Read Time: 2 minsEditors Note: The Barbara Baer Capitman archives “Historic Threads” project is partly sponsored by the Department of State, Division of Historical Resources and the State of Florida. In 1984, gay rights activist

Read Time: 2 minsEditors Note: The Barbara Baer Capitman archives “Historic Threads” project is partly sponsored by the Department of State, Division of Historical Resources and the State of Florida. In 1988, the National Trust

Read Time: 3 minsEditors Note: The Barbara Baer Capitman archives “Historic Threads” project is partly sponsored by the Department of State, Division of Historical Resources and the State of Florida. Miami Design Preservation League and

Read Time: 2 minsEditors Note: The Barbara Baer Capitman archives “Historic Threads” project is partly sponsored by the Department of State, Division of Historical Resources and the State of Florida. In 1986, the Miami Beach

Read Time: 3 minsAndrew Capitman, son of Miami Design Preservation League leader Barbara Baer Capitman, was a leading Art Deco rehabilitation pioneer in the late 1970s and 1980s. In 1979, he purchased the Cardozo Hotel with a group of enthusiastic investors who believed in the resurgence of the city through the preservation of its past. Mr. Capitman instinctively knew that a 1930s revival would dramatically improve tourism.

Read Time: 2 minsIn 1984, six hotels underwent major renovations that would mark the second wave of an Art Deco revival in South Beach. According to a Miami Herald article written by Paul Shannon on July 8, 1984, Royale Group Ltd. officials secured a $13.5 million loan to pay for the planned renovation, which included painting and refurbishing in the original Art Deco style.

Read Time: 2 minsEditors Note: The Barbara Baer Capitman archives “Historic Threads” project is partly sponsored by the Department of State, Division of Historical Resources, and the State of Florida. The year was 1986, marking

Read Time: 3 minsEditors Note: The Barbara Baer Capitman archives “Historic Threads” project is partly sponsored by the Department of State, Division of Historical Resources and the State of Florida. Despite preservationists’ efforts to save

Read Time: 3 minsIn the 1980s, Miami Beach faced a dilemma that would crucially impact its future: Would it turn into a city full of brand-new skyscraper condos, or would it be a revitalized city honoring its past with an eye toward its future? The following quotes are from a Miami Herald editorial written by Charles Whited on January 29, 1981, in which he argues that Art Deco could save the desolate island and move it toward a cultural revival.

Read Time: 3 minsThe annual Back to the City conference was a significant gathering focused on urban preservation and revitalization efforts in historic American cities. The conference served as a platform for discussing the resurgence of residential and commercial interests in decaying inner cities, aiming to rejuvenate and preserve the architectural and cultural heritage of these urban areas.

Read Time: 2 minsIn the 1980s, the apartment house was one of many undergoing reinvestment and restoration. It was also among the first to be converted from apartments to condominiums – ushering in an era of homeownership in the Flamingo Park neighborhood.

Read Time: 2 minsNow known most famously as the former home of Gianni Versace during the 1990s, in the 1980s the Villa Casa Casuarina was an apartment house called the Amsterdam Palace. At the time this article was written, the property was among the most sought-after in all of South Beach. Developers Gerry Sanchez and Amancio Victor Suarez bought the property for double its real estate value:

Read Time: 2 minsAt the time, preservationists fought to make this quaint neighborhood a historic district. Then referred to as the Bass District, the area is between Washington and Collins Avenue from 16th to 23rd Street. It features some of the best examples of Art Deco and Mediterranean architecture.

Read Time: 4 minsArt Deco hotels offered fashionable places to escape the Winter and Great Depression during the 1930s and 40s. But by the 1970s and 1980s, Miami Beach was in decline. By 1981, the city was looking to revitalize.

Read Time: 2 minsFound among the archives PostMortem, a South Beach newspaper that ran from 1988-1990 and focused on arts and culture. A full-page ad announces a reception for the artist Keith Haring on Monday, May 2nd, 1988, at the Wham Bam at 437 Washington Avenue in South Beach.

