Stiltsville is a group of wood stilt houses located one mile south of Cape Florida, on sand banks of the Safety Valve on the edge of Biscayne Bay in Miami-Dade County, Florida. The structures stand on wood or reinforced concrete pilings, generally ten feet above the shallow water, which varies from one to three feet deep at low tide.
Most sources claim the first stilt shack was built in the early 1930s, but some Dade County historians say that there were a dozen shacks in "the flats" as early as 1922. [1]
"Crawfish" Eddie Walker built a shack on stilts above the water [2] in 1933, toward the end of the prohibition era, allegedly to facilitate gambling, which was legal at one mile offshore. Crawfish Eddie sold bait and beer from his shack and was known for a dish he called chilau, a crawfish chowder made with crawfish he caught under his shack. Thomas Grady and Leo Edward, two of Eddie's fishing buddies, built their own shack in 1937. Shipwrecking and channel dredging brought many people to the area and more shacks were constructed, some by boating and fishing clubs. Local newspapers called the area "the shacks" and "shack colony". Crawfish Eddie's original shack was destroyed by the late-season Hurricane King of 1950. [1]
The first social club built at Stiltsville was constructed during the late 1930s and named the Calvert Club. The Miami Beach Rod & Reel Club was organized in 1929 and held its first official outing at the Stiltsville Calvert Club in August 1938. [3] A club picture was taken in front of the club, which was popular enough to have picture postcards printed with its image.
The Quarterdeck Club, built on a barge by Commodore Edward Turner, opened in November, 1940. The club gained popularity after an article about the club appeared in Life magazine on February 10, 1941. [4] The article noted that this was an "extraordinary American community dedicated solely to sunlight, salt water and the well-being of the human spirit." The club was described as "a $100,000 play-palace equipped with bar, lounge, bridge deck, dining room and dock slips for yachts". [5]
The local newspapers began running stories and photographs of parties with celebrities. The Quarterdeck Club was viewed by tourists as a "must see" attraction at Miami Beach, Florida. [4]
Rumors of gambling persisted, and the club was raided in 1949, but no evidence of gambling was found. Hotelman Warren Freeman purchased the club in 1950 and envisioned it as a high-class operation. The structure was renovated and expanded, only to be heavily damaged by Hurricane King late in the season. Dejected and broke, Freeman sold what remained. [6]
The club was rebuilt, but never regained the popularity of its early years. Hurricane Donna in 1960 damaged most of the structures in Stiltsville, including the Quarterdeck Club, then the building was completely destroyed by a fire in 1961 that burned all the way to the pilings. The rumor was that the owner's wife set fire to the club after a jealous fit. Karl Mongelluzzo, the last owner of the Quarterdeck Club, was denied a building permit in 1967. [4]
Stiltsville may not have looked like much, but in the 1940s and 1950s, it was a popular place where lawyers, bankers, politicians, and other moneyed, well-connected Miamians came to drink, relax and kick back. Law enforcement periodically visited the area, looking for vice activities. [7]
Florida Governor LeRoy Collins was a frequent visitor during the 1950s, a guest of Jimmy Ellenburg at his house in the flats. Ellenburg established his barge near Crawfish Eddie's in 1939 and was known as the unofficial mayor of Stiltsville. A handwritten note from the governor to his host read: "Jimmy Ellenburg, When the time comes when I say so long to this life, I hope the great beyond seems alot[ sic ] like your cabin in the sea - Roy Collins" [8]
From the 1950s to the 1960s, Stiltsville's style matured from ramshackle to lodge, some with architectural styles, including the "A-frame" house; the Leshaw House, with its distinctive Mansard roof; and the uniquely shaped Baldwin, Sessions & Shaw House, which was featured in a national ad campaign for Pittsburgh Paints. These three houses, as well as the Ellenburg house, were among the seven buildings included in the 2003 Stiltsville Trust. Nearly all of the structures included full wrap-around porches. At its peak in 1960, Stiltsville consisted of 27 buildings.
In the late 1950s, twelve blue-collar workers in the Miami Springs Power Boat Club purchased a sunken barge for $1, re-floated it and towed it to Stiltsville, where they grounded it on a mudflat and built a structure and docks for use by their club. Hurricane Betsy did considerable damage to the barge in 1965, so club members invested in concrete pilings, which still remain in place. Thousands have visited the Springs House over the years, including Boy Scout troops and Optimist Clubs. Several television commercials have also been filmed there. [9] It was one of the seven remaining structures named in the Stiltsville Trust of 2003.
In 1962, a businessman/scam artist named Harry Churchville, also known as "Pierre," grounded a 150-foot yacht named Jeff in the mudflats of Stiltsville and turned the boat into a social club. Alcoholic beverages were offered for sale, with free drinks to women wearing bikinis. There was a sun deck for nude sunbathing and staterooms could be rented for any purpose. The Bikini Club was raided by the Florida Beverage Commission in the summer of 1965, and closed down for selling liquor without a license. [10] On September 8, 1965, Hurricane Betsy destroyed most of Stiltsville and severely damaged the boats upon which the Bikini Club was based. In 1966, what remained of the Bikini Club burned to the waterline.
