Aventura used to look like that? Before the mall and the traffic, it started like this
By Miami Herald Archives
We know Aventura mostly by the mall and the traffic.
Want a few hours of entertainment and retail therapy? The two-story mall just about has it all: restaurants, a food hall, a movie multiplex, a giant slide and lots of stores.
Then there is the Turnberry resort and golf course, a water park, and walls of luxury residential towers that draw upper class tourists, families and investors.
But getting to the Northeast Miami-Dade attraction isn’t easy. Traffic piles up on Biscayne Boulevard at Miami Gardens Drive and at Ives Dairy Road.
Aventura didn’t start out this way.
The Northeast Miami-Dade area began as a quiet condo community in the 1970s, filled with mostly retired people. The most exciting thing in town back then was a strip shopping center anchored by Publix.
Let.’s take a look at what early Aventura looked like through the Miami Herald photo archives:
AVENTURA MALL
Aventura Mall in 1983, the year that it opened. Miami Herald File
Work on the Lord & Taylor sign at Aventura Mall. Miami Herald file
Aeurobics at Aventura Mall in 1991. Jon Kral Miami Herald file
Don Morris, left, and Jesus Portuondo, both Volunteers from Telephone Pioneers of America, add more fruit to the one-ton fruit salad in the making at Aventura Mall in 1989. John R. Van Beekum Miami Herald
AVENTURA CONDOS
Among the first Aventura condos under construction in 1971. Miami Herald File
Aventura condo towers ring the golf course in 1979. Miami Herald File
Aventura’s skyline of 1984. Robin Shields Miami Herald File
An Aventura condo in 1981. Carol Guzy Miami Herald File
An Aventura condo complex rising in Aventura in 1971. Miami Herald File
Condos under construction in Aventura in 1978. Miami Herald File
Coronado Towers in Aventura in 1976. Miami Herald File
Mystic Pointe on the Bay in Turnberry Isle at Aventura. Miami Herald File
AVENTURA SHOPPING
The former Loehmann’s Plaza was transformed into an more upscale fashion center in 1993. Peter Andrew Bosch Miami Herald File
An early picture of the Publix shopping center in Aventura, now across a parking lot from Aventura Mall. Scott Applewhite Miami Herald File
Shari Valcourt, general manager of the new Aventura Borders Books and Music store, sets up a book display in 1995. The bookstore is long gone and the building is now occupied by other businesses. Randy Bazemore Miami Herald File
AVENTURA SCENES
In front of One Turnberry Place facing the Aventura Mall at 19455 Biscayne Blvd., The Rabbit by sculptor Barry Flanigan in 1991. Rick McCawley Miami Herald File
With Eastern Shores in the foreground, this 1950s picture shows the vacant land of the future Aventura. Miami Herald File
Interior of American Savings on Northeast 199th Street in Aventura. The building has been demolished. Michel Ducille Miami Herald File
Aventura Jewish Center in 1982. Carol Guzy Miami Herald File
In 1993, carpenter Limonas Clecidor puts a level on one of the foundation legs that would become part of the parking garage at Aventura’s The Yacht Club on East Country Club Drive in Aventura. Nine six-story buildings were planned. Candace Barbot Miami Herald File
“Polo at The Waterways in Aventura” Miami Herald File
The original Miami-Dade library in Avenutra in 1978. Its roof was damaged in 2005 in Hurricane Wilma and it closed before being replaced about 10 years later. Miami Herald File
Aventura from a rooftop, looking down on Country Club Drive in 1994. Randy Bazemore Miami Herald File
Aventura construction in 1998. Pedro Portal Miami Herald File
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