In the late 19th century, when South Florida was still a desolate wilderness, the job of delivering mail fell to a hardy ancestor of today's letter carrier. ''Barefoot mailmen,'' so named because they often took off their shoes when walking along the sandy coastline, braved alligators and sudden storms as they rowed and trudged the 68-mile mail route between Lake Worth in today's Palm Beach County and Biscayne Bay.
HISTORY IN THE MAKING | BY PAUL GEORGE
When anti-alcohol crusader Carrie Nation visited Miami in 1908, national prohibition was still 12 years away but most of the counties in the South -- including much of Florida -- had already banned alcohol sales. These were ``dry counties.''
HISTORY IN THE MAKING | BY PAUL GEORGE
Miami's Little Havana has gained international recognition in recent decades for its rich immigrant culture, reaffirming the widely held perception that it is a modern-day Ellis Island. For more than 50 years, hundreds of thousands of refugees and immigrants from Cuba, Nicaragua, Colombia, Honduras, Puerto Rico, Guatemala and other Latin American countries stopped first in this neighborhood -- with its old housing stock and its close proximity to downtown and the hospital and civic centers -- in pursuit of the American dream.
HISTORY IN THE MAKING | BY PAUL GEORGE
Two seemingly unrelated events, one of recent vintage, the other impending, are linked by the legacy of Roddey Burdine, Miami's ``Merchant Prince.'' In 2005, Burdine's department store, known as the ''Florida Store'' with 51 full-fashioned outlets in the Sunshine State, was swallowed up by Macy's, America's largest department store chain. Soon, the storied Orange Bowl Stadium, originally called Roddey Burdine Stadium, will face the wrecking ball. For many longtime Miamians, both events represent additional assaults on the city's rich history and on the memory of one of its finest citizens.
Special to The Miami Herald In the second decade of the 20th century, the city of Miami, then barely 20 years old, began planning a large waterfront park. At the time, the bayfront directly east of downtown was in the hands of the Flagler interests, and was host to numerous vessels, fish houses, and a building with a dance hall and pier. After the city acquired this property, it began building a park between Southeast Second and Northeast Fifth streets. Builders erected a retaining wall and for seven months pumped bay bottom day and night into an area measuring nearly 40 acres.
HISTORY IN THE MAKING | BY PAUL GEORGE
The recent passing of Paul Tibbets Jr., a Miamian who was the commander and pilot of the Enola Gay, the B-29 Superfortress that dropped the atomic bomb over Hiroshima in August 1945, brought to mind the critical role Greater Miami played in the nation's prosecution of World War II.
HISTORY IN THE MAKING | BY PAUL GEORGE
Downtown Miami has been a continual source of news since the city's creation in 1896. Lately, it has been the subject of stories focusing on the unprecedented residential construction boom that promises radical changes. Downtown is also the target of critics -- including the powerful CEO of Macy's Florida -- unhappy with what they see as a blighted area plagued by homelessness and crime, and a city government slow to find solutions.
HISTORY IN THE MAKING | BY PAUL GEORGE
Miami and Southeast Florida's building frenzy rekindled my interest in the great boom of the mid-1920s, which transformed a young city still rooted in its recent ''frontier'' past to that of an emerging metropolitan area.
HISTORY IN THE MAKING | BY PAUL GEORGE
Miami's newspapers in 1925 were bloated with real estate advertisements. New subdivisions bore seductive names, and their developers operated from lavish sales offices. Salesmen delivered slick sales pitches, tall buildings arose throughout downtown and old streets were reconfigured to accommodate increased traffic.
The University of Miami's recent decision to move its home venue for football games to Dolphin Stadium may be the death knell for Miami's storied Orange Bowl Stadium.
