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On Apr. 29, 2025, exactly 100 years to the day that the City of Coral Gables was incorporated, a stage play I wrote about the men and women who built Miami and Coral Gables premieres at the Miracle Theatre on Miracle Mile.
The city and the Coral Gables Chamber have made Greetings from Paradise the marquee event for their Centennial Celebrations. In researching for the play, I learned many ways in which South Florida is both different and the same as it was in 1925.
A land of opportunity, then and now
In the mid-1920s, war-weary Americans from the Northeast and Midwest flocked to Florida, seeking respite from harsh winters and the lingering trauma of World War I. With the horrors of global conflict behind them, these new settlers embraced the Roaring Twenties’ spirit of liberation and optimism. According to Christopher Knowlton’s Bubble in the Sun, an estimated 2.5 million people entered Florida in 1925 alone.
Today, a similar migratory wave is shaping Miami’s cultural landscape. While migration from Latin America has been a defining force for decades, recent years have seen a resurgence of domestic migration. Much like their 1925 counterparts, thousands of newcomers from other states are arriving in South Florida, driven by a desire for warmth, opportunity, and lower taxes.
A tax haven, perpetually
If there is one constant in Miami’s history, it is the state’s ability to draw wealth through lenient tax policies. In 1924, the Florida legislature amended the state constitution to prohibit both income and inheritance taxes, a move designed to attract affluent transplants.
It worked then, and it continues to work now.
Over the past decade, as high-tax states like New York and California have increased financial burdens on their wealthiest residents, many have sought refuge in Florida. Hedge fund executives, tech entrepreneurs, and celebrities alike have established residency, lured by the same tax advantages that enticed their predecessors a century prior.
A culture of defiance and reinvention
In 1925, Miami was a place where old-world social norms were abandoned. Women, emboldened by their newly won right to vote, pushed boundaries with bright red lipstick, short hair, and public displays of independence. Meanwhile, Prohibition-era laws were little more than a suggestion in South Florida, where rumrunners from Cuba and the Bahamas ensured high society had no shortage of illicit spirits.
Fast forward to 2025, and Miami continues to defy convention. Once again, the city finds itself at the center of shifting societal mores. The transient nature of Miami’s population, long devoid of entrenched “old money” social structures, allows the region to remain a place of reinvention.
The ever-present threat
For all its opportunities, Florida will always be a land of precarious stability, a place where nature can undo fortunes overnight. The 1926 hurricane that devastated Miami served as an early warning of what was to come. The storm shattered the illusion of Florida’s invincibility and marked the beginning of many more catastrophic hurricanes to follow.
Today, hurricanes remain an omnipresent threat. With climate change accelerating the intensity of these storms, Miami faces the same existential risks it did a century ago, now compounded by rising sea levels and an ever-growing urban sprawl. Each year, residents steel themselves for the possibility of destruction, knowing that paradise can be fleeting.
Buy your tickets now!
Greetings from Paradise runs from Apr. 29 to May 3. Tickets can be purchased online at www.actorsplayhouse.org or 305-444-9293. Group rates available for 10 people or more.
Opening Night tickets are purchased through the Coral Gables Chamber: www.coralgableschamber.org.
The Miracle Theatre is located at 280 Miracle Mile, Coral Gables, FL 33134.
For more information visit www.junemorris.com.
June Thomson Morris, a journalist, playwright and philanthropist, is the daughter of Dorothy Thomson, who became the first and only female mayor of Coral Gables.
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