It isn’t everywhere in Miami that one can find homes with basements and secret passages formerly used to store booze during Prohibition. Morningside has both.
The neighborhood celebrates its 100th anniversary this year and with that comes the return of the Historic Homes Tour, a decadeslong tradition that hasn’t occurred since 2018.
Located within the Upper East Side between Biscayne Boulevard and the bay and stretching from NE 50th Terrace to NE 62nd Street, the eclectic neighborhood of Morningside is home to houses built as early as the 1920s. They sell for millions of dollars.
(Morningside Civic Association)
Platted in 1923, Morningside celebrates its 100th anniversary this year.
Apart from the vintage architecture – or thanks to it – Morningside’s residents boast of nearly nonexistent crime rates, year-round community events and, most of all, people that treat each other like family.
In fact, 40-year resident Neil Robertson says that his favorite part of Election Day is waiting in line with his neighbors. Now there’s something you don’t hear every day.
But Morningside wasn’t always the utopia that it’s depicted to be today.
From Rags to Riches
(Morningside Civic Association)
A historic postcard shows Morningside, formerly known as Bay Shore and marketed as the first fully developed community.
Originally named Bay Shore, the neighborhood was marketed as the first to have been created with premeditated convenience. That is, it was the first community that had power lines, sanitary sewers, fresh water, street lighting and tree-lined streets – all before its first house was ever sold.
The Bay Shore Investment Corporation advertised the coastal neighborhood by transporting members of the public to it right from the water by boat. Approximately 45 houses were constructed from 1922 to 1926, when a Category 4 hurricane struck and led to the collapse of the time’s real estate boom.
Roughly 73 more homes were built from 1936 to 1941 and soon another boom sprouted in the post-war era. By the time the 1980s came around, many prominent architects had made their mark in the neighborhood – and so had Miami’s so-called “cocaine cowboys.”
(Marie Charlotte Piro)
Morningside’s 30th anniversary Historic Homes Tour will give ticket holders a look at homes built before and immediately after World War II in Mediterranean, ranch and Miami modern styles.
Drugs and crime were so synonymous with Biscayne Boulevard in those days, 39-year resident William Hopper says he just got used to it.
That’s also when Morningside became the first neighborhood in the city of Miami to receive designation as a historic district.
Historian Paul S. George, who was on Miami’s Historic and Environmental Preservation Board during the designation, says that Morningside represented a changing spirit and values that at the time had been novel to surrounding communities. Sure, it’s not the oldest neighborhood in Miami, “not even close,” he says, but it is a model of resilience. As populations from nearby suburbs fled scenes then altered by big business and a concurring drug war, Morningside chose to hold onto what it had.
“Morningside was on its way to become a template for restored neighborhoods,” said George, who is also HistoryMiami Museum’s resident historian. “It was on its way to becoming a template for locally dissipated neighborhoods … It was really the beginnings of a serious look at historic preservation and designation in greater Miami, and Morningside was the first.”
He remembers a group of supporters in custom T-shirts at City Hall on the morning in December 1984 that the preservation board made its decision to anoint Morningside with its designation.
(Robin Hill)
Morningside’s 30th anniversary Historic Homes Tour will give ticket holders a look at homes built before and immediately after World War II in Mediterranean, ranch and Miami modern styles.
And, sure enough, their support paid off. After years of investment and care, Morningside now stands tall as a sense of pride for all who live there. If seen through crime rates or market prices alone, the neighborhood would hardly be recognizable. Taken at face value, though, a lot of it looks the same, and that’s kind of the whole point.
“It’s the quintessential example of, if you take care of a neighborhood and you maintain its original housing stock, it only grows in value,” said George. “I mean, that’s one of the priciest neighborhoods in Miami now, in large measure because of the way it’s been taken care of.”
Carrying on a Legacy
Morningside’s original residents weren’t just strong-willed, but savvy, too. They came together as volunteers to put together the first homes tour just as the neighborhood was on its way to receiving historical designation. That tour put a once hidden gem at the top of Miami’s housing market and today serves as one of the neighborhood’s leading sources of revenue.
This year’s tour is supposed to be the most extravagant yet. Not only is the neighborhood celebrating its centennial anniversary, but third-time organizer Dan Vazquez wants to bring the event back with a bang after a COVID-compelled hiatus.
The tour on May 21 will take ticket holders through the neighborhood and into eight homes, each with its own historical value. Members of the public will be able to get a firsthand look at the Morningside aesthetic, which ranges from Mediterranean, Florida ranch and Miami modern style homes.
The tour will also feature work by local artists, vendors, food and a surprise grand finale that Vazquez says even the 150 volunteers aren’t privy to.
