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Even with its auspicious beginnings as a city in 1896, Miami faced formidable challenges in its early years. In 1898, for instance, the city was unprepared for the influx of 7,000 volunteer soldiers who came for military training preparatory to combat in Cuba during the Spanish-American War. The following year, yellow fever ravaged the city as more than 200 residents were afflicted with the disease, causing Miami’s closure to the outside world for three months due to a quarantine.
Predating these challenges was the Christmastime fire of 1896, discussed in our previous column. We noted the rapidly spreading fire on the morning following Christmas that swept through the downtown commercial district destroying nearly thirty wood-frame buildings.
Owing to the absence of a fire department, the “flames had full sweep” over a large portion of the district. The lone element for combating the flames was the water tower of the Hotel Miami located near the heart of the district. A small group of persons, awakened by a fire bell and led by Julia Tuttle, Miami’s “Mother” (and known as the “bucket brigade”), worked feverishly to stem the fire.
As Henry Chase, who was later a renowned Miami fire chief, observed, the fire fighters had “nothing to do but throw stones at that fire. We had no equipment.” The Miami Metropolis noted that the energetic Mrs. Tuttle worked “like a Trojan for two hours carrying and pumping water at the fire.” In the aftermath of the blaze, a disconsolate Tuttle sat down on top of an upturned bucket, complaining of a headache.
Few of the buildings in the devastated area were insured. The Metropolis believed that the insurance coverage on the twenty-eight structures and their stock amounted to only $7,500. The journal placed the total loss of buildings and inventory at nearly $29,000, an amount of money today that would reach deep into the six figures bracket.
Despite this devastating setback, several positive developments followed for the neophyte city. Many merchants who had lost their businesses because of the calamity reopened within days of the conflagration in temporary quarters (including the widow of the aforementioned Julius Frank, who represented the lone fatality from the fire). Others began to build new quarters “before the smoke of the ruins had ceased.”
Many red brick buildings appeared in the fire’s aftermath, following a city ordinance, which banned the construction of any additional wood frame buildings in the expanding downtown district. In the meantime, the business district was moving north in the direction of Twelfth Street (today’s Flagler Street), which, by the early 1900s, would become the city’s main thoroughfare. New businesses like William Burdine and Son sought it out. As well, a volunteer fire department and, ultimately, a permanent fire department, appeared on Twelfth Street. Further enhancing the development of that thoroughfare was the arrival, in the final years of the nineteenth century, of the electrification of portions of it, a development appearing around the same time that Miami welcomed a telephone system, which, by 1902, claimed sixty-two subscribers within the city limits.
As the new century dawned, Miami was experiencing rapid population growth. The decennial census found 1,681 residents in 1900. For Miami, The Magic City, the future augured greatness in the eventful century about to unfold.
Paul S. George, Ph.D., serves as Resident Historian, HistoryMiami Museum. He conducts history tours throughout the County and even beyond for HistoryMiami. Additionally, he teaches classes in Miami/S. Florida and Florida history for the Museum. Dr. George has also led, since 2002, tours of Little Havana as part of Viernes Culturales, a monthly celebration, every third Friday, of the culture and history of that quarter.
