#325 Lincoln Road under construction November 1960
Architect's rendering of Lincoln Road Mall, looking east from Washington Avenue.
In Miami Beach, Fla. . .
A Downtown Pedestrian Mall
Another chapter in the "swamp to
swank" story of Miami Beach is being
written today as famous Lincoln Road
is being transformed into a three-fifths
of a mile, traffic-free shopping prome-
nade extending east-west from Wash-
ington A venue to Alton Road - the
Lincoln Road Mall, .
The $600,000 mall- filled with
gardens, fountains, arcl\ways, and stat-
ues-is scheduled for completion by
Thanksgiving. Dedication of the lav-
ishly-landscaped mall will officially
open the 1960.61 wihter tourist season
in this resort city.
The Lincoln Road Progress Associa-
tion, a group of Lincoln Road property
owners and retailers which spearheaded
the mall, said that upon completion of
the promenade special events will be
scheduled along the famous shopping
street: concerts, exhibits and fashion
shows, as well as several nationally
televised shows which will emanate
from the mall.
The mall-said to be the first perm-
By Morris N. Lipp
City Manager, Miami Beach, Fla.
anent traffic-free promenade on a major
shopping street in America-was de-
signed by Architect Morris Lapidus.
Landscaping was designed and will be
supervised by John Poulos, superin-
tendent of Miarrli Beach's Park De-
partment. APe Feder of New York,
internationally-known lighting expert,
designed the lighting, Structural de-
signers were Oboler and Clarke and
mechanical design was by Henry Nel-
son, all of Miami Beach. Underground
utilities and sewers were designed by
the city engineering and water depart-
ments.
~'FaceliflinM" for Stores
Several cities have made temporary
malls, but the Lincoln Road promenade
is believed to be the first major perm-
anent one, In anticipation of comple-
tion this month, most of the major
stores along Lincoln Road have been
Th" MUNICIPAL SOUTH . November 1960
undergoing their own "facelifting."
Dozens of stores have been completely
redecorating to give them a complete
"new look" in keeping with the design
of the Lincoln Road Mall,
How did the mall come about? How
did the idea become reality?
The only way to answer these ques-
tions properly is to start at the be-
ginning.
It all really began in 1912 when
Carl Fisher put up $50,000 for John
Collins to complete a wooden causeway
to the beach-fringed mangrove swamp
between Biscayne Bay and the Atlantic
Ocean-a swampy island which Mi-
amians then called Oceacn Beach,
When the wooden causeway was
completed, Mr. Fisher undertook the
overwhelming job of clearing a portion
of the hunk of island he got from Mr.
Collins. He had a wide strip hacked
through the mangroves from Biscayne
Bay to the ocean side of the island.
With the use of everything from ele-
phants to shovels, Mr. Fisher cleared
II
5,393 feet and named this "main
street" of the newly acquired island,
"Lincoln Road," in admiration for the
16th president of the United States.
'Filth Avenue of the South'
At this time, Mr, Fisher called the
island "Alton Beach"-named for the
Chicago, Northwestern and Alton
Railroad. But, in 1915 when he began
Mall work in progress during September.
to, pave his mile-long Lincoln Road,
he changed the name of the island to
Miami Beach:
Mr. Fisher made Lincoln Road 50
feet wide and he had two 25-foOt-wide
sidewalks, The first building to go up
on Lincoln Road was The Shadows,
Fisher's home. That was in 1917.
In 1920, the first church was built
on Lincoln Road, at Lincoln and Drexel
Avenue. The church still stands in the
same location,
The first Lincoln Road bank, Miami
Beach First National, also stands where
it was built in 1921. But long gone is
the golf course that stretched north of
the Road to the Collins Canal, parallel
to Dade Boulevard. And almost for-
gotten are the great enclosed Lincoln
Road tennis courts which resembled an
Mall construction in October, one month before scheduled dedication on Thanksgiving.
12
November 1960 . The MUNICIPAL SOUTH
r
enormous flower nursery, In fact, the
church and the bank are the only
original buildings left on the famous
thoroughfare.
By the end of the '30's, New York's
great specialty shops were opening
branches on Lincoln Road, and it was
fast becoming known as the "Fifth
Avenue of the South,"
During World War II, soldiers
marched down Lincoln Road when Mi-
ami Beach became an officer's training
camp. After the war, Lincoln Road
maintained its reputation as a shopping
mecca, although instead of only luxury
shops, it became an avenue that ap-
pealed to almost every pocketbook.
