Toggle navigation. Student Life. U Miami Home. The Anastasia Building, as it came to be known, was the first of many so-called temporary buildings on campus after a devastating hurricane hit the city on September 18, A vintage photo from outside the Oscar E.
Dooly Memorial building. A hand tinted vintage photo of a typical classroom in the s. Cheerleaders in front of the residential colleges in the s. The University of Miami was chartered in by a group of citizens who felt an institution of higher learning was needed for the development of their young and growing community.
The South Florida land boom was at its peak, resources appeared ample, optimism flowed, and expectations were high. Supporters of the institution believed that the community offered unique opportunities to develop inter-American studies, to further creative work in the arts and letters, and to conduct teaching and research programs in tropical studies.
Early Years By the fall of , when the first class of full-time students enrolled at the University of Miami, the land boom had collapsed, and hopes for a speedy recovery were dashed by a major hurricane. The ss Dr. Everglades Reclamation or drainage led to the birth of a feverish real estate industry for Miami and much of southeast Florida as large speculators purchased millions of acres of reclaimed land from the State of Florida, then marketed it aggressively in many parts of the nation.
Later called Overtown, this region would grow rapidly before experiencing a period of steep decline beginning in the s for a host of reasons, including the construction of an extensive expressway system that ripped through the heart of the quarter and led to the displacement of 20, residents about one-half of its population.
For most Miamians this event marked their first glimpse of an airplane. Soon after the inaugural aerial display, Glenn Curtiss, a famed aviator, arrived and established a flight school. By the time America entered World War I in , Miami and the surrounding area hosted several flying schools, including a facility near the Miami Canal that Curtiss operated for future combat pilots in the Great War.
Miami was already booming when the Roaring Twenties began. It represented the largest per capita increase of any municipality in the nation.
Its expanding borders now extended several miles in each direction beyond the original parameters. But this growth would pale by comparison with what lay ahead—the onset of the great real estate boom of the mids. Speculation brought people from all parts of the nation to Florida in quest of quick wealth in the overheated Florida real estate market and Miami was its storm center.
In the late summer of , as the boom neared its zenith, nearly 1, subdivisions were under construction in Miami and its environs. Beautiful developments bearing a Spanish eclectic or Mediterranean Revival style of architecture arose in areas that had only recently been farms or woodland.
Most prominent here were the sparkling new municipalities of Coral Gables and Miami Shores. The annexation of Lemon City, Coconut Grove, and other historic communities and neighborhoods in led to the expansion of the city of Miami from 13 to 43 square miles.
The boom was accompanied by a breakdown in law and order. Owing in part to the wrenching changes that accompanied the boom, the rate of violent deaths homicides, suicides, and accidents for Miami and Dade County in the middle years of the s, was greater than at anytime since the state of Florida began record keeping. The boom began dissipating in Wary speculators backed off from further investment in light of inflation, and a series of setbacks brought construction to a standstill.
The spring and summer of witnessed a mass exodus of speculators. The boom was over. In September, a hurricane with winds of miles per hour smashed into the Miami area, with a portion of the eye passing over downtown. More than Miamians and Dade Countians lost their lives in the storm. Thousands of homes were destroyed. Unfinished subdivisions were leveled.
The entire region was plunged into a severe economic depression three years before the rest of the nation. Miami weathered the Great Depression of the s better than many other communities. This was due in part to the advent of commercial aviation—Pan American Airways and Eastern Airlines established headquarters in the Magic City—and a resurgent tourism in the second half of the decade.
Tourism was pegged to special events and activities such as the Orange Bowl Festival, which began in the mids, and became a popular tourist draw. New Deal programs put more than 16, Miamians to work, building fire stations, schools, and post offices.
Many members of these armed services returned as permanent citizens, revitalizing population. Miami became the most noted winter vacation resort. Soon after, more northerners were being attracted to Miami 's service-oriented and paradise atmosphere.
A prominent Jewish community and a large annual tourist population developed. The Art Deco District was born out of this era due to post hurricane re-development in the area. Also, Overtown, an area slated for African-Americans, was a hot spot for the harlem renaissance elite. The war ended and many of these servicemen returned to Miami pushing another development boom by In , the Cuban dictator Fidel Castro came to power.
What followed was a mass exodus of people from Cuba to Miami. Hundreds of thousands of Cubans came to Miami thinking it to be a temporary home until their home was freed from its communistic reign. An invasion of Cuba was planned by the U. The city experience a large population growth with neighborhoods known as Little Havana, which was established with over , Cuban-Americans. Prior to this population growth, the African-American and Caribbean population made up approximately one-third of the total population.
Finally, in , the Mariel boatlift transported an additional , Cubans to Miami.
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