Brickell Park After 1926 Hurricane

Photograph of the aftermath of the 1926 Hurricane in Brickell Park on September 21, 1926, just three days after the storm made landfall in Miami.

Cover: Brickell Park in Miami after 1926 Hurricane on September 21, 1926. Courtesy of Miami-Dade Public Library, Old Florida Collection.

A rare look at Brickell Park on September 21, 1926, three days following the Great Hurricane of 1926. The vantage of the photographer is looking west from the bay toward Brickell Avenue. The wreckage seen in the foreground of the photograph was a lumber barge that washed ashore during the hurricane, which made landfall beginning on September 17th of that year.

Brickell Park, which has since been renamed to Mary Brickell Park, was donated by the Brickell family to the city’s park district in the spring of 1925. Prior to the donation, the land was primarily green space between Brickell Point, where the family residence stood, and their neighbors to the south along Brickell Avenue. Mary had planned on donating the land to the city as a public park, but the actual gift of the land took place following her passing in 1922.

Once the city took possession of the land, the park district got to work improving and beautifying the green space with the addition of a playground and the planting of trees. An article in the Miami Daily News on July 26, 1925, described the improvements as follows:

“Brickell Park is fast becoming one of Miami’s tropical beauty spots. This park is a two-acre tract extending from Brickell Avenue to the bay between SE Fifth and SE Sixth streets, and is being developed for aesthetic purposes exclusively. With the exception of Bayfront Park, it is the only municipal park on the waterfront. Palms and flowering trees and shrubs, imparting a tropical atmosphere, are features of the retreat. One of the oldest cocoanut groves in the city lines the water’s edge. Fruit trees which are now on the plot are being gradually supplanted by flowering vegetation as the ripening fruit of the former would temp children who would mar the trees.”

Also seen in the cover photograph is the Brickell mausoleum and the family residence. The burial chamber still remains in Mary Brickell Park today, but the family mansion was razed in the 1960s following the passing of Maude Brickell, the last family member who lived in the residence. Figure 2 show what the park looks like in 2019.

Figure 1: Mary Brickell Park from the same vantage in 2019. Courtesy of Casey M. Piket.

Resources:

• Miami Herald: “Will Beautify Park”, May 8, 1925.

• Miami Tribune: “Work of Beautifying Brickell Park Begun”, May 8, 1925.

• Miami Daily News: “Tropical Spot on Brickell Av”, July 26, 1925.