Miami Time Machine

Staff and crew of the Florida East Coast Railway by the streamliner “Henry M. Flagler” in 1939. The Railey-Milam hardware store in the background was founded in 1902 and was a prominent Miami business for decades.

Downtown on East Flagler Street. December 20, 1935. Notice the streetcar, and the Ritz Hotel (building still stands) in the background. Credit: Fishbaugh, W. A.

View of the Brickell family home at Brickell Point on the Miami River in 1898. Today, this site is home to the Icon condominiums, Viceroy Hotel and Miami Circle park. Credit: State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory.

Gentlemen in the Coral Gables streetcar during its first day – April 30, 1925. Mayor of Miami, E.C. Romph is at the controls. Credit: Fishbaugh, W.A.

City officials inspecting the “STOP” sign on N.E. 2nd Street at Biscayne Blvd. December 9, 1926. (They haven’t given road safety the same level of attention since) Credit: Fishbaugh, W. A.

Trolley car 109 eastbound on 5th Street, Miami Beach. Station doubled as the Miami Beach Chamber of Commerce. 1921 Credit: State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory.

Part of the “Dirty Dozen” in the old Royal Palm Hotel garden. Downtown Miami, 1916. Were these guys the first Miami hipsters? I don’t know who the ‘Dirty Dozen’ were, but one of them is sporting a massive chainring on his single-speed steed! Credit: State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory.

Classic picture from 1927 of a Coral Gables express trolley on Flagler Street, with another following close behind. These trains used to speed down Coral Way at speeds of close to 75 mph, connecting downtown with Miracle Mile in under 12 minutes. Credit: Gleason Waite.

Miami’s first Critical Mass? Bicycles on Biscayne Boulevard, 1948. Credit: State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory.

New diesel locomotives, downtown Miami. 1938. Credit: State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory.

People at the bandshell in Bayfront Park enjoying an evening concert. downtown Miami, 193-. Credit: State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory.

Young women making fun of sign at beach requiring full bathing suits – Miami Beach. July 4, 1934. Credit: Gleason Waite

Soldiers performing training exercises on the beach during WWII – Miami Beach, sometime between 1939-1945. Credit: State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory.

Motorcycle cop directing traffic on County Causeway (now MacArthur) – Miami Beach, Florida. Nice to know speed limits were actually enforced once upon a time on this roadway.

Brickell Avenue, looking north. Photographed on September 25, 1947. Credit: State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory.

Uh oh. Here comes the construction of 1-95, plowing it’s way through downtown….forever transforming the city. Looking east from Flagler street. Credit: State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory.

Egads! Bayfront parking lagoon for First National Bank, downtown Miami in 1962. It seemed like a good idea at the time.

Aerial view of downtown Miami and Bayfront Park in 1963. Look at all the ‘missing teeth’ in the streetscape – aka parking lots. Many of the buildings razed in this era would today be considered ‘historic’ and thus, lovable and worth caring about. Check out a forested Claughton Island (Brickell Key) in the distance.