These 1920’s vintage photographs of Fisher’s yacht the “Shadow K”, and its passengers, were generously gifted to the MDPL in early 2018 by Alice McCollam Neary. Her father, Hugh Kenneth McCollam, worked for Carl Fisher in 1925 and 1926. After graduating from Yale in June 1925, McCollam was hired as an engineer for Carl Fisher. McCollam was one of the pioneers that helped Carl Fisher dredge up the Miami Beach dunes and swampland to create the tropical paradise we know today. He was still working for Carl Fisher when the Great Hurricane of 1926 hit South Florida. After the storm, he was instrumental in the repairing and the re-building of Miami Beach. Unfortunately, he was permanently blinded while doing some metal work, which left him unable to continue his position. Ms. Neary’s father passed away when she was only 20 years old. She married the first cousin of George Neary, who recommended she donate these historic photographs to the MDPL.
Capitman’s Cardozo Leads Way (1979)
Read Time: 3 mins Andrew 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.