Reprinted from BHA News Summer 2007
Naming Rights: Brickell Avenue Gets Historic Designation; Brand, History Preserved
Governor Charlie Crist signed legislation June 14, 2007, declaring Brickell Avenue a state historic road and prohibiting the Brickell Avenue name to be extended beyond its Miami River north boundary. This act will forever quash the efforts of the developers of Met 2 office tower just north of the river who were looking to cash in on the cachet of the Brickell Avenue name by extending it up Southeast Second Avenue.
The victory was led by the business leaders of Brickell Area Association who have been battling the brand dilution, not to mention historical inaccuracy, such a name extension would create. Brickell Homeowners Association and Dade Heritage Trust also took stands against the name extension.
The BAA was well prepared for the 2007 Florida Legislative session after narrowly seeing the close of the 2006 session without last-minute legislation slipped in to extend the Brickell name, aided by the strong lobbying efforts of the developers.
The legislation also symbolizes a victory for historical preservation and accuracy. Miami Historian Arva Parks McCabe explains that it would not have made sense for the area north of the river to be called "Brickell" as that was Julia Tuttle's territory. The river was always the geographic dividing line among these two leaders in Miami's founding in 1896.
The state historic designation of the roadway recognizes that Brickell Avenue, stretching from Miami River south to 25th Road, has distinct cultural, historic, architectural, recreational, natural and/or scenic resources value.
Although the battle has been won, neighbors should still check out www.savehistoricbrickell.com, the website created for the effort. It may take your connection several seconds to load, but it's worth the loads of information and the beautiful historic images of Brickell.
Historically, it doesn't make sense. Geographically, it doesn't make sense. From a brand-name-identity standpoint, it doesn't make sense. But, to a few big-time developers pushing to have two blocks of Southeast Second Avenue renamed to the more chic "Brickell Avenue" just north of Miami River, the idea makes a lot of sense, financially, for their pockets.
Readers may recall the uproar began last spring when the name change went before the City of Miami Commission. The commission heard from interests to the north who would like to take on the readily recognizable and highly regarded Brickell name, and business and residential interests to the south of the river intent on protecting their brand name and not allowing it to be diluted by random extensions. Torn, but off the hook, the City said it didn't have the jurisdiction to make the name change since the road is part of the federal highway system with oversight by the State of Florida. That's how it ended up in Tallahassee.
Brickell Avenue in 1948 was lined with mansions
and called "Millionaire's Row." The home on the left
is Santa Maria. Photo courtesy of Arva Parks McCabe.
Members of the Brickell Area Association, the business alliance leading the charge in this naming battle, have been preparing for the 2007 Florida Legislative session in case the name change provision gets lopped onto the coattails of another bill, and slipped into law. A similar last-minute effort died in 2006 when the legislative session ended in May, but those developers with strong interest in pursuing the change haven't given up.
Miami's most regarded historians on local history, Arva Parks McCabe and Paul George, have both publicly explained that south of the River was the Brickell family's territory and north of the river was Julia Tuttle's. The river was always the geographic dividing line. The proposed name change would mean Julia's street would be called Brickell, which many see as beyond literary license, perhaps more akin to historical heresy.
"It is so ironic that someone today is trying to move the Brickell name to the north side of the river," Ms. McCabe said. "The north side of the river belonged to Julia Tuttle. It would be a terrible slap in the face to the 'Mother of Miami' to put the Brickell name there."
Ms. McCabe explained that after Miami was founded by railroad tycoon Henry Flagler and pioneering Julia Tuttle in 1896, William Brickell refused to cross the river to the north because he thought Flagler had slighted the south side. Each side clearly had, and has, its own identity. Over time, Second Avenue has been known as Dixie Highway (after 1916) and before that Avenue "B."
"Second Avenue should either look for a totally new name that reflects today's Miami or work on changing the image of Second Avenue," Ms. McCabe said. "About 25 years ago Hank Meyer came up with the New World Center for downtown. I have always thought that was clever and had a lot of good, subtle meanings. New World Boulevard isn't bad since Miami-Dade campus is called the New World Campus."
An early view of the Brickell hammock.
Photo Courtesy of Arva Parks McCabe.
Perhaps because Miami has too many examples of history overlooked for contemporary expediency, the Brickell Area Association has aligned with a lobbying arm to assist watching that history isn't cast aside and the Brickell name sold for a song in Tallahassee in this year's session which got underway in late February.
Left: City of Miami Preservation Officer Kathleen Kauffman explained the process the City uses to make historic designations for properties and roadways, as part of a BHA's Feb. Board education program.
Center: Matthew Monica, Legislative Aide to Rep. Luis Garcia, explained how citizens could work with Mr. Garcia to get a bill passed for a special designation.
Right: David Korros, FDOT District 6, explained the process used by the State to designate state roadways, like Brickell Avenue, Florida Scenic Highways.
The BAA and Dade Heritage Trust are also investigating the feasibility of obtaining a special historic designation for Brickell Avenue, either as a Scenic Transportation Corridor, which is the City's designation status, or as a Florida Scenic Highway, the statewide designation. The FDOT criteria requires one or more of six resources of "intrinsic value" be present to be considered for the designation. These include cultural, historic, architectural, recreational, natural or scenic resources.
The BAA is launching a website, www.savehistoricbrickell.com, to track the issue. The BAA resolution, see below, further outlines the reasons why extending the Brickell name is not beneficial for the Brickell community. For further reading, see the article on the history of Brickell Avenue, read The Authentic History of Brickell Avenue from the Brickell Area Association.
