Showing posts with label Miami Beach in the 1900s. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Miami Beach in the 1900s. Show all posts

Wednesday, October 5, 2022

Barons of early Miami Beach: oil, tires, baked beans and beachside manses (or before the Fontainebleau Hotel)

 

Snowden Place 1923
Florida State Archives/
Florida Memory - Hoi
t












By Jane Feehan

It’s hard to imagine Miami Beach in the days before it was established as a town in 1915. Yet the mangrove-dense barrier island east of the city of Miami was beginning to capture the attention of those with big imaginations and plenty of money.

One of the island’s pioneers, James H. Snowden, understood beach-side opportunities. Perhaps his associate, the better-known beach developer Carl Fisher, influenced him. Or maybe not. Snowden, born in Oil City, Pennsylvania was a sharp businessman. He made his fortune in the oil industry in Oklahoma, Texas and Louisiana. His obituary claimed he had been a Standard Oil executive.

The Collins Bridge* (now the Venetian Causeway) connected the mainland to the barrier island in 1913. It spurred  development. Snowden began clearing property about a mile and a half north of the wooden span for his new winter home, Snowden Place, in 1916.  

Snowden Place circa 1920
Florida State Archives/Florida Memory

Snowden Place sat between Indian Creek and the ocean. It was known as one of the “handsomest” houses in early Miami Beach. Snowden spent about $250,000 to landscape and build his palatial home with its 1,400 feet of oceanfront. His staff moved “carloads” of palm trees from parts of the property to replant along a quarter-mile drive to the residence. 

Palm trees were planted in an intermittent arrangement with “extra-large” 10-foot high oleander plants. It was, no doubt, an impressive sight to his neighbors, which included R.P. Van Camp of pork and beans fame and fortune. He built a house on the smaller property adjacent to Snowden Place with a 700-foot span of oceanfront (near today’s 41st Street).  

Though Snowden was a Miami Beach resident and a registered voter there, he spent months away from Florida.  He rented the mansion during winter months to auto tire millionaire and Akron, Ohio resident, Harry S. Firestone several times. One news account reported Firestone and wife, with a retinue of 80 staff (many housed elsewhere) and as many as 10 children spent the winters of 1921 and 1923 at the estate. The tire magnate usually brought a fleet of cars but rented a boat for cruising and fishing. At Firestone’s invitation, his long-time friend and one-time president, Warren G. Harding, also spent time at the estate before his death in 1923.

Firestone Estate circa 1920
Florida State Archives/
Florida Memory/Romer

In 1923, Firestone bought Snowden Place for a reported $250,000–the same for what the estate was built—if the reporting is accurate. Many today refer to the transactional history of that part of Miami Beach as pertaining to the Firestone Estate not Snowden Place. Snowden died in 1930 in New York at age 57. By that time, he had divested most of his holdings in Miami Beach. Firestone died in 1938.

Firestone heirs, who had re-zoned what remained of the property for commercial use, sold the estate to Ben Novak, operator of the Sans Souci Hotel, in 1952 for $2.3 million. Novak then built the world-famous Fontainebleau Hotel (designed by Morris Lapidus) on the site.

Fontainebleau Hotel under
construction 1954 
Florida State Archives/
Florida Memory

And it so it went – from mangrove to a sophisticated world-class urban setting of shoulder-to-shoulder hotels.

 






* For more on Collins see:

 https://janeshistorynook.blogspot.com/2013/02/miami-beach-farmer-collins-his-avocados.html

Sources:

Miami News, June 14, 1916

Miami News, Feb. 13, 1919

Miami News, Dec. 15, 1922

Miami News, Aug. 3, 1923

Miami Herald, Oct. 26, 1930

Miami News, July 21, 1952


Tags: Miami Beach in the 1900s, Miami Beach in the 1920s, Miami Beach in the 1950s, Firestone Estate, Fontainebleau Hotel, Miami Beach history, history of Miami Beach

Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Miami Beach: Farmer Collins, his avocados, and a bridge

Collins Bridge opens 1913
Florida State Archives/Florida Memory/(Dept. of Commerce)




Miami and its barrier island were connected by the Collins Bridge in June 1913.

New Jersey farmer John S. Collins (1837-1928) came to Miami in 1894 before Flagler’s railroad reached the city in 1896. He had invested in a coconut-growing business that failed but he saw potential in Miami’s barrier island, today's Miami Beach, for other crops. Collins cleared a few acres near the ocean around Indian Creek to plant avocados and mangoes. He also planted Australian Pines trees that remain today on the street named for them.

As his enterprise grew, so did his expenses. Collins turned to his children and son-in-law Thomas Pancoast in New Jersey for assistance and invited them to see his “ranch.” They were not as impressed with the ranch as they were with the island’s potential as a resort destination.  Collins and Pancoast formed the Miami Beach Improvement Company - probably the first time words Miami and beach were paired - in 1912.

The company borrowed money to construct a bridge to Miami. It was built of Florida pine, iron and cement and included a revolving drawbridge. The first section spanned to Bull’s Island, the only natural island in Biscayne Bay. Collins Bridge opened June 12, 1913. Pedestrians could cross for 5-cents, vehicles for 15-cents.
Miami Causeways 1925
Florida State Archives/ Florida Memory (postcard collection
)

Collins Bridge closed in 1925 and was replaced by the Venetian Causeway.  The Miami Beach Improvement Company, along with developers Carl Fisher, J.N. Lummus and other visionaries, launched what soon became one of the most famous beach resorts in the world. Think avocados the next time you drive along Collins Avenue, now also known as A1A. 


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For more about Carl Fisher, visit index.

Sources: 
Kleinberg, Howard. Miami Beach. Miami: Centennial Press (1996).
Miami News, April 9, 1913
Miami News, Jan. 29. 1913
Wikipedia



Tags: Miami Beach history, avocados in Miami Beach, John S. Collins, Thomas Pancoast, how Miami Beach began