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Known as "The City Beautiful", Coral Gables is one of the most desirable communities in South Florida.  Developed in the 1920s as one of the nations’ first planned communities, it features Mediterranean Revival architecture, magnificent tree canopies, golf courses, waterways, civic plazas, arches and fountains.

 

Many of Coral Gables most attractive homes date back to the 1920's and 30's, including homes in the French, Chinese, Italian, Dutch South African and Colonial American theme villages, designed by city founder George Merrick. 

 

History
The City of Coral Gables, Florida incorporated in 1925, is a comprehensively planned city whose predominantly Mediterranean Revival character was inspired by Spanish and Italian precedents. Monuments centuries old became the inspiration for both residential and commercial architecture, and "antique" gateways reminiscent of ancient triumphal arches, introduced the visitor to an impression of a community steeped in tradition.

George Merrick (the founder of Coral Gables) was a man of prodigious imagination. Merrick came to South Florida from Duxbury, Massachusetts with his family in 1898, led by his father, who was a Congregational minister. The Reverend Solomon G. Merrick had purchased one hundred and sixty acres of undeveloped land then located to the southwest of the City of Miami. The family operated thriving orange, grapefruit and avocado groves, and young George grew up close to the burgeoning Mecca of Miami.

Merrick possessed the sensibility to imagine his family's groves transformed into a residential community whose very proximity to Miami would make it an attractive suburb. Ever-increasing his land holdings around the nucleus of his family's plantation, by 1921 Merrick had assembled enough parcels to begin a development unparalleled in Florida. The new city was named "Coral Gables," a reference to the home where Merrick spent his childhood.

To create his ideal community Merrick assembled an extraordinary team of designers, which included artist Denmank Fink, architects H. George Fink and Phineas Paist, and landscape architect Frank Button. Together they created a model suburb which featured broad, tree-lined avenues, fountains, monumental gateways and architecture unified by a Mediterranean theme, ideally suited to the climate of South Florida.

While the original plan for the City of Coral Gables has yet to be discovered, a map by Civil Engineer W.C. Bliss which was produced in 1924 offers a glimpse of the unified scheme conceived for the City. Merrick opened his subdivisions by clearly specifying their intended use, predating zoning principles and regulations by years. Merrick's professionals called for a business section, a "Country Club" Section where a magnificent hotel was planned, a series of residential sections, a "Crafts" Section, where the local cottage industries would be showcased, and an "Industrial Section" where service-related functions such as an ice plant, dairy, and the street railway car barn were located. Acres of land were reserved for the creation of golf courses and other public recreational facilities, including bridle paths, tennis courts and athletic fields. A system of canals linking the City to the Miami River and Biscayne Bay was also planned, as well as a series of formal plazas to connect the wide boulevards which radiate throughout the city.

Largely due to the carefully orchestrated marketing campaign costing over five million dollars and conducted during the six months between October 1923 and March 1924, seven million dollars of property was sold. During that time, more than six hundred homes were constructed, sixty five miles of roadway of crushed coral rock and later paved with asphalt were built, and over eighty miles of sidewalks were added. In addition, fifty thousand trees, shrubs, and flowering plants were planted and a system of lighting was installed which covered over twenty-eight miles of the City. Coral Gables experienced the phenomenon of a land boom reflecting the disposable income and aspirations of a public deeply ensconced in the pursuit of the American ideal.