“It’s a surprise that they’ve never seen before here in Morningside,” he assured.
(Marie Charlotte Piro)
Morningside’s 30th anniversary Historic Homes Tour will give ticket holders a look at homes built before and immediately after World War II in Mediterranean, ranch and Miami modern styles
Also featured this year is a VIP component, which will allow those select ticket holders to bypass lines and access an exclusive area with their own food and beverage options.
Even as some aspects of the tour get bigger and bolder each year, though, Vazquez assures that his primary goal is to maintain the spirit of the tour as it was conceived decades ago.
This year’s most notable twist is the inclusion of one new house that hasn’t even yet been fully constructed – not exactly what one would expect of a historic homes tour, but there’s a reason for that.
“The home is worthy of the tour because the owners, Theodore and Belinda Stohner, built a house with much the same philosophy as the original Bay Shore development,” said Jeff King, who has been digging up archives on Morningside in preparation for this year’s events.
(Courtesy of Neil Robertson)
An image of Neil Robertson’s home taken in recent years hangs atop another image taken when it was first built in 1926.
The Stohners’ house consists of four sections connected by bridges and encompassing a rare Dade County pine tree. The entire development includes living roofs, hidden solar panels and additional elements designed in such a way so as not to disturb the roots of the more than 150 trees on the property.
“This is a home for the next 100 years,” said King, much like the original homes were built to last into the present, at least mostly.
Renovation & Maintenance
William Hopper has comfortably lived in his 1934 home for 39 years now without any major issues. The same can’t be said for Neil Robertson, though, who takes a deep sigh before going over the list of renovations and repairs that he’s had to invest in since moving into his home, built originally in 1926.
Robertson moved into the nearly century-old house 34 years ago. Since then, he’s had to enlarge the kitchen, which, in his view, was incomplete, add another exit to the house to get to a previously inaccessible backyard and replace windows with hurricane-impact glass. He has had three plumbing leaks in the last five years, as well as an electrical fire that led to a complete rewiring of the house’s arteries. He once saw the repair of a minor cracked tile on his front porch reveal rotten wood underneath, which when repaired required the insertion of concrete piling underneath that, which needed even more footing below.
(Courtesy of Neil Robertson)
The interior of Neil Robertson’s bedroom, formerly separated by a wall.
“I have a rule of thumb: Whatever someone tells me the cost is going to be, I triple it, because when you open up a wall in one of these places, you find something you didn’t expect,” Robertson said.
For the most part, though, he’s used to it. His basement has gotten flooded about six to eight times since he first moved in, but his response to that is simple: just pump the water out.
He even speaks of some of the renovations with enthusiasm, like how his closet used to be a “sleeping porch,” located where the wind would blow hardest back when air conditioning was a luxury and bedrooms were used solely for changing clothes.
Robertson has lived in three separate homes in Morningside and sees each one as a blessing rather than a burden. Both he and Hopper have volunteered their homes for the tour on several occasions.
(Courtesy of Neil Robertson)
Neil Robertson’s 1926 home has had to undergo a great deal of maintenance as the result of collapsed roofs, an electrical fire, plumbing issues and basement flooding.
“I’ve opened up my home numerous times,” said Robertson. “I’m very proud of the neighborhood and the place I live in here. I enjoy it and I like sharing it.”
He calls his home his little island, well aware of the load of cash sitting on those three-quarters of an acre. Once purchased by a young Robertson for $242,000, his property has in recent years drawn interest from people willing to pay 10 times that amount. But even with the frequent repairs and less-than-pleasant surprises, Robertson won’t sell.
“A big part of my eventual retirement is tied up in this place but, you know, it’s home,” he said.” It’s where I raised my daughters, and I really don’t want to part with it until I have to.”
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(Courtesy of Neil Robertson)
Neil Robertson’s 1926 home has had to undergo a great deal of maintenance as the result of collapsed roofs, an electrical fire, plumbing issues and basement flooding.
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(Courtesy of Neil Robertson)
The $242,000 that Neil Robertson first purchased his home for in 1989 represents only a fraction of its value today.
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(Courtesy of Neil Robertson)
The $242,000 that Neil Robertson first purchased his home for in 1989 represents only a fraction of its value today.
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(Courtesy of Neil Robertson)
Neil Robertson, his late wife and their two daughters in front of their home in Morningside.
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(ofralapid.com)
Known as the "Jetsons House," this 2,252-square-foot tropical modernist home is a Morningside favorite built by award-winning architect Rufus Nims in 1949.
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Morningside’s 30th anniversary Historic Homes Tour will give ticket holders a look at homes built before and immediately after World War II in Mediterranean, ranch and Miami modern styles.