Travel deeper into Miami, through its human stories.

Art Deco Historic District

• A widow fights demolition
• A designer's pastels

In this story, you’ll discover

Chapter 1

Small Hotels for Ordinary Holidays

Miami Beach had grown up in the 1920s as a playground for the rich. Then a great hurricane in 1926 badly damaged the region, and a few years later the Great Depression arrived. The builders who came next had a different kind of guest in mind. They put up smaller, cheaper hotels for middle-class holidaymakers. The style they chose was Art Deco, the look of the machine age. The name comes from a great exhibition of decorative arts held in Paris in the mid-1920s, and the style favoured bold geometric shapes and stepped outlines. Its later, sleeker form, often called Streamline Moderne, borrowed from the fastest things of the day: trains, ocean liners and cars. Local architects gave their buildings rounded corners, towers that rise above the roofline, and thin concrete ledges over the windows that are called eyebrows. Some hotels have round porthole windows, as if a ship had run aground on the street. At night, neon lit up their names. By the 1970s, the buildings had grown old. Many of the residents were Jewish retirees spending their last years in small, inexpensive rooms. The hotels were worn and shabby, and developers saw the land as a place for big new towers.

A reflection for you

Barbara Capitman could not save the Senator Hotel. Public anger over its demolition helped secure stronger protection for other buildings. When you look back on something you worked hard for, do you judge it only by whether you got what you wanted, or also by what your effort changed?

Art Deco Historic District

• A widow fights demolition
• A designer's pastels

In this story, you’ll discover

Chapter 1

Small Hotels for Ordinary Holidays

Miami Beach had grown up in the 1920s as a playground for the rich. Then a great hurricane in 1926 badly damaged the region, and a few years later the Great Depression arrived. The builders who came next had a different kind of guest in mind. They put up smaller, cheaper hotels for middle-class holidaymakers. The style they chose was Art Deco, the look of the machine age. The name comes from a great exhibition of decorative arts held in Paris in the mid-1920s, and the style favoured bold geometric shapes and stepped outlines. Its later, sleeker form, often called Streamline Moderne, borrowed from the fastest things of the day: trains, ocean liners and cars. Local architects gave their buildings rounded corners, towers that rise above the roofline, and thin concrete ledges over the windows that are called eyebrows. Some hotels have round porthole windows, as if a ship had run aground on the street. At night, neon lit up their names. By the 1970s, the buildings had grown old. Many of the residents were Jewish retirees spending their last years in small, inexpensive rooms. The hotels were worn and shabby, and developers saw the land as a place for big new towers.

A reflection for you

Barbara Capitman could not save the Senator Hotel. Public anger over its demolition helped secure stronger protection for other buildings. When you look back on something you worked hard for, do you judge it only by whether you got what you wanted, or also by what your effort changed?

Art Deco Historic District

• A widow fights demolition
• A designer's pastels

In this story, you’ll discover

Chapter 1

Small Hotels for Ordinary Holidays

Miami Beach had grown up in the 1920s as a playground for the rich. Then a great hurricane in 1926 badly damaged the region, and a few years later the Great Depression arrived. The builders who came next had a different kind of guest in mind. They put up smaller, cheaper hotels for middle-class holidaymakers. The style they chose was Art Deco, the look of the machine age. The name comes from a great exhibition of decorative arts held in Paris in the mid-1920s, and the style favoured bold geometric shapes and stepped outlines. Its later, sleeker form, often called Streamline Moderne, borrowed from the fastest things of the day: trains, ocean liners and cars. Local architects gave their buildings rounded corners, towers that rise above the roofline, and thin concrete ledges over the windows that are called eyebrows. Some hotels have round porthole windows, as if a ship had run aground on the street. At night, neon lit up their names. By the 1970s, the buildings had grown old. Many of the residents were Jewish retirees spending their last years in small, inexpensive rooms. The hotels were worn and shabby, and developers saw the land as a place for big new towers.

A reflection for you

Barbara Capitman could not save the Senator Hotel. Public anger over its demolition helped secure stronger protection for other buildings. When you look back on something you worked hard for, do you judge it only by whether you got what you wanted, or also by what your effort changed?