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| Sunny Isles 1945, Florida StateArchives |
By Jane Feehan
Advertisements for lot sales in Sunny Isles first hyped it as
“the America Riviera.” In 1930, the
project was touted as the “Venice of America.” Perhaps Harvey B. Graves, buyer
of 2,300 acres north of Miami Beach didn’t know it was the moniker Fort
Lauderdale adopted when the finger islands off Las Olas Boulevard were dredged
in 1923.
But no one would have blamed Graves for using the Venice
description. His vision was influenced by the same person as were the Fort
Lauderdale developers: Carl Fisher. The Indiana native worked magic carving a
resort city out of Miami mangroves.
Graves, a semi-retired, highly successful furniture company owner with stores north of New York City, first came to Miami Beach for winter visits in 1918. While there, he took leisurely boat excursions up the inland waterway (then known as the Florida Intracoastal) to the northern part of Biscayne Bay. He traveled to Snake Creek, which emptied into the Florida East Coast Canal, Oleta River (where a state park sits today), and to Dumfoundling Bay near today’s Aventura. He believed the little islands –mostly mangroves—could be connected by a series of coral rock bridges to provide an idyllic setting for winter visitors seeking a sunny alternative to the northern cold.
Graves purchased about 1,500 acres from the Model Land Company in 1921 and formed the Sunny Isles Improvement Company, with construction to begin the following year. He expanded his holdings to 2,300 acres from the northern end of Biscayne Bay. It was bordered by Fulford Road in the village of Fulford, east of Dixie Highway and north of Ojus. His project also included ocean front acreage at “the terminus of the beach road.” (State Road 270, later Florida State Road A1A, went through Sunny Isles in the 1940s.)
Prospective buyers were encouraged to view the development where every home “would have a water view.” Tropical landscapes made it “camera land.” Names given some of the 70 isles included the Atlantic, Summerhouse, Palm, and Garden islands. Utilities, such as a water and electricity were installed and the project took off ... slowly, but a few high-profile buyers were interested.
Coconut Grove winter resident William Jennings Bryan, a three-time
presidential candidate and former secretary of state purchased a lot for development
in Sunny Isles in 1923 for $9,750. He died in 1925, not long after arguing for
the prosecution in the famed Scopes Monkey Trial. The lot was probably sold
shortly after because the Jennings home remained in the Grove. Another lot—100
ft by 210 ft— was advertised for $5,750 or 27 cents per square foot in 1923.
Per the purchase agreement with the Tatum family, the original
property owners, Graves built a beach casino (what bath houses were called then)
in 1923 for $65,000; It was later part of the site of a pier (Newport Fishing Pier
today) and hotel. Development of Sunny Isles may have been hindered by
difficulties accessing the area. It was essentially an island until the
Haulover inlet was carved out and the first of several iterations of a bridge
were built in 1925. The Great Hurricane of 1926 also slowed sales. The tract became
part of North Miami Beach in 1931.
Harvey Graves died in Rochester, NY at 80 years of age Jan.
14, 1936. His Florida dream community was sold to Wisconsin industrialist Kurtis
R. Froedtert for a reported $1 million in the summer of 1936. Froedtert advertised
in 1937 he was building 30 homes there. News about Sunny Isles in the 1940s centered on fishing stories at the pier.
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| "Venice of America" |
During the 1950s and 60s, Sunny Isles Beach was developed for
the burgeoning Florida hospitality industry. Sunny Isles touted its Motel Row,
where 30 motels such as the Castaways, Dunes, Thunderbird and Sun City drew
tourist families from all over the nation looking for cheaper hotel rooms than
those in Miami Beach (search this blog for “Luxury, Kitsch and Convenience”).
Sunny Isles was incorporated as Sunny Isles Beach in 1997.
Harvey B. Graves would never have envisioned his tract as a millionaire’s row of
glamorous high-rise hotels and condos crowding its white sands. More than
22,000 residents live in this one-mile-square beachside town. Cost of living
there is reportedly 118 percent higher than the average of other U.S. cities. It
may still be a “camera land” but not of its once-lush, semi-wild tropical
landscape.
Copyright © 2024. All rights reserved. Jane Feehan.
Sources:
Miami Herald, Aug. 24, 1921
Miami News, Oct. 01, 1921
Miami Herald, Oct. 5, 1921
Miami Herald, Nov. 22, 1921
Miami Herald, March 16, 1922
Miami Herald, April 8, 1922
Miami News, June 19, 1922
Miami News, Jan. 22, 1923
Miami News, March 14, 1923
Miami News, April 6, 1923
Miami Herald, May 2, 1926
Miami Herald, May 12, 1929
Miami Herald, March 3, 1930
Miami News, July 3, 1942
Miami Herald, Nov. 1, 1936
Miami News, Jan. 10, 1937
Wikipedia
Tags: Sunny Isles, Harvey B. Graves, Motel Row,
