Charles Deering Estate | |
 The Richmond Cottage as it looks today. | |
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| Location | Palmetto Bay, Florida, USA |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 25°36′56.217″N80°18′23.3388″W / 25.61561583°N 80.306483000°W Coordinates: 25°36′56.217″N80°18′23.3388″W / 25.61561583°N 80.306483000°W |
| Website | deeringestate |
| NRHP reference No. | 86000325 |
| Added to NRHP | 11 March 1986 [1] |
Charles Deering Estate (also known as Deering Estate at Cutler) was the Florida home of Charles Deering until 1927 when he died at the estate. [2]
Deering lived on the 444 acres (1.80 km2) [3] property for five years, from 1922 to 1927. The property consists of a three-story wooden house built in 1900, known as the Richmond Cottage, [4] and a three-story stone mansion. Other buildings were also built on the property to serve as auxiliary buildings to the estate. Charles Deering Estate is located in the Cutler neighborhood of Palmetto Bay, Florida.
The grounds include what is thought to be the largest virgin coastal tropical hardwood hammock in the continental United States. The estate was acquired by the state of Florida in 1985.
The estate is owned by the State of Florida and is managed by the Miami-Dade County Parks, Recreation and Open Spaces Department. [5]
After the death of Charles Deering in 1927 the property was maintained by his family. In 1982 after his daughter died the property became available for sale. In 1984 the estate was purchased by Finley Matheson which fought to get it turned into a state park. In 1985 the State of Florida purchased the land for $22.5 million.
The Deering Estate is a national landmark listed on the National Register of Historic Places. [6] It became part of the National Register of Historic places in 1986 by meeting the requirements in all categories. It is also part of the Organization of Biological Field Stations [7] through its collaboration with Florida International University School of Environment, Arts and Society. By being part of the organization they receive assistance in order to improve their effectiveness in supporting critical research, education and outreach programs.
For more than 30 years, researchers have studied the unique ecological, geological and archaeological features of the property. The Deering Estate is situated in the only portion of the Everglades Restoration Project within an urban setting and which is easily accessed by the public. In August 2019, the Deering Estate Foundation was granted $200,000 for capital improvements. [8] This will expand the cultural and ecological field station and research site. The funds will provide renovations for a 10,700 square-foot field study research center. The research facility will provide temporary living quarters for up to 14 researchers, a archival library and a field staff office for the Deering Estate and Deering Estate Foundation.
The house and grounds were featured several times in the 1980s TV series Miami Vice , [9] and the estate was the starting location for The Amazing Race All-Stars in 2007. [10]
The Richmond Cottage was built by S. Howard Richmond, agent for the Perrine Land Grant Company, as his family home, at the end of the 19th century in what was then the pioneer town of Cutler. An addition which converted the home into a 22-room hotel was completed in 1900. The hotel was managed by Richmond's wife, Edith M. The Richmond Cottage was described as being the "most southerly hotel on the mainland of the United States". [11]
Charles Deering bought the Richmond Cottage in 1916 over the next several years he added different structures to the estate, including a carriage house, pump house and power house. He also enclosed his estate with a limestone and concrete wall and built the boat turning basin in Biscayne Bay. In 1922 he completed his three-story Mediterranean Stone House [12] and moved to Cutler in 1922. [13]
Stone House was designed by Phineas Paist and was completed in 1922. It has 18 inch poured concrete walls, oolitic limestone, coffered ceilings and copper clad and brass doors. After the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, Charles Deering was nervous of what fire could do. He decided to build his Stone House without a stove. There was a kitchen that housed refrigeration cabinets and storage but the cooking was done in the Richmond Cottage. It was his trepidation of fire that had him asking the architect/designer for the 18 inch concrete walls and brass doors. He also added an elevator to the house which was very forward thinking for 1922. [14] The large wine cellar that is located on the first floor was not discovered until after Hurricane Andrew. It was very well hidden behind built-in cabinetry. Hurricane Andrew flooded the first floor and damaged much of it. It was during the clean up process that it was discovered. He intended the house to be used as a showcase for his art collection and books.
Charles Deering was born on July 31, 1852, in Paris, Maine. [2] He was the son of William Deering, founder of Deering Harvester Company, and brother of millionaire industrialist James Deering. Deering is remembered as an American businessman and philanthropist.
