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❑ mh03 CORRECTIONS & CLARIFICATIONS 12/11/2003
THE MIAMI HERALD
Copyright (c) 2003, The Miami Herald
DATE: Thursday, December 11, 2003 EDITION: Final
SECTION: Front PAGE: 3A LENGTH: 14 lines
SOURCE/CREDIT LINE: Herald Staff
MEMO: CORRECTIONS & CLARIFICATIONS
CORRECTIONS & CLARIFICATIONS
* An article in some editions of Sunday's B section on the renovation of
Brown's Hotel erroneously said ferries provided the only access to Miami Beach
in 1915. The wooden Collins Bridge, later replaced by the Venetian Causeway,
opened in 1913.
KEYWORDS: MH CORRECTION
TAG: 0312120054
1 of 6, 2 Terms
mh03 WHAT'S OLD IS NEW: RELIC GETS A REBIRTH 12/07/2003
THE MIAMI HERALD
Copyright (c) 2003, The Miami Herald
DATE: Sunday, December 7, 2003 EDITION: Broward
SECTION: Broward & State PAGE: 3B LENGTH: 120 lines
ILLUSTRATION: photo: Nelson Fox and Robert J. Mooney and Myles Chefetz (a) ,
historical photo of Brown's Hotel in Miami Beach (a) ; map: Brown's Hotel (see
microfilm)
SOURCE/CREDIT LINE: By ANDRES VIGLUCCI, aviglucci@herald.com
WHAT'S OLD IS NEW: RELIC GETS A REBIRTH
The renovation was difficult, expensive and, at times, plain crazy. But
Miami Beach's very first hotel has been unearthed and resurrected, repainted
in the same vanilla-yellow that it bore when it opened in 19,15, the year of
the city's birth.
I .
Brown's Hotel was South Beach before Art Deco, before the causeways or even
Ocean Drive.
Who knew?
For more than six decades, the original two-story clapboard building lay
entombed under a stucco shell applied in a 1935 "modernization, " all but
forgotten, presumed dead.
"Everyone thought this one had disappeared. Everyone thought it had been
demolished, " said Allan Shulman, the architect who has overseen its
painstaking rehabilitation.
Now the small building, its restored facade resembling nothing so much as a
Western saloon, seems preposterously out of place among the new faux-Deco
high-rises that surround it near the southern end of Ocean Drive.
LIKE A STAGE SET
"It doesn't look real. It looks like a stage set, " marveled Myles
Chefetz, the Miami Beach restaurateur who will run the reincarnated Brown's as
a modish boutique hotel and steakhouse. It opens Dec. 15.
Yet Brown's is authentic down to the scarred Dade County pine floorboards
in the upstairs corridor.
Much of the building's original structural elements, including beams of
' Dade County pine, remain in place. So does a good part of the exterior
clapboard.
"The strength of the original Dade County pine was incredible, " said
Thomas Mooney, the Beach's historic preservation officer. "It's an amazing
building. "
The partners who undertook its restoration - the building sits in a
historic district and could not be torn down - had no idea what they were
getting into. After the stucco was scraped off, the building had to be raised,
shored up and shoved back 13 feet. At times, the work amounted to an
archaeological dig. Literally.
NO WRECK FOUND
Because legend had it the hotel was built over the remains of a shipwrecked
Spanish galleon, the partners had an archaeologist dig for evidence. He found
nothing.
"In hindsight, it's something I would never do again, " Nelson Fox, a real
estate broker who co-owns the property, said of the renovation with a rueful
laugh.
But the historic renovation that Fox and his partner, Bob Mooney, pulled
off, the city preservation officer said, is "one of the best in the 10 years
since I've been here, " unusually successful in acknowledging history while
wholeheartedly embracing the new. (The two Mooneys are not related. )
Brown's was built by W.J. Brown, a Miami hotelier, in the first year of
Miami Beach's existence, when a ferry was the only way across Biscayne Bay.
It set the pattern for many of the Beach hotels that followed, Shulman said
- long two-story buildings with a corridor down the center. But its plain
style was quickly abandoned. By the early 1920s, the clapboard look was
supplanted by stucco-and-barrel-tile Mediterranean Revival, which later gave
way to Art Deco.
CHANGING FACADES
"The city changed faces so quickly, " Shulman said. "But it really all
began with this hotel. "
Long used as a rooming house, the little building had been rediscovered,
deteriorated but otherwise intact, when Hurricane Andrew in 1992 peeled off a
piece of the stucco shell. The stucco acted as a protective seal, preserving
the Dade County pine under it like a mummy in a casket.
But the building needed work, lots of work, so it sat boarded up for 10
more years.
"A lot of people were scared of this building, " Shulman said. "It was in
{
bad shape. No one knew how it could be reused. "
Removing the stucco was only the first step in bringing it back. The
hotel's front porch had been chopped off when Ocean Drive was built. And its
first floor was too low at just seven feet to be usable today.