City Charter Amended
.
History records that the idea for a
"'mall" on Lincoln Road was mention-
ed first in 1942, but the idea bore no
fruitage until recently, as is often the
case in daring proj ects.
Then, when the Lincoln Road Prog-
ress Association renewed the interest
in a mall, things began to happen.
On June 2, 1959, the voters of Mi-
ami amended the city charter, granting
the city power to construct malls on
city streets as assessable projects,
On November 3, 1959, the free-
holders-at a bond election-approved
a bond issue for a mall on Lincoln
Road between Alton Road and Wash-
ington Avenue.
Gty Council then approved a reso-
lution for the construction of this mall,
and a public hearing was held last
January 20 for its confirmation. After
confirmation, the power to assess fully
such a project against the abutting
property owners was tested in the comts
and approved. On July 20, bonds were
sold to finance the construction.
Construction began immediately with
the installation of storm sewers and
water lines and the removal of trees.
An official groundbreaking ceremony
was heJ.d on August 1. There was even
an elephant on hand to help in the
"rebirth" of Lincoln Road-recreating
the scene when Carl Fisher used an
elephant to clear the land originally
in 1912.
.
City is Prime Contractor
It may be interesting to know that
the city has maintained the role of
prime contractor and is coordinating
all phases of construction through its
engineering department. This control
has enabled the use of city crews and
allowed subcontracting of different
phases of work in order to start con-
struction well in advance of completed
detail plans.
Also to expedite construction, con-
tracts were let on a cost-plus basis for
labor only, with the city furnishing all
materials. Each contract is limited not
to exceed $5,000. This arrangement
has proven satisfactory in preventing
delays and in controlling costs.
Approximately 25 contractors are
taking 'part in construction of the mall,
in addition to city forces from the engi-
neering, water, and parks departments.
Lincoln Road is 100 feet wide.
There are eight blocks from Alton
Road to Washington Avenue. Each
block will have at least one illuminated
fountain. Masonry bench seats are be-
ing constructed around some planter
areas and illuminated masonry shelters
are being located throughout the mall.
Flag poles have been erected at the
entrances to the mall.-
Sixty-foot-high poles with clusters of
color-corrected mercury lamps will pro-
vide the best illumination from a single
source to cover a wide area, eliminating
the clustered appearance of convention-
al-type street lighting.
Transportation tor Shoppers
Provisions have been made for
tramway transportation of shoppers.
And emergency vehicles will be per-
mitted to all areas.
Lincoln Road runs east and west and
all intersecting north-south streets will
remain open to vehicular traffic. Be-
cause of the elimination of curbs and
gutters, extensive extension of the
storm sewer system was necessary,
Although construction of the mall
will eliminate 170 parking spaces from
Lincoln Road, it is anticipated that
more than adequate parking will be
provided by the present metered off-
street parking spaces within approxi-
matey one block's distance north and
south of the mall. Part of this area has
double-deck parking facilities-built in
the '50's-and other parts of the area
lend themselves to double-decking
should it be required.
The city, as time goes on, will de-
velop additional parking areas as re-
quired.
Despite a brief slowdown during
Hurricane Donna, the mall will be
completed on time-for a Thanksgiv-
. .
mg openmg,
The public is confident that the mall
will be a tremendolls asset to the com-
The MUNICIPAL SOUTH . November 1960
munity, and cities throughout the na-
tion will be watching. We think they
are going to like the results as much
as we will! The End
It'll Cost You
To Read This
Some guy, probably just wasting his
boss's money, figured out what a
minute is worth to the salaried person.
Here's his table:
The man who makes $2,500 a year
earns 2Yi cents every minute he works,
or $1.27Yz an hour.
The $5,000 man is paid 4Yz cents a
minute or $2.55 an hour.
The $10,000 man gets 9 cents a
minute or $5.10 an hour.
The $100,000 a year executive draws
85 cents a minute or $51 an hour,
These computations are based on a
five-day, 40-hour week, minus three
weeks for vacation and holidays.
So now, when someone says, "Wait
a minute," you'll know exactly how
much he's costing you.
The first parking meters have been
installed in Tokyo, Japan. The city ap-
proved 1,200 two-hour meters in the
central business district.
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