The May 1967 edition of Argosy featured a picture story titled "BIKINIS ON STILTS," written by Ward Kennedy. The introductory quote stated, "Off Key Biscayne is a renegade village on stilts where weekend residents live by their own laws. Their town hall is a floating Bikini Club that swings both day and night." [11] By the time the story was published, the Bikini Club had been gone for over a year.
AM radio station WRIZ constructed radio towers in Stiltsville in 1967, on the south side of the Biscayne Channel. It became radio station WRHC in 1985, and used the Stiltsville towers for daytime broadcasting at 10,000 watts on 1550 kHz, until the site was decommissioned in approximately 1990. [12] Because salt water is highly conductive, it makes an excellent ground plane for signals in the mediumwave radio band, which allowed the station a greater broadcast range on the same power.
Stiltsville's frontier era ended with Hurricane Betsy in 1965. Beginning in August 1965, the state of Florida required building owners to pay $100 annually to lease their quarter-acre circular "campsites." No permits for new construction were issued, and structures that sustained more than 50-percent damage could not be rebuilt. Building codes were implemented and the state banned commercial operations after 1969. [7]
In 1976, the state renewed leases for $300 annually but included an expiration date of July 1, 1999. A clause in the lease stated that structures remaining after that date would be removed at the owner's expense.
Congress expanded the Biscayne National Park boundaries in June 1980, bringing the area containing Stiltsville within the park. The state of Florida deeded the submerged lands in the expansion area to the United States in 1985. [13] The Park Service agreed to honor the terms of the existing leases, so nothing really changed.
At the beginning of 1992, there were 14 "campsites" with structures present at Stiltsville. After Hurricane Andrew struck on August 24, 1992, only seven buildings survived and were still standing by July 1, 1999.
As the lease termination date approached, the leaseholders requested renewals. In the mid-1990s, the park service told leaseholders it lacked the authority to renew leases and suggested they pursue a listing on the National Register of Historic Places. Several preservation groups took up the cause, but Stiltsville twice failed to earn National Register status, primarily because the surviving houses weren't 50 years old.
Dr. Paul George, historian for the Historical Museum of Southern Florida, explained the significance of Stiltsville thus: "It really is an only-in-Miami kind of thing. It had an aura, a rascally mischievous past. But it was also just a place people could go to enjoy getting away. It would be a terrible loss." [14]
Life magazine featured another article on Stiltsville, 57 years after the original. The November 1998 issue included an article entitled, "Stiltsville: The residents of a fading Florida community make a stand to save it." Jason Fulford was credited for the photography. [15]
In a last-ditch effort, a petition drive was started.
The response from the community was overwhelming. More than 75,000 people asked that Stiltsville be spared, and the park service reversed their decision. In August 2000, the Park Service announced the approval of a Stiltsville amendment to the 1983 General Management Plan for Biscayne National Park. [13] Under the revised plan, the houses would not be demolished and the existing leases would be extended while a preservation plan was developed. [7]
In 2003, a non-profit organization called the Stiltsville Trust was established and included the seven remaining leaseholders, called caretakers, and eight members of the community. In addition to raising funds, their goal was to preserve and rehabilitate the structures to help showcase the park's marine resources with support for educational and interpretive services. Possible uses included community meeting space, a visitor center, research facilities, an artist in residence program and a satellite National Park Service office in the northern part of the park.
The park service added hurricane strapping to protect the structures from wind damage in major storms. Caretakers still perform basic maintenance on their former weekend retreats, [7] but the Stiltsville buildings are owned by the National Park Service and have been secured and posted with "no trespassing" signs. Access to the buildings by non-trust members is by permission of the park's superintendent. [2]
The Park Service hopes the Stiltsville Trust will alleviate one of Biscayne National Park's problems: the facility is 95-percent water and essentially inaccessible to non-boaters. According to park superintendent Linda Canzanelli,
"A lot of people hear about Biscayne National Park because of Stiltsville. It can be a wonderful educational tool if we can get people out there so we can talk about the local history and marine environment." [7]
A - Jimmy Ellenburg House
B - A-Frame House
C - Baldwin, Sessions & Shaw House
D - Leshaw House (Destroyed by fire on January 11, 2021)
E - Bay Chateau
F - Hicks House
G - Miami Springs Power Boat Club
Stiltsville has been the setting for scenes in numerous media works, such as:
The made-for-TV movie The Fantastic Seven (1979), and the films Around the World Under the Sea (1966), Absence of Malice (1981), Bad Boys II (2003) [16] and Reminiscence (2021).
Stiltsville is depicted in the video games Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (2002), in the fictional city based on Miami called "Vice City", as well as in the 2006 PSP game Miami Vice: The Game (based on the film of the same name), and in Driv3r (2004), which features Miami as one of the settings.
