 1895, Isadore Cohen, the first permanent Jewish settler, arrived and within just a few years, people such as Burdine, Sewell, Budge, the great black property owner and merchant D. A. Dorsey, Merrick (father and son), Frow, Peacock, Munroe, Douthit, Gaskins, Hy Hyman of Florida Power and Light, and others would begin the task—which continues even today—of building and rebuilding a city.

The story of Miami is one of the most incredible stories of city-building in American history. From World War I through the boom, bust, Depression, World War II, the 1950s, the great Cuban immigration of the 1960s through 1990s, and the growth that some think is overwhelming, the Miami story never gets old; it simply becomes more and more fascinating and mesmerizing with every change of the season and every turn of the pages of history.

One

THE PIONEERS

The history of what would eventually become Miami actually goes back to the Paleo-Indian era. Former Dade County archaeologist Robert Carr