ART DECO DAZZLE: MIAMI BEACH

For those seeking substance beyond the glitz and glamour that has become the calling card of Miami Beach, and you’ll be thrilled to know this little slice of paradise has a very rich entrepreneurial history, one that is surprisingly revealed in the area’s vernacular architecture—Mediter- ranean Revival, Art Deco and Miami Modernism, aka MiMo. The architectural tours of South Beach, organized by the Miami Design Preservation League (MDPL), offer a glimpse into the gripping, and sometimes sorted, backstory of this seaside town.

Beginning daily at MDPL’s new Art Deco Welcome Center at 12th Street and Ocean Drive, the guided walks cater to visitors and locals alike and take you on a 90-minute, foot-propelled exploration of the nation’s first officially recognized 20th-century historic district: the Miami Beach Architectural Historic District.

On Foot
“Look to the sky and then the water,” guide Jeff Donnelly says. “Tose are the last natural things on Miami Beach. Everything else has been brought here by someone’s imagination to attract you to this place.” Case in point: the Mediterranean Revivalist structures along Ocean Drive. Sometimes referred to as California style thanks to its emergence at the 1915 Panama Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco, Mediterranean Revivalist architecture is equally at home on our subtropical coastline as it is in Hollywood. The red-barrel-tile roofs and ornamental columns of the Adrian Hotel at 1060 Ocean Drive (in previous incarnations it was known as the Wave and the Bonair) make it an elegant example of this architectural style. Preferred among film stars of the time, Mediterranean Revivalism was championed by Miami Beach developers such as Carl Fisher and George Merrick during the 1920s and early ’30s in hopes that it would draw the rich and famous to the area. The plan worked. Buildings such as Casa Casuarina, the former Versace mansion designed by architect Henry LaPointe for Standard Oil heir Alden Freeman in 1930, were erected, and Miami Beach became the luxurious destination investors dreamed it to be.

Deco Dreamin'
As the tour continues, participants encounter example upon example of Miami’s famous Art Deco buildings—there are 700 in the district, including the Carlyle, designed by the firm Kiehnel and Elliot in 1941 (featured in the movie The Birdcage), and the Cardoza, designed by Henry Hohauser in 1939. A byproduct of Paris’ 1925 Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes, Art Deco architecture is characterized by structural symmetry, ziggurat, or stepped, rooflines and decorative sculptural panels. The Congress Hotel, also designed by Hohauser in 1936, is an ideal example of the architecture that gives the area its name. Check out its doorway. Framed by a frozen fountain—a signature motif of the style—its architecture suggests that this spot is an oasis, a place to move up and out!

The Real Natives
The final focus of this architectural stroll is Miami Modernism, or MiMo. Surfacing afer World War II in the 1950s as a stylistic response to how to marry form and function, MiMo architecture is not as pervasive as Art Deco, but it’s more native to South Beach than the Royal Palms. The Palace Bar at 1200 Ocean Drive, the sight of the first single-family home on Miami Beach, and the Studio Apart- ments at 1052 Ocean Drive, currently home to the Havana Store, illustrate the paired-down and occasionally space-age aesthetic of Miami Modernism. From the cheese-hole cutouts to the anodized aluminum in gold and copper to the asymmetrical amoeba shapes that characterize it, MiMo archi- tecture is a testament that here, as Donnelly suggests, “Everything is impossible. Everything is possible.” — Megan Aquilina

Lunch Spot
To satisfy the appetite, stop by the Front Porch Café (305.531.8300) at the Penguin Hotel on the north end of Ocean Drive. And this sidewalk café serves up one more historic Miami experience: the delicious Porch Burger Deluxe, not to mention a heaping portion of sunshine and people watching.

THE OLD CITY: ST. AUGUSTINE

If you really want to feel like you’ve traveled back in time, AdLib Luxury Tours guide Karen Harvey will don colonial garb for your romp through St. Augustine. Harvey has authored several books that trace the old city’s tug of war with the Spanish, British and Americans, and she educates and entertains the curious with downright amusing stories during the two-hour walking tour. One of the petite blonde historian’s fave stops—and ours too—is the corner of St. George and Hypolita streets, where a statue of Queen Isabelle on her ass is prominently displayed in a gated garden. The polished bronze figure of the monarch, who sent Christopher Columbus in search of the New World, always earns a chuckle from passers-by.

