North Beach Resort Walking Tour

Explore the North Beach
Resort Historic District

Miami Beachs North Beach Resort Historic District
was designated historic by the City of Miami Beach
Commission in 2004. This district spans from just
south of 63 Street up to 71 Street and is bounded to
the east by the Atlantic Ocean and to west by
Collins Avenue. Seven (7) of the 11 contributing
historic properties within the district contain mid-20th
century structures, all built between 1947 and
1957.
History
On March 26, 1915, Miami Beach was incorporated as a Town, with a northern boundary set between todays 46-47 Streets. Miami Beach was reincorporated as a City on May 1, 1917 with the
same boundaries. Later, as a result of a lengthy debate over County ownership of the beachfront road,
the City limits were extended three miles northward
to their present location at 87 Terrace on July 1,
1924.
Meanwhile, Carl Fishers land development companies had acquired all the oceanfront land south of
present-day 69 Street to about 49 Street. This stretch
of empty oceanfront land was subdivided by Fisher
along with the Lummus Brothers and the Collins family in the early 1920s.
By the mid 1920s, the Deauville Casino, constructed
at 6701 Collins Avenue and the Gulfstream Apartments located at roughly 6039 Collins Avenue were
almost completely isolated in the area. Apparently
seclusion appealed to some in the social set, especially during Prohibition. Within a few years, two
www.MiMoOnTheBeach.com
private clubs also appeared in this area: the Bath

Club at 5937 Collins Avenue and the Surf Club at
9011 Collins Avenue (in what is now the Town of
Surfside).
The Deauville Casino, with its concept of a grand
hotel and entertainment center on a large oceanfront
site, set the precedent for the glamorous resort hotels
that appeared in the North Beach Resort Historic
District after World War II. The Deauville Casino,
however, was built ahead of its time and the isolation of this area ultimately doomed its attempts to
attract a large socialite crowd. During World War
II, the old Deauville was used by the Coast Guard
for anti-invasion beach patrol, and served briefly as
quarters for Army officers. It was later condemned.
Only 30 years old and never recovering to its former
glory, the original Deauville Casino was demolished
in 1956 to make way for the new Deauville Hotel,
designed by Melvin Grossman.
Following World War II, there were large tracts of
land in this area of North Beach that still remained
undeveloped; they were the perfect sites for new,
glamorous resort hotels that were in popular demand. The booming post war economy as well as
the retooling of Americas war plants to peacetime
industries gave a growing middle class more leisure
time, expendable income, and affordable automobiles; these factors brought a flood of tourists to Miami Beach. Other new technologies (such as air conditioning, advanced structural systems, highly developed glass and glass framing components, and the
increasingly sophisticated use of aluminum as a
building material) gave rise to a new type of architecture, known as Post War Modern. The adaptation
of this style to the local tropical resort environment is
known as Miami Modernism, or MiMo.
Several of these resort hotels sought to play a significant role in the booming entertainment industry.
They offered the finest in live entertainment to draw

their guests as well as local residents. The new
Deauville Hotel, in particular, became a magnet for
major entertainment artists. On February 16, 1964,
Ed Sullivan hosted the Beatles in a live telecast via
satellite from the Napoleon Room of the hotel on his
widely watched evening television show. The hotel
was also a favored venue for many notable entertainers of the 1950s and 1960s including Frank
Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., Dean Martin, Tony Bennett, Bing Crosby, and Judy Garland. Other post
war hotels that provided a meaningful role in the
entertainment industry in Miami Beach were the Carillon, Casablanca and Sherry Frontenac as well as
the famous Fontainebleau and Eden Roc Hotels located to the south within the Morris Lapidus / Mid
20th Century historic district.
Architecture
The resort hotels usually featured grand lobbies,
cocktail lounges, supper clubs, themed restaurants,
ballrooms, banquet halls, retail shops, meeting
rooms, spa facilities, enormous swimming pools,
expansive outdoor sun decks, and a sweeping array
of private beach cabanas. This new American plan
provided everything for a total guest experience
without the need to leave the hotel for the duration
of the visitors stay.
This collection of buildings incorporates expansive
use of glass curtain walls, cantilevered asymmetrical
roofs, arches, dramatic fin walls, floating planes,
and grand entrance porte cocheres. Primary facades
are sometimes graced with bold neon signs, and sky
signs were mounted on rooftop features. These hotels and apartment buildings took on futuristic forms,
using architecture as advertising in an effort to outdo
one another in competing for business. This new
architecture celebrated the satisfaction of announcing that the Post World War II era in Miami Beach
and America had arrived.
1
MAP
Historic MiMo Buildings - in and around the

North Beach Resort Historic District
1
Comfort Inn (Allison Hotel)

