The lumber was imported from Pensacola but the building was the first important example of the region's architectural style.
In 1891 Julia Sturtevant Tuttle purchased a 640-acre tract and proceeded to promote her vision of the community. She was instrumental in persuading Henry Flagler to extend his Florida railway to Miami by 1896 and this was the means of initiating the area's first boom. Building supplies were now much easier to come by and the development of several large hotels provided significant job opportunities for migrants. Flagler's Royal Palm Hotel was designed by the firm of Carrere and Hastings, Beaux-Arts-trained architects who produced the uninspired but very large hotel (capable of accommodating 500 guests) in a year. The mansard roof with its crowded row of dormers and the classicizing portico were sufficiently elegant to attract a high caliber of guests and initiate the county's permanent status as a major vacation spot.
In the rush to development various strands of Miami architecture emerged simultaneously. The hipped-roof with deep porches predominated in vernacular architecture. Earlier settles had found that the pitched roofs designed to shed northern snow also aided in the circulation of air in humid Florida. This hipped-roof style was common in different types of buildings for most of the twentieth century. An early example is the Bragg Residence (before 1914) which essentially joins two hipped-roof sections and is fronted by an extremely deep porch (41). Hulles Bragg was a major builder-contractor who was responsible for numerous buildings in the African American community. But the most important style developed in the black community was the Bahamian Conch style. Nineteenth-century Bahamian immigrants built their homes to withstand violent weather. Floods and wood-rot, for example, were circumvented by erecting the houses on posts. Typical houses in the style also featured double-tiered p...
The Founding of the Dade Heritage Trust. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 21:17, November 20, 2014, from http://www.collegetermpapers.com/viewpaper/1304068591.html