When is a Square a Square?
Harvey likes to begin at the Government House, a sturdy, two-story structure with balustered balconies that faces the Plaza de la Constitución. The Spanish were in charge here from 1565 to 1763, she explains, and besides building a residence for their governor, they designed one of the New World’s first plazas in 1598. “By government decree, it had to be rectangular with a government building, church and public market,” she says, pointing to its shape. (In contrast, the British plazas were circular.)

Perched across from the plaza, the Cathedral Basilica of St. Augustine glistens in the noon sun. However, the imposing structure wasn’t the city’s first church. In 1565, the Spanish built the first house of worship on the opposite side of the plaza; but in 1586, English corsair Francis Drake burned it to the ground along with the entire city of St. Augustine. The basilica, with its Mission architecture and bell parapet topped with a cross, was erected some 200 years later. It too suffered fire damage and was rebuilt in 1887. At that time a tall, slender bell tower—a gift from Henry Flagler, the business tycoon who turned the city into a tourist destination and is credited with much of Florida’s develop- ment—was designed to complement his hotels’ architecture and was added to the church’s side.

Strolling through the plaza we come upon a well. It’s not the real thing, Harvey is quick to point out, but imagine how surprised we were when workmen digging here in 1995 found ruins of a well. It has been reconstructed and makes a charming addition to the park-like space. Anchoring the other end of the square is a public market, the third component of a Spanish plaza. It’s said that colonists even negotiated for boats, land and firearms here, but more importantly, the first use of weights and measures took place in this concrete marketplace.

Follow the Brick Road
“Please don’t call the streets cobblestone,” Harvey insists. “They are brick. Our streets are laid with bricks,” she stresses. Looking down we all can see that, yes, indeed the roads that crisscross the city are paved with reddish-brown bricks. Most made their way to Florida as ballast in ships. We’re standing on one of the prettiest and oldest brick-laid thoroughfares: Aviles Street. It’s lined with boutiques, wine bars and cafés, but turn down the narrow alleyway, and you come upon the Segui- Kirby Smith House with its loggia and balconies. It’s one of only 36 Spanish Colonial houses that remains in St. Augustine. Harvey rattles off the list of past occupants, highlighting Edmund Kirby Smith, a West Point graduate who at 38 was one of the youngest officers in the Confederate Army.

Following the brick roads, we find ourselves in front of Castillo de San Marcos scrutinizing the fort’s walls. “You can explore the fort on your own, but I have to tell you about the walls,” begins Harvey. She goes on to explain how they’re made of coquina, a soft, whitish rock composed of seashells and coral. “They [the Spanish who built the fort] had to dig deep to get quality coquina; it came from a quarry on the other side of Matanzas Bay, near the lighthouse,” she says. The British tried to attack with cannonballs, but they bounced off. No one could crack the walls.

Fashionista Flagler
As we approach the streets where Flagler’s three exquisite hotels dominate the cityscape, Harvey once again points out the bricks. Gone are the plain red ones, and instead we’re walking on “designer” bricks with geometric lines and circles. “These belong to the Flagler era,” Harvey says, hinting at the titan’s good taste back at the turn of the 19th century. Next we fix our eyes on the nearby Grace United Methodist Church, which Flagler built for the congregation. It was more of a bribe to get the piece of land where the old church sat. “It’s made of poured concrete—a mixture of coquina shell, sand, Portland cement and water—and the architects were even told to build a clay tile roof,” she continues. The beauty of the church’s Spanish Renaissance, terra-cotta spire and bell tower could rival that of Europe’s finest. Flagler, who was Presbyterian, built another church a couple of blocks away. His Flagler Memorial Presbyterian Church honors his daughter and grandchild who both died from childbirth complications and are buried here. This blue-cast, poured-concrete structure’s domes and Byzantine detailing were fashioned after St. Mark’s Basilica in Venice, Italy. It’s the architecture of the church that moves visitor Melanie Nowlin. “It really does have a resemblance to St. Mark’s. I visited Venice so many years ago, but I can see it. Wow, this is a beautiful church. Henry really did have exquisite taste.” — Patricia Letakis

Lunch Spot
Tucked behind foodie favorite Opus 39 is newborn sibling The Bakery by Opus 39. And the made-to- order Italian sandwich with cured meats (think prosciutto, beef & salami) is layered with goat cheese and served on peasant sourdough bread that’s baked in house. A courtyard with bistro tables and a European vibe is the perfect alfresco setting. Don’t pass on dessert. The éclairs, apple tarts and hazelnut-mousse cake all pair well with a cup of robust organic coffee.