6261 Collins Avenue
A. Herbert Mathes, 1951
This 4-story hotel features a simple rectilinear concrete and stucco frame which
divides the building into 3 bays. The front
entry porch is detailed with mosaic tiles
on the walls and decorative columns with
an abstract design.
The front elevation of this hotel features a

fabulous projecting concave wall with a
fluted stucco finish and boxed ribbon
windows. The curved wall is supported
by columns with floating planes. A dramatic porte-cochere features neon signage in the spirit of the post war automotive age.
Casablanca Hotel
6345 Collins Avenue
Roy France, 1950
Features a 2-level lobby area with an Lshaped tower of guest rooms above,
ribbon windows with continuous eyebrows and corner windows with wrapping eyebrows. This hotel was a landmark in exotic fantasy. It adapted to the
post war automotive age with huge neon
signage and a porte-cochere supported
by four turbaned figures (telamons).
Broadwater Beach Apartments

64906498 Collins Avenue
August Swarz, 1950
This grouping of 3 complementary garden-apartment buildings is an excellent
example of Post War Modern style as
applied to low-scale residential structures.
Notice the mermaid who is being chased
by 3 dolphins on the parapet wall. This is
one of several MiMo buildings on this
tour that is not within the historic district.
Mimosa Hotel (Brazil Hotel)

6525 Collins Avenue
Albert Anis, 1953
Sherry Frontenac Hotel

6565 Collins Avenue
Henry Hohauser, 1947
Features twin 9-story towers connected by
a central 3-story lobby. The saw-tooth
shaped plan of the towers provide many
of the rooms with views of the ocean and
allow for maximum sunlight. Guests are
treated to a sweeping porte-cochere upon
arrival.
Hotel Rowe
6600 Collins Avenue
David T. Ellis, 1939
In 1956, Carlos Schoeppl designed the
great gabled addition that wedged itself
in the old Hotel Rowe and transformed it
from a Streamline Modern style hotel to a
Post War Modern style motel. The merging of these two different styles of architecture is an interesting example of preserving the past while embracing the
future.
Historic MiMo Buildings - in and around the

North Beach Resort Historic District
7
Retail Building
66166638 Collins Avenue
Lester Avery, 1948
10
Deauville Hotel
6701 Collins Avenue
Melvin Grossman, 1958
The front elevation features a dramatic fin

wall for neon signage and a rounded
corner wall with a scalloped surface between two continuous eyebrows. A
framed wall with vertical concrete fins
was located above five storefronts facing
Collins Avenue.
11
This 12-story hotel features a sweeping

frontage along Collins Avenue. A vertical
panel of blue porcelain tile accentuates
the height of the tower, and contrast with
the horizontal eyebrows shading the
guestrooms. The Deauville became a
landmark for more than just its architecture; it was also the site of the Beatles
second performance in the U.S.
Carillon Hotel
6801 Collins Avenue
Norman M. Giller, 1957
One of the first all-inclusive resort hotels
in North Beach. Giller repeated the original folded-plate or accordion design
detail on the roof of the porte-cochere as
well as the front faade of the ballroom
wing. The top of the hotel features neon
signage and four great circular openings
(originally intended for a bell carillon but
never completed).
(Bombay Hotel)
6901 Collins Avenue

Norman M. Giller, 1951
Features an exuberant parabolic arch

which was added sometime between
1957 and 1958. Although not original
to the building, the arch responds to the
evolution of Post War Modern designs
and has acquired an architectural significance of its own over time.
Golden Sands Hotel
Normandy Plaza Hotel

6979 Collins Avenue
L. Murray Dixon, 1936
Designed in the Art Deco style, this hotel
features beautiful bas relief in the central
vertical panels on the front elevation as
well as pierced masonry grilles of the roof
parapet wall. The Normandy Plaza
served as military quarters for the U.S.
Army-Air Forces during World War II.
12
North Beach Bandshell

7251 Collins Avenue
Norman M. GIller, 1961
The bandshells streamlined stage proscenium, circular pylons, cantilevered entrance canopies and embracing walls
featured big band concerts, dancing under the stars, an occasional stage for TV
broadcasts of the Mike Douglas Show
and many more civic, cultural and social
events in mid-century North Beach.

North Beach Resort Walking Tour

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North Beach Resort Walking Tour

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Explore the North Beach

Resort Historic District

private clubs also appeared in this area: the Bath

They offered the finest in live entertainment to draw

Historic MiMo Buildings - in and around the

Comfort Inn (Allison Hotel)

The front elevation of this hotel features a

Broadwater Beach Apartments

Mimosa Hotel (Brazil Hotel)

Sherry Frontenac Hotel

Historic MiMo Buildings - in and around the

The front elevation features a dramatic fin

This 12-story hotel features a sweeping

6901 Collins Avenue

Features an exuberant parabolic arch

Golden Sands Hotel

Normandy Plaza Hotel

North Beach Bandshell

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