South Florida entered the Great Depression before the rest of the country and it recovered sooner as well—even if it did not return to the high-rolling times of the 1920s. Tourism picked up again in the early 1930s. For those who could afford it, Miami continued to have a special appeal. In addition, the real estate bust of the late 1920s now allowed people to buy land at cheaper rates. Population turnover continued to be very high: in 1940, about one-third of the resident population had arrived only since 1935.24
Once again, some of the most eye-catching developments took place in Miami Beach. The need for new large-scale construction in eastern Miami Beach after the hurricane of 1926 coincided with the arrival of a new type of design and architecture. Stylish modernism originated in France and was highly influential in the 1920s and 1930s. By the time it reached Miami Beach it had evolved into streamline moderne, with simpler structures and machine-inspired, industrial forms. Later, in the 1960s, this style became popularly known as art deco. The deco district in south Miami Beach, about eight hundred buildings in one square mile, was put up in less than ten years. It includes well-known hotels such as the Tides (1936), the Beacon (1936), Essex House (1938), the Breakwater (1939), and the Avalon (1941). The most exquisite art deco building is probably the U.S. Post Office building (1937) on Washington Avenue and 13th Street. The district also included many apartments and served mainly tourists, as it does today.
Among the newcomers to Miami Beach were many Jews who settled mainly in the southern parts of the island but soon started moving farther north as well. The Jewish population on the Beach went from about 300 in the mid-1920s to 3,300 in 1935. The main push occurred between 1945 and 1950 when their numbers tripled in only five years. The Jewish population in Dade County as a whole increased from 8,273 in 1940 to almost 55,000 in 1950.
Miami Beach’s early and vigorous recovery was reflected in the fact that its total population quadrupled in the course of the 1930s. In 1940 the number stood at 28,000 and by 1950 it would reach 46,000. On the mainland, population growth and urban expansion continued steadily. During World War II, Dade County housed several air and naval bases, with a total of 80,000 soldiers stationed in Miami and in Miami Beach. A popular saying went that many had “felt the sand in their shoes” and returned to live there after the war. The overall population of Dade County roughly doubled during the 1930s, again during the 1940s, and once more during the 1950s. Broward’s population doubled as well in the 1930s and 1940s, and then quadrupled in the 1950s to reach 334,000 in 1960. The introduction of air conditioning in many middle- and upper-class homes since the late 1940s (and central air since the mid-1950s) played a part in this growth just as it did in other cities in the U.S. Sun Belt.
The South Florida urban region grew more dense and expanded south, north, and west. Fifteen new cities were incorporated and hundreds of new subdivisions emerged in the two-county area during this period. But Miami and Fort Lauderdale remained dominant within their counties and had by far the largest population concentrations. Major infrastructure developments included the creation of Miami International Airport25 in 1949, the expansion of the port of Miami through the annexation of Dodge Island in 1956, the beginning of construction of interstate highways across South Florida in the late 1950s, and the opening of Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport in 1959.
But while South Florida grew rapidly in the postwar years, the essence of Miami did not really change. It continued to function as a sort of appendage to the nation but it had not (yet) acquired most of the traits typical of major cities elsewhere:
Miami’s postwar decades, bracketed by the return of the GIs beginning in 1944 and the Republican Convention of 1968, witnessed a dramatic demographic increase and a radical mutation from seasonal resort to year-round metropolitan environment. Yet, unlike Los Angeles, Miami continued to be defined in relation to other places (more as a playground for escapees, transient or not, from the industrial northern and mid-western cities) than as a city in its own right. This perception shaped Miami’s status as a commodified “city of leisure.” … [Further, the city’s] infantile and innocent character was exacerbated by the body culture, tropical weather, beaches, golf courses and other amenities. [Miami was a] city of recreation versus a city of culture, a city of attractions versus a city of institutions.26
The environmental transformation of South Florida that began at the beginning of the twentieth century continued apace. Drainage of the Everglades accelerated after the major flooding caused by the hurricane of 1926. The construction of the Tamiami Trail in 1928 was probably the single most environmentally destructive project in South Florida’s history. It must have seemed like a good idea at the time. The 112-mile long canal helped transport “surplus” water east to the Atlantic and west to the Gulf of Mexico. The dike protected urban areas against flooding, and the road on the dike was the first major east-west connection between Miami and Tampa.
The Tamiami Trail also (very) effectively blocked the “river of grass” from flowing south. It dried out much of the Everglades and killed a variety of plants, birds, fish, mammals, amphibians, and reptiles. The growing agriculture sector compounded the problem with the polluting emission of phosphorous, mercury, and nitrogen. More engineering projects followed in subsequent decades. As it became apparent that overdrainage was a problem during dry periods, water-storage efforts were made and the system grew ever more complex. By 1970, there were “720 miles of levees, 1000 miles of canals, 200 gates, and water control structures, and 16 pumping stations.”27
Figure 12. Governor John W. Martin meeting a Seminole Indian at the construction of the Tamiami Trail, 1927. State Archives of Florida.
Widespread public awareness of environmental decline did not emerge until later in the twentieth century. The prevailing mind-set at the time is pungently expressed in the film Sunshine State: a sly developer points to the meticulously landscaped surroundings of an exclusive South Florida golf resort and declares in an imperious and self-indulgent manner to his golfing partners, “We created this nature on a leash.” Still, some important early voices helped to stave off even greater disaster. The first ideas to create a protected park in the Everglades took shape in the 1920s. In those days, environmental consciousness of politicians and business leaders in South Florida and in Tallahassee lagged considerably behind that of some federal agencies. The pioneers behind the initial local environmental efforts consisted of a small group of individuals with influence in Washington, D.C. They included Stephen T. Mather, the first director of the National Park Service, Ernest F. Coe, a Miami local and a landscape architect who was educated at Yale, and David Fairchild, a famous tropical botanist.28 The latter was the first president of the Tropical Everglades Park Association, established in 1928.
After a visit to the area in 1929, an investigative committee authorized by Congress issued a report that revealed the changing appreciation of the South Florida wetlands: “We are compelled to admit that in a good deal of the Everglades region, especially in those parts now readily accessible by road, the quality of the scenery is to the casual observer under most conditions somewhat confused and monotonous. Its beauty in the large is akin to that of the other great plain: perhaps rather subtle for the average observer in search of the spectacular; though sometimes very grand, especially when seen in solitude and at rest instead of from a hurrying automobile.”29
Congress authorized the creation of the Everglades National Park in 1934 and President Truman dedicated it in 1947. It covers almost one-third of Miami-Dade County. The same year saw the publication of Marjorie Stoneman Douglas’ classic Everglades: The River of Grass.30 It was a milestone in South Florida’s historiography because it expressed a view of nature that had been completely overshadowed by the mantra of development. It struck a chord with some segments of the public, but most