In 1873 Deering graduated from the United States Naval Academy and served as an officer in the Navy until 1881. Deering then became secretary of his father's company, which merged with McCormick Harvesting Machine Company and became International Harvester in 1902. After the merger, Deering became the chairman of the board for International Harvester. [2] Charles Deering died at the age of 75 at his estate at Cutler, at 11:30 P.M. on February 5, 1927. [2] [13] After Charles' death, the estate was left to his wife and children. [13]
The Cutler Burial Mound is a prehistoric mound on the Charles Deering Estate. It is one of the few surviving prehistoric mounds in Miami-Dade County. The mound is about 38 feet by 20 feet at the base, and about five feet high. Artifacts from the mound are from the Glades II and III periods. The mound has been disturbed repeatedly. Henry Perrine, Jr, son of Henry Perrine, removed several skulls from the mound in the 1860s while searching for Black Caesar's treasure. Ralph Munroe dug in the mound in the 1890s. In the 20th century, neighborhood children dug in the mound and removed bones and artifacts. Some of those bones have been returned and reburied in the mound. The mound is believed to contain 12 to 18 burials of Native Americans. The mound is accessible via a boardwalk. [15] [16]
In 1979 a sinkhole on the Deering Estate was found to contain bones of Pleistocene animals associated with bones and artifacts of early humans. The site was eventually acquired by Miami-Dade County, and is now part of the Charles Deering Estate Park. [17]
On August 24, 1992, Hurricane Andrew struck South Florida as a Category 5 hurricane, the third-strongest tropical cyclone to make landfall in the United States, with winds of 165 mph (270 km/h). Andrew "destroyed 25,524 homes and damaged 101,241 others." [18]
Hurricane Andrew ravaged and damaged the property of Deering Estate. The water front property was devastated by waves that reached as high as the second floor of the buildings. Water rose more than 16 feet (4.9 m) from sea level [19] and caused major flooding on the property. [20] The Richmond Cottage was taken off its foundation and splintered by the hurricane. It took seven years and $7.2 million to restore the location. Deering Estate at Cutler reopened to the public in 1999 and officially opened in 2000. [20] [21]
The Deering Estate Foundation, Inc., organized in 1989 and strives, "to raise public awareness, outreach, understanding and the enjoyment of the Deering Estate at Cutler and to raise funds to support education, research, exhibits and collections, natural conservation and historical restoration and preservation." [22] The offices of the foundation are located on the third floor of the Richmond Cottage. Is a community based charitable 501(c) Florida Corporation and the philanthropic partners of the Deering Estate. [23]
| Executive Committee | Position | Directors | Trustees |
|---|---|---|---|
| David McDonald | President | Laura Beaton-Aguilera | Richard Cohen |
| Becky Roper Matkov | Vice President | Beth Brockway-Serrate | Ronald Esserman |
| Vicki Simmons-Hinz | Treasurer | C. Michael Cornely | Lynn French |
| Liede DeValdivielso | Secretary | Tom Cromer | James W. Harris |
| Buff March-Bye dec. | Immediate Past President | Dr. Lyle Culver | Sallye Jude |
| David A. Marley Jr. | Peter A. England | Philip F. Ludovici | |
| Walter Flores | Heather Bell O'Brien | ||
| Dr. Evelyn Gaiser | Edward Rosasco | ||
| Eric T. Haas | Audrey Ross | ||
| Col. Brodes Hartley, Jr. | Scott A. Silver | ||
| Barry E. Johnson | David M. Turner | ||
| Leonor M. Lagomasino | Karleton B. Wulf | ||
| Paul Neidhart | Mary Young | ||
| Patrick H. F. Roberts | |||
| Christine Stiphany | |||
| Jo Ann Szaro | |||
| Howard J. Tendrich | |||
| Jocelyn Tennille | |||
| Jamie L. Thomas | |||
| Andrew S. Yagoda | |||
| Daniel Yglesias | |||
Cutler was a pioneer town in Miami-Dade County, Florida that existed from 1883 to 1915, when most of it was absorbed into the Charles Deering Estate. The area adjoining the western border of the estate later became the Cutler census-designated place (CDP) through the time of the 2000 census, after which it was incorporated into the Village of Palmetto Bay. The population was 17,390 at the 2000 census.
Cutler Bay is an incorporated town in Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States, established in 2005. With a population of 45,425 as of the 2020 census, Cutler Bay is the 9th most populous of the 34 municipalities that make up Miami's urban core, and the 33rd most populous of the 163 municipalities that make up the Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach Metropolitan Area.
Key Biscayne is an island located in Miami-Dade County, Florida, located between the Atlantic Ocean and Biscayne Bay. It is the southernmost of the barrier islands along the Atlantic coast of Florida, and lies south of Miami Beach and southeast of Miami. The key is connected to Miami via the Rickenbacker Causeway, originally built in 1947.
A cutler is a maker of cutlery.
The Vizcaya Museum and Gardens, previously known as Villa Vizcaya, is the former villa and estate of businessman James Deering, of the Deering McCormick-International Harvester fortune, on Biscayne Bay in the present-day Coconut Grove neighborhood of Miami, Florida. The early 20th-century Vizcaya estate also includes extensive Italian Renaissance gardens, native woodland landscape, and a historic village outbuildings compound.
Charles Deering was an American businessman, art collector, and philanthropist. He was an executive of the agricultural machinery company founded by his father that became International Harvester. Charles's successful stewardship of the family firm left him with the means and leisure to indulge his interests in the arts and natural sciences. His activities and benefactions in the US were centered on Chicago and Miami; he also aspired to found an art museum in Spain.
