How a luxury Miami Beach resort made way for a waterfront hospital

When Mount Sinai Medical Center opened at its current location at 4300 Alton Rd., the hospital moved into what was once a luxurious Miami Beach resort.

In the early 1920s, Miami Beach developer Carl Fisher went on a building spree, filling Miami Beach with luxury hotels, mansions and Lincoln Road, which he dreamed would one day become the “Fifth Avenue of the South.”

In 1923, Fisher’s Nautilus Hotel opened for business. At the time of its completion it was the ultimate in luxury, at least until the next mega-resort was completed.

The Nautilus consisted of a large six-story main building, 19 single-family villas, a swimming pool, 52 cabanas and several docks, all spread out across 20 acres, including the small Johns and Collins islands in the bay.

The Mediterranean-style resort had 183 guest rooms, marble floors and a large field where polo games were played regularly, adding to the resort’s popularity.

Like many similar hotels in the area, the Nautilus ran into hard times as the Florida land boom went bust. It managed to survive through the 1930s, and for a while prospered again.

But by the outbreak of World War II, the Nautilus, along with 150 other hotels in Miami Beach, was used by the Army and Air Force as barracks, training schools and military hospitals.

In February 1946, the hotel once again changed hands, this time becoming the property of the Veterans Administration for use as a 300-bed veterans’ hospital. Its first patient was Joseph Minigham, a Miami resident who was a veteran of the Spanish-American War of 1898.

The hospital soon outgrew its facilities. By March 1947, 337 patients were registered in the former hotel and a waiting list contained 290 names. The following month, the Veterans Administration filed a report stating that the Nautilus Veterans Hospital was in a severe state of deterioration, mostly because of the dampness from the sea air, which caused the concrete’s steel rods to rust and give way.

Although the report stated that the Nautilus was likely to remain standing for a long time, the search began for a new facility to house the hospital. In June, Nautilus patients were moved to the Pratt General Hospital in Coral Gables, which was once (and is now again the Biltmore Hotel.

The city of Miami Beach obtained the Nautilus property from the War Assets Administration, which turned it over to the city for a little more than $9,000. The city gave the property to Mount Sinai Hospital of Greater Miami Inc., an organization of Jewish doctors and businessmen that had been formed to found a hospital where Jewish physicians could practice medicine. The group’s members included former Miami Beach Councilman Baron de Hirsch Meyer and prominent businessman Max Orovitz.

The Mount Sinai organization, which had been operating a small 56-bed hospital on Alton Road, made extensive renovations on the Nautilus property. The new Mount Sinai hospital opened its doors on Dec. 4, 1949, and grew quickly.

In 1968, the old Nautilus building was torn down to make room for a new nursing school and para-medical building.

Today, Mount Sinai Medical Center sprawls on the old hotel site, with multiple medical buildings, an ER and a new cancer center.