A Very Special Moment In Time: Brown's May Not Have Been The First Hostelry On Miami Beach!
By Seth H. Bramson The 'conventional wisdom' dealing with Miami Beach's history has, for almost the entire history of the city, held that the first...
By Seth H. Bramson The 'conventional wisdom' dealing with Miami Beach's history has, for almost the entire history of the city, held that the first hotel on Miami Beach was Brown's, on south Ocean Drive. The only problem with that 'c w' may be that the U. S. Lifesaving Service's Biscayne House of Refuge, which was located at approximately between today's 72nd and 73rd Streets and Collins Avenue, and which first opened in 1876 as one of several entities placed approximately 20 to 25 miles apart along the lower Florida east coast for the purpose or rescuing shipwrecked sailors, may have been, beginning with the arrival of Captain William Fulford as its keeper in 1890, the first building to serve as an inn or hospitality venue on Miami Beach.