James Deering was an American executive in the management of his family's Deering Harvester Company and later International Harvester, as well as a socialite and an antiquities collector. He built his landmark Vizcaya estate, where he was an early 20th-century resident on Biscayne Bay in the present day Coconut Grove district of Miami, Florida. Begun in 1910, with architecture and gardens in a Mediterranean Revival style, Vizcaya was his passionate endeavor with artist Paul Chalfin, and his winter home from 1916 to his death in 1925.
Palmetto Bay is a suburban incorporated village in Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States. The population was 24,439 as of the 2020 US census.
Perrine, Florida was an unincorporated community in Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States, about midway between Miami and Homestead. It is at 25°36′18″N80°21′13″W The community was named after Henry Perrine, who in 1839 had been granted a survey township of land in the area by the United States Congress in recognition of his service as United States Consul in Campeche, Mexico, and to support his plans to introduce new plants from tropical countries into cultivation in the United States.
The Barnacle Historic State Park is a 5-acre (2.0 ha) Florida State Park in the Coconut Grove neighborhood of Miami, Florida at 3485 Main Highway.
Southland Mall, originally known as Cutler Ridge Mall, is a shopping mall in Cutler Bay, Florida. It opened in 1978 as an extension of the Cutler Ridge Shopping Center, which itself was opened in 1960. Subsequent additions extended the mall in the early to mid-1980s.
Old Cutler Road is an off-grid plan, 14.9-mile (24.0 km) main northeast–southwest road running south of downtown Miami in Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States.
The Trapp Homestead is a historic home in the Coconut Grove section of the City of Miami, Florida, United States. It is located at 2521 South Bayshore Drive. On November 10, 1994, it was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places. The home was constructed in 1887 out of oolitic lime quarried locally by Caleb Trapp and his son, Harlan. During construction, the Trapps lived on a thatched hut at the front of the property. The property is believed to be the oldest-standing masonry home in Miami-Dade County, Florida. The estate's construction pre-dates the incorporation of the City of Miami. The estate was particularly notable at the time because it was one of the few stone structures in Miami-Dade County, as nearly all structures in the area were built of wood at that time.
The 1945 Homestead hurricane, known informally as Kappler's hurricane, was the most intense tropical cyclone to strike the U.S. state of Florida since 1935. The ninth tropical storm, third hurricane, and third major hurricane of the season, it developed east-northeast of the Leeward Islands on September 12. Moving briskly west-northwestward, the storm became a major hurricane on September 13. The system moved over the Turks and Caicos Islands the following day and then Andros on September 15. Later that day, the storm peaked as a Category 4 hurricane on the modern-day Saffir–Simpson scale with winds of 130 mph (215 km/h). Late on September 15, the hurricane made landfall on Key Largo and then in southern Dade County, Florida.
Coral Reef Drive, also known as Southwest 152nd Street, is a 9.6-mile-long (15.4 km) main east–west road south of Miami in Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States. It serves to connect the communities of Country Walk and Richmond Heights with Palmetto Bay. State Road 992 is designated along the 2.462-mile-long (3.962 km) section of Coral Reef Drive between the Homestead Extension of Florida's Turnpike and US 1.
Black Point Park & Marina, oftentimes referred to as "Black Point," is the largest public marina located in Miami and it is part of the Miami-Dade Parks & Recreation department. The marina is also very close to Biscayne National Park. Black Point is a starting point for fishing and diving expeditions, especially among locals. The park consists of large picnic pavilions, grills, bikeways, jogging trails and a jetty, which extends 1.5 miles into Biscayne Bay.
Matheson Hammock Park is a 630 acres (2.5 km2) urban park in metropolitan Miami at 9610 Old Cutler Road, just south of Coral Gables, Florida. The park surrounds the north and western ends of Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden.
Chapman Field Park is a 483-acre (1.95 km2) urban park in metropolitan Miami in Miami-Dade County, Florida, in the southern part of Coral Gables, Florida on historic Old Cutler Road. Of its 493 acres (2.00 km2), 432 acres (1.75 km2) remain as mangrove forests and saltwater estuaries; 51 acres (21 ha) is developed as a park.
The effects of Hurricane Andrew in Florida proved to be at the time the costliest disaster in the state's history, as well as the then-costliest on record in the United States. Hurricane Andrew formed from a tropical wave on August 16, 1992 in the tropical Atlantic Ocean. It moved west-northwest and remained weak for several days due to strong wind shear. However, after curving westward on August 22, the storm rapidly intensified to reach peak winds of 175 mph (282 km/h). Following its passage through The Bahamas, Andrew made landfall near Homestead, Florida as a Category 5 hurricane on August 24. Eventually, Andrew struck southern Louisiana before it dissipated over the eastern United States on August 28.
The Cutler Fossil Site (8DA2001) is a sinkhole near Biscayne Bay in Palmetto Bay, Florida, which is south of Miami. The site has yielded bones of Pleistocene animals and bones as well as artifacts of Paleo-Indians and people of the Archaic period.
Still-water marks from storm surge measured at 16.5 feet.
