A parking lot promised to historic Bahamian museum in West Perrine stuck in limbo

Across the street from the historic Bethel House Bahamian-American Museum in West Perrine is a pending promise.

In February 2018, Miami-Dade County agreed in a memorandum to purchase a 4,000-square-foot lot on behalf of the West Perrine Community Redevelopment Agency for the “purpose of providing parking for the Bethel House Bahamian-American Museum” for no more than $55,000. Eight years later, preservationist and museum founder Helen Gage, is still waiting for the parking lot.

The Bethel House only has two guaranteed parking spots. Larger groups such as a school bus of children or the Broward County Historic Preservation Board, which recently visited the museum, have to park on the street in front of the homes neighboring Bethel House, Gage said.

“They don’t say anything,” Gage said of the neighboring residents. “But I know people are concerned when it’s a lot of cars.”

Inside the Bethel House, Gage collects memories of West Perrine and the Bahamian community. Weaved dolls and wallets line the walls as a Bahamian flag greets every visitor into the restored home.

Gage calls the Bethel House the “little house that could.” It was originally constructed in 1937 by Alfred Clark, a Bahamian carpenter who gifted it to family friend Jessie Bethel. The house survived Hurricane Andrew and was going to be demolished in 1995 before Gage preserved the house and had it relocated to its current address with help from Habitat for Humanity. It’s the last known house built by Perrine’s Bahamian settlers.

The lot, which is across the street from the museum, was purchased in July 2018 for $26,700 by the West Perrine CRA, according to the Miami-Dade County property appraiser report. Gage says the lot remains undeveloped and has become a hotspot for tossed bottles and trash. The county does provide maintenance when she calls, Gage said, but if the lot belonged to the museum she would feel more empowered to keep it up and try to find ways to beautify it.

“They can step on it or puncture their tire, but if I had control of that lot, I would keep it manicured down low,” she said. “It’ll be fenced. It would really look nice, but I don’t have any control over it.”

Building the parking lot ‘deemed excessive’

The West Perrine Community Redevelopment Agency was created by the Miami-Dade County Commission in 2005 to redevelop West Perrine through grants, construction projects and economic initiatives. The Bethel House receives funding through the CRA. In a July 2015 memorandum, the county suggested purchasing a lot near the Bethel House to be converted into a parking lot, then give it to the Bethel House upon completion. Former Miami-Dade County Commissioner Dennis C. Moss sponsored the resolution.

In the 2018 memorandum, the county found the owner of the lot across from the Bethel House, B & W Investment Group, was interested in selling the land.

The transaction went through, and the lot is still owned by the West Perrine Community Redevelopment Agency. It’s one of four properties officially listed under the CRA’s name. Two other properties were purchased in 2024, one of which was a barbershop that was demolished, and a third property was purchased in 2025.

Gage received a copy of a quote for $115,000 in 2019 by the Miami-Dade County Internal Services Department to convert the vacant lot into a parking lot — an expense she felt was unnecessary. But she never received word on why the work never went forward or if other bids were ever solicited.

Gage got an answer about the CRA’s intention for the lot in May 2025. An email from West Perrine CRA Executive Director Krystal Patterson sent to Gage said the CRA will “not be advancing the request to convey the CRA-owned vacant parcel to Bethel House at this time.”

Patterson, a Tamarac city commissioner, told the Miami Herald that she hasn’t received any directions from the board on what is happening with the lot. In an email to the Herald, she wrote that because the purchase occurred several years before she was appointed director, she had “no direct knowledge on this issue.”

However, she explained that Gage was sent an email last year stating the cost of “building the parking lot was deemed excessive.” Gage said she never received an email citing the cost as the reason the land wasn’t conveyed to the museum.

The Miami-Dade County Office of Management and Budget works alongside the CRA. In an email to the Miami Herald, Assistant Director of Community Redevelopment and Municipal Services Vivian Cao wrote the OMB is also “unaware of any plans the West Perrine CRA may currently have for the property.”

Leviticus Gilliard, the chair of the West Perrine CRA, said he has no knowledge of a parking lot that should have been transferred to Gage because the memorandum was written before he joined the CRA. He is aware that the CRA owns the land.

“We’re looking at our options in reference to that land at this time,” Gilliard said.

Gage still has hope that she can get the lot for Bethel House. She doesn’t want anything fancy, she said, just a protected lot, trimmed grass and some sprouting trees so visitors to the Bethel House can park in the shade.

“It will add to the museum,” she said. “That’s what I’m trying to do.”

This story was originally published May 29, 2026 at 4:30 AM.