MAJOR RENOVATION
So the building was jacked up and moved back on tracks, its ground floor
raised to 10 feet over a new foundation and its porch rebuilt.
Shulman took samples of tiles, flooring and paint chips to determine the
building's original colors and materials, much of which has been matched
inside and out. So stringent were Beach preservation officials that they asked
the partners to reproduce the damaged tile flooring found inside the entrance
and the clear light bulbs that outlined the parapet over the front.
The simple building was then retrofitted to meet modern hurricane,
structural and safety standards, often despite the doubts of Beach building
and fire officials unaccustomed to dealing with a wood structure.
At one point, one official wondered out loud what kind of horrible
conflagration would ensue if an out-of-control car slammed into it and burst
into flames.
BUILDING FUNCTION
Finally came figuring out what to do with a small 1915 hotel in a rapidly
glitzifying neighborhood.
Fox and Mooney settled on a restaurant and a nine-suite hotel, supplemented
by a small and unobtrusive three-story addition at the rear designed in a
modern style by Shulman.
They lured in Chefetz, of Nemo and Big Pink fame, who hit on playing off
the hotel's rustic exterior by combining warm wood and brick accents on the
interior with high-tech, high-speed Internet service and plasma televisions in
every room.
When it came to the restaurant, Chefetz asked interior designer Alison
Antrobus to devise "a sexy steakhouse, " she said.
So there are wood-coffered ceilings, yes, but also an open kitchen,
plexiglass bar stools, glowing light panels embedded with grasses and, at the
foot of each brick column, light boxes that make the building seem to
—float" - an allusion to its being raised during renovation.
On the wood floors, light-colored insets mark where the original interior
walls stood. Upstairs, where the rooms are, the look and the layout hew close
to the original - so much so that W.J. Brown himself might not feel entirely
lost today in the hotel that he built.
Although you wonder what he might make of those plasma TV things.
CAPTION: C.W. GRIFFIN / HERALD STAFF THE MEN BEHIND THE HOTEL: Nelson Fox,
Robert J. Mooney and Myles Chefetz are responsible for renovating Brown's
Hotel, the oldest hotel on Miami Beach.
MIAMI BEACH: A HISTORY BY HOWARD KLEINBERG BACK THEN: Brown's Hotel in Miami
Beach was built in 1915 near the south end of Ocean Drive. It is scheduled to
reopen Dec. 15 as a boutique hotel and steakhouse.
KEYWORDS:
TAG: 0312120274
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THE' MI 1.MI HERALD SrSDAT.00TOBER 15. 106.
- ,
IORE ROOMS , LieJai-ed. He believes in publicity and took untie- ;141Vrnerlt th.• .•ler. , !
• is Lai I\mg out this belief in a mai.- the railrtete. Ow; it i otter CONTRArT FOR A
----,
;it r that is bringing hundreds 01 consent If the test 4,1 spa:e ineii F l'. p,,,,i, 1,•t ,i,,, ,•,,,
. thiu,:iiid, uf dollars to Miami. i itt govel!intent pay for mad t i a n•- day to the i iladden
i -We need this new nitmey.- Presi-. portation tir ordei contemporancii:1, t ompany for the erti..ti,,,
' dent Sewell declared, -and we tii.it weielnni.•• test under the commission , iiii Thirteenth streyt.
. t i yo..iii.li ketrawt..ontiiIii)iltio:;iitri:an!:ct:,11•,:-upi•rvisr.. __._. _.. __ . ,
Ii
f
hl
I
then re reinertmered ... ".111.1• :,pot: ; I NoTicE :1,•,%•. 1•,,,,. .., :. ,,,, .,
ih., ,,,c11 ihiot:s4:11111 di,!
hu fifty by iiiiiiii hundred
ilii fellows mils, !my their initi--,,. .,.. live feet iii :irea. o f
:\'‘.1::::"1.,(.,t.‘‘'tti:.:,11,s.iti.•;;.,tir:i.‘‘..::ti iii'.1..ti'l i.41''i'll ti.:1:taN. :I.;11;11.., *:ialt:.:.) ,1:11k.(1.,1::zil:1.y.i!;...,‘
F .. „,,,,,,,t_it. ,"„ ‘„,,,." ,t:".„,, ,.,, ,.„„,iii.„. „„,. ,.,..„ )..,
lit.„,,iii„..(,,..i.,,,,,,,,,,,,.-,i, 1,: :,,..,,,,,.,-iii . ... „..,;iiir.rn . '..1,11.f..
ficinlitti"es totalling .2.::,.i1)1i.
Pith St. -RACE SUICIDE."
But regardless of who paid),the 1 I \i,L\NH EI.EcTuic LIGHT (t:
f.iature to lie shown a.
• money. the Chamber of Commerce Iiiii.1
POWER CO. Tues, Fie-and '....:"ic.
ill Have the Crowds In Miami evidently done a great wort,. for the
city during
. . . . . ..
th
and They Will Be Cared il ,,i,.!,. ,natiir„thti.fir,If that tamp-..
, ..
