The Coral Gables Museum conducted a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Thursday, June 9, to inaugurate the new Anthony R. Abraham Family Gallery, which was endowed through a $400,000 gift from the Anthony R. Abraham Family Foundation.
The ribbon cutting was completed by Anthony R. Abraham in a fitting way to honor the philanthropist during his 100th year. A reception followed, filled with close friends and relatives of the Abraham family, celebrating the donor’s life and abundant contributions to the Coral Gables community.
“We are so grateful to the Abraham family for their wonderful contributions to the City of Coral Gables and now to the museum,” said Arva Moore Parks, Coral Gables Museum acting executive director. “This is the first of several new exhibitions we will be announcing.”
The Abraham Family Gallery — formerly the space that housed fire trucks and equipment when the building functioned as the City of Coral Gables Police and Fire Station — will serve as the museum’s children’s classroom and the major activity space for the City Trekker Summer Camp that inaugurated its second year on June 13.
Although Abraham came to South Florida in 1951 to retire, he soon opened Anthony Abraham Chevrolet at LeJeune Road and Eighth Street. It became the largest Chevrolet dealer in South Florida and one of the largest in the country. Proud of his Lebanese roots while becoming a passionate American, he installed a huge illuminated, waving American flag at the dealership that became a local landmark.
Abraham has left his mark on Coral Gables, South Florida and beyond. He has lived in the same house on South Alhambra Circle for almost 50 years where he and his late wife, Genevieve, raised their five children. The Abraham’s annual Christmas decorations attracted hundreds of families to their home each year.
The Coral Gables Museum celebrates the civic arts of architecture, city planning, landscape architecture, historic and environmental preservation and history — the elements that define Coral Gables. It is a true public/private partnership between the City of Coral Gables and the Coral Gables Museum Corp., a private, not for profit 501(c)(3) corporation. It will open its first major exhibitions in October.
For more information on Coral Gables Museum, visit online at www.coralgablesmuseum.org/ or call 305-603-8067.