Les Standiford's novel, Done Deal; three Carl Hiaasen novels: Skin Tight , Stormy Weather , and Skinny Dip ; A J Stewart's novel, Crash Tack; Susanna Daniel's novels, Stiltsville: a Novel [17] and Sea Creatures; Tim Dorsey's novel Pineapple Grenade, and Karen Russell's novel, Swamplandia!
Stiltsville is depicted in the television series Dexter , Miami Vice and Sea Hunt .[ citation needed ]
Homestead is a city within Miami-Dade County in the U.S. state of Florida, between Biscayne National Park to the east and Everglades National Park to the west. Homestead is primarily a Miami suburb and a major agricultural area. It is a principal city of the Miami metropolitan area of South Florida, which was home to an estimated 6,012,331 people at the 2015 census. It is located approximately 26 miles (42 km) southwest of Miami, and 25 miles (40 km) northwest of Key Largo. The population was 80,737 as of the 2020 census.
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Biscayne National Park is a national park of the United States located south of Miami, Florida, in Miami-Dade County. The park preserves Biscayne Bay and its offshore barrier reefs. Ninety-five percent of the park is water, and the shore of the bay is the location of an extensive mangrove forest. The park covers 172,971 acres and includes Elliott Key, the park's largest island and northernmost of the true Florida Keys, formed from fossilized coral reef. The islands farther north in the park are transitional islands of coral and sand. The offshore portion of the park includes the northernmost region of the Florida Reef, one of the largest coral reefs in the world.
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Florida International University (FIU) is a public research university with its main campus in University Park, Florida. Founded in 1965 by the Florida Legislature, the school opened its doors to students in 1972. FIU has grown to become the third-largest university in Florida and the eighth-largest public university in the United States by enrollment. FIU is a constituent part of the State University System of Florida.
Biscayne Bay is a lagoon with characteristics of an estuary located on the Atlantic coast of South Florida. The northern end of the lagoon is surrounded by the densely developed heart of the Miami metropolitan area while the southern end is largely undeveloped with a large portion of the lagoon included in Biscayne National Park.
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.
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Card Sound Bridge is a high-rise toll causeway connecting southern Miami-Dade County and northern Monroe County. It is one of only two ways that motorists can leave or enter the Florida Keys. The toll for two-axle automobiles is USD $1.50 if paid via SunPass. The prior toll plaza was demolished during hurricane Matthew and has been replaced with a toll-by-plate plaza. The toll fee will be charged by plate automatically and sent via the mail to the address on the vehicle registration. The cashless all-electronic tolling system replaced the previous staffed toll booth on October 20, 2018. The toll fee is waived upon evacuating the Keys for hurricanes or in instances in which US 1 is impassable.
The Cape Florida Light is a lighthouse on Cape Florida at the south end of Key Biscayne in Miami-Dade County, Florida. Constructed in 1825, it guided mariners off the Florida Reef, which starts near Key Biscayne and extends southward a few miles offshore of the Florida Keys. It was operated by staff, with interruptions, until 1878, when it was replaced by the Fowey Rocks lighthouse. The lighthouse was put back into use in 1978 by the U.S. Coast Guard to mark the Florida Channel, the deepest natural channel into Biscayne Bay. They decommissioned it in 1990.
Arch Creek was an early settlement in Miami-Dade County, Florida, in present-day metropolitan Miami. Tequesta Indians thrived here before the first Europeans arrived in the early 16th century. The name is derived from the 40 feet (12 m) long natural limestone bridge that spanned the creek until 1973. It is part of the Arch Creek Memorial Park at 1855 Northeast 135th Street, on Biscayne Boulevard. It was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places on July 15, 1986.
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The Rickenbacker Causeway is a causeway that connects Miami, Florida to the barrier islands of Virginia Key and Key Biscayne across Biscayne Bay.
The Boca Chita Key Historic District is a U.S. historic district within the Biscayne National Park in Miami-Dade County, Homestead, Florida. Located on the northwest section of Boca Chita Key, delimited by Biscayne Bay in the north and west and a half ruined stone wall on its southern side, it contains three historic buildings and the Boca Chita Lighthouse. On 1 August 1997, it was listed in the National Register of Historic Places for its architectural, historical and recreational values.
Adams Key is an island at the northern part of the upper Florida Keys in Biscayne National Park. It is in Miami-Dade County, Florida. It is located west of the southern tip of Elliott Key, on the north side of Caesar Creek in the lower part of Biscayne Bay. The key is only accessible by boat, and overnight docking is prohibited.
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 Cocolobo Cay Club, later known as the Coco Lobo Club, was a private club on Adams Key in what is now Biscayne National Park, Florida. It was notable as a destination for the rich and the politically well-connected. Four presidents visited while president, and numerous U.S. senators including John F. Kennedy visited the club. It was established by millionaire Carl G. Fisher as a getaway in 1922, passing to motor boat racer Gar Wood, then to Nixon friend Bebe Rebozo in 1954. The main club building burned down in 1974 after the property was incorporated into Biscayne National Monument, and the remaining structures were destroyed by Hurricane Andrew in 1992.