:ot.:11 oi punlicity 'is evidelit on eve..y hand. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIMII'
For President Sewell thinks it will lie , • ,
nt
neves:pry for the Chamber to open/ , .
an information bureau early -in the
. . .
, season and as was done last winter, . -----
Fro4........................................—.......„............_
m t.irious sources Z'irny'' the list rooms in nrivate homes fur the I
Indation for the belief that lliami .-i accommodatp. n of the tourist popula-1 •
Jrist population next. winter wdl •
find rooms
, lion who fair to rms in hotels. . • •
rutty surpass all previous rt•curo i •
But first the house . that tax the city's atcommodations to ouses served
I •
the pubb
lic last winter will e filled, •
utmost. despite
increased utmost. •
and the, mane new apartment houses
s for housing at least five thousano . •
ans willtheir s
d hctelreceive hare of
ditional visitors. 'The Best Investment
the patronage, and then the informa-
1
It is the general belief of real.estate tion bureau willfind its opportunity .
m and rental agencies, as \veil as for usefulness. . I •
I
ittie men and local railway emplay- s Located A
Included in the list lif the newly, ' - ,
and persons in every line of busi-
erected hotels is the Urmey, and also I !
ss likely to bring them in touch .
an'addition to the Ft. Dallas besides
th the situation. that the season will several smaller houses further from
gin earlier and last longer,
the businesshiill •n
nd center, which wopt . .
That it has already begun, two at 4 •
their doors to the traveling public ,
'quit' months in advance of the usua: within a very few weeks.
1
te would seem to be shown by the ... l i I- Bis cayp
-tmong the new apartment hote:,-s
t it is extremely difficult to secure
may be mentioned two in Ft. Dallas i
tiouse of any kind within easy reach park built by James F. Olmstead and'
the downtown district, regardless * i
- '
Dr. Carleton Vaughn, another on it
the size of the offer. It .
Brickell point built by Mrs. Mary i I
In this connection it may be said
t t. •
Brickell, Chamberlain's on Twelfth
ilt a prominent real-estate dealer boulevard, , 1! th
street near the a large or e
dared to a Herald reporter yester- on :1
buildingTwelfth street near avon- . .
y that he made repeated efforts ex- 1 I. .
ue G, another on avenue II between 11 . .
Wing throughout several weeks to • . •
Tenth and Eleventh streets, whit at
:ure a house for the season for a •
Miami Beach are the Toledo apart- - 0 1 1 . I
althy client, who was willing, even meats and two apartment houses built I 11
xious to pay almost any price within •
and HugDuva
by Hugh Andersonh l, ? ••
ISOM "I have nut yet found that
and •it
hotel erected by W. J. Brown
use,* he added. /I A
after the close of last winter's season,
Letters are being received daily
while a contract was let yesterday for fil f 1,--
nn all parts of the country, by busi-
the construction of another ap:!rtment I i I , Just 410W we are. offering st
ss and professiona:. men in all lines,
house at Miami Beach by Carl *G.' 1. - !
king them to secure .houses, and i
Fisher, to be completed by JI anuary which 'will rapidlyAg. crea4e in vt.
ii estate rental agencies :melt
the Inth. . . l•
amber of Commerce are•deluged — . within easy reach' .( lhe cy and
--------- oth •communications of this nature
' RAILROADS PLEAD
'On the wholeEST .T
,•the taiestion is not - Nviiiter home sites,
Fox WEIGHING
w whether •
we will have, a big sea- I ,
______
1, hut how to provide accommodu- w.,.hinirtHi. :,,t. 11._ T!.„. Lit,r..I
1 1
ns for those that come." another •' ,. . .,..
state . ommerce 1 townissio:i oing i
t ' It I I
-an! agent said. '
-------: t , i
Miami Chamber of Commerce anti Step, pole and extension lads.
der1 i
i .
arida First Commission's ativt•rtis- Biscayne Hardwares Co. Phone 32. I i.a, 1 . . F• C Brosst
•
is bearing fruit, President I.:. G. — I "Pr ' !
well of the Chamber of Commerce
I • i
i / . 1110 Avent
knnual Fall FashionShoLowe & Cooper w--Thurs-
I 1
c and Friday night, October 19th . .
I 2.„h; at eight o'cleok. All seats I .
YACHT BROKERS AND AGENTS , 0•
;emit-4, admission rine, for the Bap- Room 413 Burdia. Bldg. Phone 660 5!
t Pipe Organ fund. I
Shipping ;wane" Seamen and Officers i .
REMOVAL NOTICE P...itt. a Ai I"WW1. kallIaht. "told and chap.
.1.1,4. Marine information tree.
I have moved my office to The If you have a. li.ut.. Bnrbee. Dr,hze or any . .
M, Fidelty Bank and Trust Com- Ikatona steak IT aa)., list it with. us. • • •• .• • •• .
ny Building. . ' .- - -..: 40 't 1:; •- -;:,14. : fli.ii ?-,:l.. !:.!1',4.":::. ...; .,.- :
•
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