Would you save Al Capone’s Miami Beach home? Readers favor saving 100-year-old house
Two-thirds of Miami Herald readers who voted in an online poll want Miami Beach to preserve gangster Al Capone’s final residence on Palm Island, exemplifying the preference for preservation over demolition of the 100-year-old house.
The house’s fate remains uncertain after a new Florida law went into effect in early July prohibiting local authorities from stopping the demolition of houses without historic designation that rest at or below base flood elevation.
The law prompted the city of Miami Beach Historic Preservation Board to cancel a long-awaited hearing scheduled for July 12. After prolonging the vote for months, members would have finally recommended to the city’s commission whether they thought the house deserved historic designation. Prior to the surprise law, the commission would have had the final say.
In addition to a Miami Herald poll, posted Sunday and getting about 50 readers who voted on the topic, nearly 26,000 people have signed an online Change.org petition in favor of preservation. The grassroots group Save Miami Beach launched the petition in September 2021.
But the decision now rests in the hands of the house’s owners and next-door neighbors. Karise Claramonte and her husband, Albert Claramonte, founder of the Doral-based tile contractor company Surfaces Southeast. They bought the house last year for $15.5 million and placed it under a trust for their five children. The family has the power to designate the house historic — ensuring its preservation for generations — keep it standing without preservation or raze the structure.
Toni Alam, the family’s trust representative, told the Herald last week his clients have yet to decide whether to preserve the house. “We won’t do anything that won’t give them the time to grow the investment,” Alam said. “Just because you can demolish, doesn’t mean we will demolish. It’s an investment.”
Built in 1922, the house was among the first residences to populate the man-made Palm Island. It has nine bedrooms, six bathrooms and two guest bathrooms combined between the main residence and pool house.
Capone entered into the picture in 1928, adding a pool behind the main house that competed with that of the Biltmore Hotel, a place he often frequented. The mobster died at his residence in 1947.
This story was originally published July 15, 2022 at 1:44 PM.