Read Time: 2 minsBarbara Baer Capitman, founder of the Miami Design Preservation League and monumental leader in the movement to save Art Deco, fought tirelessly for the preservation of Art Deco in the 1970s and 1980s. But it wasn’t until about 10 years into the effort that preservationists began to be taken seriously at the local level.

Read Time: 3 minsIn 1988, the Miami Design Preservation League held its 11th Annual Art Deco Weekend. The festival’s theme was Streamline Dreamtime. Ocean Drive and the Art Deco District were slowly progressing from a hopeful dream to an innovative reality.

Read Time: 3 minsHosted annually from 1978 through the 1990s, the Moon Over Miami Ball was a black-tie soiree held to fundraise for the Miami Design Preservation League. The event featured a lively evening with a 1930s nightclub atmosphere, held at several hotels in the historic Art Deco district, and featuring a variety of celebrities each year highlighting a unique theme. Over the years, the Balls brought in some of the greatest talent in the industry, including Cab Calloway, Eartha Kitt, the Xavier Cugat Orchestra, the Incomparable Hildegarde, Lionel Hampton and the Swing Classics.

Read Time: 2 minsBefore Miami Beach fully embraced its turnaround in the 1980s and 1990s, developers and preservationists alike had to come together to form a progressive and innovative plan for the future of the city. Part of this involved finding the best approach to planning and approvals within the district – a challenge given its status as the first 20th-century urban district in the United States listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Read Time: 5 minsMiami Beach’s Lincoln Road Mall is one of the most popular shopping destinations in the world – a pedestrian promenade dotted with historic buildings from the 1920s-1960s. It stretches for about a mile between Washington Avenue and Alton Road. The outdoor shopping mall is a top stop for fashion, shopping, dining, markets, art galleries, and people-watching.

Read Time: 4 minsAccording to a 1986 Miami Herald article, in the 1980s developer Gerry Sanchez purchased numerous hotels along Ocean Drive. Mr. Sanchez was superstitious – and since he was 45 years old, the price he’d sell a property for would have to include the numbers 4 and 5: “For everything I sell, I have to make 45 cents or $4.50 or $45 or $4,500 or $45,000 or $450,000. I’m superstitious because that’s my age.” $450,000 is the profit he made while selling the Clevelander to the Kay Family for $1.65 million, after owning the property for four months.

Read Time: 4 minsFlagler Monument Island is a small man-made island off the coast of Miami Beach, Florida. While it may resemble just another island in the bay, it is actually a monument

Read Time: 3 minsOn February 1st 2023, a 1937 Art Deco home was demolished at 1745 W 24th Street on Sunset Island #3 in Miami Beach. Unfortunately, it was located outside of a

Read Time: 8 minsby Robin Grow, Vice-President, ICADS and President, Art Deco and Modernism Society of AustraliaA regular highlight (and a major Initiative) of ICADS activities for the last three decades has been

Read Time: 4 mins41st Street is a key thoroughfare in the Mid-Beach section of Miami Beach, although the area in which it was constructed was once known as “North Beach”. Beginning in the

Read Time: < 1 minToday we lost the North Beach landmark Deauville Hotel due to demolition by neglect. We captured this footage of the implosion and ensuing demolition cloud. An important part of our cultural,

Read Time: 2 minsAbout the Author: Jason Katz is the publisher of Islandia Journal, a (sub)tropical journal of myth, folklore, history, ecology, cryptozoology, and the paranormal. He is a contributing editor at Burnaway

Read Time: 2 minsMDPL recently learned of another one of our dedicated preservationists who passed away last November, 2021. Keith Root attended the University of Florida from 1971-1977, where he received a BA and an

Read Time: 4 minsWe were saddened to learn this weekend of the passing of Richard Hoberman (April 1, 1941 – March 4, 2022), another true MDPL pioneer that worked tirelessly for the cause of preservation

Read Time: 4 minsWe are sad to share the passing this week of Dr. Ernest L. Martin, who was a passionate and accomplished activist in the preservation movement as early as the 1970s.