South Miami Avenue in 1950

A view of South Miami Avenue and the former location of Tobacco Road on July 21, 1950.

Cover: South Miami Avenue from SE Fifth Street looking south on July 21, 1950. Courtesy of Miami Herald.

The cover photo is of South Miami Avenue under construction on July 21, 1950. The City of Miami engaged in a $240,000 road improvement project that renovated and resurfaced several of the city’s key thoroughfares. In addition to improvements to South Miami Avenue, from Flagler Street to Fifteenth Road, the project scope also included NW Second Avenue, from 20^th to 36th Streets, and SW 17^th Avenue, from Flagler to SW 8^th Streets.

Part of the effort to repave South Miami Avenue included the removal of streetcar tracks from the road before resurfacing could take place. The machinery on the right-side of the photograph was used to dig up the ties. There was a Trolley line that once ran from downtown Miami, along South Miami Avenue and over the bridge, to Coral Way where it turned to complete the journey to Coral Gables.

The vantage point of the photographer is SE 5^th Street looking south. The Lucky Strike Bar, as seen on the right, was located at 534 South Miami Avenue and stood on the corner of SE 6^th Street and the avenue. Just beyond 6^th Street was an establishment called the Shandiclere Bar, which later was renamed back to an earlier moniker, Tobacco Road, in April of 1977.

The road paving project was scheduled to be completed in August of 1950, but as civic projects often go, was actually completed much later in the year. Once the South Miami Avenue portion of the project was completed, the street lost all traces of the Trolley line that once traversed the thoroughfare taking passengers through the South Side neighborhood in route to Coral Gables. The set of buildings along the west side of the 600-block of South Miami Avenue still stand today, with the exception of the former Tobacco Road Bar, but may soon be redeveloped into a complex of condominium towers.

Figure 1: Captions found in Miami Herald on July

Related Articles:

Tobacco Road Bar History - From Bakery, Speakeasy to Miami City Landmark

Resources:

• Miami Herald: “Big Street Jobs to End in August”, June 27, 1950.

• Miami Herald: “Paving Job on First St. is Speeded”, November 20, 1950.