Editors 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.

Barbara Baer Capitman argues that the fight to save Miami Beach’s Senator Hotel is far from over and criticizes city officials for their lack of commitment to historic preservation. She outlines the financial and legal complexities surrounding the hotel’s ownership and demolition threats, emphasizing that preservation efforts have been slowed by bureaucratic confusion and misleading financial arguments. Barbara condemmned the City Commission for viewing preservationists as obstacles rather than recognizing the proven economic and cultural value of the Art Deco District, which has brought jobs, investment, and national recognition to Miami Beach. She urged the city to keep the Senator Hotel standing until ownership and financial issues are resolved, warning that its demolition would permanently damage an important part of the historic Collins Avenue streetscape and undermine years of preservation progress.

Excerpts and quotes from the article are highlighted below in blue.

We have saved the Senator this long — it was first announced it would be torn down almost two years ago — and object very much to headlines and stories by the press that we have given up on the struggle. This Catch-22 situation has been unnecessarily complicated by the huge figures and despairing point of view of the City Commission led in this regard by Commissioner William Shockett, who used a very dubious Financial Committee report to put across the idea that the figures did not warrant the City’s help. He asked Mayor Daoud who had promised a solution on TV and news accounts to produce a plan for saving the Senator. All Commissioner Shockett would say was: “unless something extraordinary comes up this is the end of the Senator.”

Like it or not Miami Beach has become a major preservation city. This will become clear when some 40 Miamians go to Cincinnati to sell cultural tourism to the District to representatives of 200,000 preservationists across the country.