The Miami story
Shopping here since 1896.
Miami is young. Its shopping streets were built by developers, exiles and artists, most of them within living memory.
- 1896
Miami becomes a city
The railroad reaches Biscayne Bay in April, and Miami incorporates that July with a few hundred residents.
Open Bayside → - 1920s
Lincoln Road is laid out
Carl Fisher builds Miami Beach out of mangrove swamp and plans Lincoln Road as the Fifth Avenue of the South.
Open Lincoln Road → - 1930s
Art deco on the beach
South Beach rebuilds in pastel deco: eyebrow ledges, porthole windows, neon. The district is now on the National Register.
Open Collins Avenue → - 1960
Lincoln Road goes car-free
Morris Lapidus turns the street into one of the country's first pedestrian malls, follies and all.
Open Lincoln Road → - 1960s
Calle Ocho becomes Little Havana
Cuban exiles settle along SW 8th Street. Cafecito windows, cigar rollers and the domino tables follow.
Open Little Havana → - 1965
Bal Harbour Shops opens
Stanley Whitman opens an open-air luxury center by the ocean. It still sets the bar in South Florida.
Open Bal Harbour → - 2009
The Wynwood Walls open
Tony Goldman turns warehouse walls into an outdoor street art museum, and the galleries and boutiques move in.
Open Wynwood → - 1950s
The Freedom Tower welcomes the exiles
The 1925 Mediterranean Revival tower downtown becomes the processing center for Cubans arriving in the 1960s.
Open Downtown → - 2016
Brickell City Centre opens
Shopping arrives in the financial district under a glass climate ribbon that cools the walkways below.
Open Brickell →
