Coral Way’s Banyans celebrating 90 years
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(Image credit: Miami Dade Public Library System Digital Collections, Gleason Waite Romer Photographs)
In the early 1920s, Dade County pioneer George Merrick began shaping his family citrus plantation west of Miami into a planned suburb.
The namesake of the suburb, and its historical center, was his family home: the grand, two-story, masonry “Coral Gables,” which was located upon a simple country road that he christened Coral Way.
As the masterplan for the community evolved, Merrick worked tirelessly to amplify Coral Way’s significance and prominence in the day-to-day function of the suburb. He eventually developed Coral Way from a simple dirt road into a 100-foot wide grand, ceremonial street that led east to west from the suburb’s commercial district to its western edge.
For the ambitious and visionary Merrick, however, a grand street running through his own development project was not enough. He lobbied the City of Miami and the other local jurisdictions, including the Town of Silver Bluff, to extend Coral Way beyond the boundaries of Coral Gables, and create a broad, modern thoroughfare that directly connected downtown Miami to Downtown Coral Gables, and ultimately to his beloved childhood home.
By 1922, Coral Way was under construction as a purpose-built route along SW 13th Street in Miami’s Southside neighborhood (today’s Brickell), then turning diagonally onto SW Third Avenue, and straightening once more into SW 22nd Street at SW 12th Avenue (Five Points), where it would lead directly west to Downtown Coral Gables at Douglas Road (SW 37th Avenue). Along the entire route, the roadway width was between 100 and 125 feet, more than double the width of a typical Miami street.
Once the Coral Way route between Downtown Miami and Downtown Coral Gables was established, Merrick took the next step and established a new streetcar line in 1925 that would directly connect the two cities, adding value to his development. The Coral Gables Corporation began running a system of streetcars which connected the City of Coral Gables with Downtown Miami in a 20-minute trip for a 10-cent fare. According to the corporation, by 1926 the system was carrying 2,500 to 3,500 passengers a day.
The Miami News described the interior of the trolleys to be as opulent as any other aspect of the Coral Gables project: “Roomy, high-backed Pullman seats are of Spanish leather, flooring is of rubber tile and woodwork is of cedar and cypress. Lighting is obtained through use of old Spanish lantern reproductions.”
The Coral Gables street railway operated along Coral Way between 1926 and 1935, when it was damaged by a hurricane and never revived.
Between 1936 and 1937, the Works Progress Administration constructed a landscaped median down the center of Coral Way to replace the damaged streetcar line. During this time the wide median was laid out and constructed, and over 1,200 Banyan trees were first planted. The Banyans remain today, fully matured providing a dense and exotic canopy over the roadway.
The widening of SW Third Avenue and SW 22nd Street between 1922 and 1925 and its evolution into the lushly-landscaped, Banyan tree-filled Coral Way after 1936 changed the character of southwest Miami. The beautiful street added value to the development of neighborhoods such as the Roads, Silver Bluff, Shenandoah, and Coral Gate. In the 1930s, during the New Deal and FHA Housing Boom, proximity to Coral Way was a major selling point for real estate, both commercial and residential.
To this day, Coral Way is one of the only thoroughfares in the southwest section that was designed with multi-modal and landscape best practices in mind. It is arguably Miami’s most scenic roadway. It is designated as a Scenic Transportation Corridor by the City of Miami and overseen by the city’s Historic and Environmental Preservation Board. Today Coral Way continues to be a prestigious address, and its iconic Banyan tree canopy celebrates 90 years of beauty and relief-giving shade.
Megan McLaughlin is the director of preservation projects at Plusurbia. She is an AICP-certified planner and has over 15 years of experience in the fields of historic preservation, urban design, and urban planning. She is an experienced researcher and writer on the topics of historical urban development, architecture, and communities. Her passion is bringing attention to Florida’s unique history, and crafting planning and zoning strategies to protect the character of existing neighborhoods.
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