The best way to get to know Miami’s history is through our special places – our sun-drenched landscapes, simple pioneer dwellings, stately mansions, and colorful ethnic neighborhoods.

South Florida has attracted people for over a century. Lured by the warmth of the sun and the promise of a better day, they arrived from many places, forged a new way of living in our tropical paradise and left their mark. The Miami River, for more than a century, has hosted a large Tequesta Indian settlement; Spanish missions; slave plantations; army forts; the home of Julia Tuttle, modern Miami’s “mother”; and Henry M. Flagler’s magnificent Royal Palm Hotel. Flagler, after accepting attractive offers of land from Tuttle and the Brickell family, who lived across the river, brought his Florida East Coast Railway to Miami in 1896, jump-starting the transformation of a tiny riverine community into an incorporated city.

When it comes to historic architecture, Miami boasts simple pioneer bungalows made of coral rock and Dade County pine, swimming pools resembling Venetian lagoons and Spanish Mediterranean mansions that defy imagination. Keep your camera ready and your eyes open wide. Miami is an adventure for the senses!