STROLLING THE CONCH REPUBLIC: KEY WEST

Stroll the lanes of Old Town Key West, a National historic district, under the canopy of gumbo-limbo and banyan trees, past white picket fences that hold back lush gardens of orchids, banana trees, pink hibiscus and red bougain- villea, and you’ll feel like you’ve lost yourself in the 19th century.

“Key West is special because we have so many single-family homes from around the 1800s that have been stringently preserved,” says Tom Hambright, historian for Key West’s Monroe County. “Walking around Old Town brings back memories of the ways that people lived.” A mix of cultures from the Bahamas, Cuba, Europe and the eastern seaboard of the United States has resulted in a unique blend of wooden architectural styles adapted to make the best of the tropical climate. “They added large porches, high ceilings, deep roofs, scuttles to ventilate the attics and louvered shutters,” Hambright notes.

Seaworthy
One block off the bustle of Duval Street, the city’s main thoroughfare, folks gather regularly on the lower veranda of the Heritage House (410 Caroline Street) for a guided tour of the 1834 home that’s now a museum. The two-story, blue-green structure evokes the ocean and is a stately example of Classical Revival Conch, also called a Bahama House. “The home was originally built by shipbuilders, who also built many of the other historic homes on the island,” says the museum’s Karen Sadof. “They built sturdy vessels and in turn sturdy homes, which have stood the test of time.” Builders even salvaged wood from ships that wrecked on the reefs. “I’ve always said that shipbuilders were definitely the original recyclers,” Sadof says.

Hidden Gems
Head right onto Duval and then left on Eaton Street to the Artist House (534 Eaton Street), built in 1887. In Queen Anne tradition, the octagonal turret soars three stories high. Look up, and you can almost see the well-known Florida artist and previous owner, Gene Otto, painting by the splendid light in that room.

As you walk down Eaton, the small lots and intimate spacing of the houses give you a sense of the close-knit community. The sun glistens off the metal roofs, which became common after several fires ravaged Old Town. Stop and look closely past the palm trees that partially obscure the unusual facade of the Richard Peacon House (712 Eaton Street), and you’ll see one of the two octagonal houses in Key West built in the 1890s.

Next you will find the imposing Freeman Curry House (724 Eaton Street), which was built in 1885. Although stark in its black-and-white color scheme, peek at the ceilings under the porches, which have been painted a surprising light blue. This was thought to keep wasps from making nests because the color mimicked the sky.

Weddings, Winks and Everything in Between
On the right-hand corner as you cross Southard Street is the William Albury House (730 Southard Street). Despite having fallen into a bit of disrepair, architectural details, such as limestone piers that were used to anchor the home to the bedrock, are spectacular. These piers lifted homes three feet off the ground, which allowed cool air to circulate underneath the floorboards. During storms, the raging winds and high waters could also pass through easily. Walk around to the backside for an excellent example of a widow’s walk, which is a square fenced perch that provides a view over the city. The legend is that the wife would wait there for the return of her husband lost at sea.

As you make your way down the street, you’ll find the Edward Roberts House (643 William Street), where the second-floor windows look at you drowsily from under an extended eave. Built in the 1800s, this home boasts an architectural style unique to Key West; it’s called an “eyebrow” house due to the eaves that shade the upper story (and catch cool breezes). Make a right onto Windsor Lane and then another right on Elizabeth Street to find a frothy pink concoction of a house built by Benjamin Baker in 1872 (615 Elizabeth Street), often referred to as the Gingerbread House. Baker gave it to his daughter as a wedding present; the explosion of ornate Victorian-style millwork, including the balustrades, friezes and brackets, gives it the feel of a wedding cake.

Keys Handiwork
Millwork, which Hambright says was added all over the island with no apparent rhyme or reason, became the rage during the latter part of the 19th century. “It was a way to make your house different from the other guy’s,” he says. Pick up a copy of The Pelican Path at the Chamber of Commerce for a self-guided tour. The 51 historical points of interest in the brochure are marked with pelican signage. — Claudia Miller

Lunch Spot
Fried fish on Cuban bread with a dollop of Key-lime sauce is an island special at B.O.’s Fish Wagon (305.294.9272). But you could also order the conch fritters—a local favorite. Owner Buddy Owen’s eatery is decorated flotsam-and-jetsam style with strung buoys and nautical scraps. Outdoor tables provide a front-row seat for watching the action at the Historic Seaport.