Coral Gables Sites

Originally the local police and fire station. "The Coral Gables Public Safety Building, more commonly referred to as the Old Police and Fire Station, was built in 1939 on the corner of Argon Avenue and Salzedo Street. Phineas Paist, the city's principal architect, included a courtroom and a jail in his design of the building. The structure is constructed of oolitic limestone, a type of rock native to this area. The Salzedo Street side of the building is decorated with impressive carvings of firefighters, as well as images of the people and pets that they are sworn to save from fires...

The Works Progress Administration built a community house and library in Coral Gables, Florida. The building now serves as the Coral Gables Woman's Club. "During the Great Depression, the national Works Projects Administration operated projects in cooperation with state and local governments throughout the country. Of the 17 projects approved for Coral Gables, a library and community building built on land donated by the City was completed in 1937. The coral rock building at 1001 East Ponce de Leon Boulevard was the Library’s location for more than 30 years. The building also housed the Woman’s Club which operated the Library until 1953...

Miami and the surrounding Dade County were effectively without city or county parks until the 1930s.  The city got its first park in 1925, after which the city was devastated by a hurricane the following year. The county received its first donation of land for a park in 1929, which became Matheson Hammock Park.  In 1930, the park system got its own director and a beach park, Surfside, was added in 1932. The county began improvements on the parks using mostly convict labor and men sent by the Charity Office once the Depression hit, as well as starting a Roadside...

Miami and the surrounding Dade County were effectively without city or county parks until the 1930s.  The city got its first park in 1925, after which the city was devastated by a hurricane the following year. The county received its first donation of land for a park in 1929, which became Matheson Hammock Park.  In 1930, the park system got its own director and a beach park, Surfside, was added in 1932. The county began improvements on the parks using mostly convict labor and men sent by the Charity Office once the Depression hit, as well as starting a Roadside...

Personal description of the park by project submitter John Walker: "The entire park including the coquina coral atoll pool, was manmade. My grandfather, Robert "Bob" C. Long was a CCC worker, and worked on the project and helped to build the atoll pool. He and many of the other CCC workers carved their initials and names in the coral they laid around the manmade coral atoll pool deck. It is a natural salt, sea water atoll pool. A hurricane damaged the pool, and in a hasty repair of the pool, many of the stones used that bore the initials of many...