>>This program is brough to you in part by the Paul B. Hunter and Constance D. Hunter Charitable Foundation a proud partner of WUCF and the Central Florid community.

>>On this edition of Florida Road Trip, we're headed to a city that knows how to hold on to its roots no matter how much time passes.

>>Coral Gables has maintained the ideals of its founder, despite the fact that it's gone through so many different epochs.

>>Plus, we'll visit a place that's keeping the stories of Cuban culture alive.

>>We really see ourselves as a community space where people from the Cuban diaspora community, or anyone who's interested in the Cuban diaspora experience can come and learn more.

>>Grab your shades and buckle up for adventure.

Florida Road Trip is back on the roa and swimming into Coral Gables.

♪♪ >>Hi there and welcome to Florida Road Trip.

I'm Scott Fais.

Coral Gables today is known fo its Mediterranean architecture, tree-lined streets and the iconic Biltmore Hotel.

Yet the city's founding isn't tied to buildings.

Rather, one man's poetic dream and a family's desire to turn the wilderness into a legacy.

In 1899, Reverend Solomon Merrick purchased 160 acres of undeveloped land in South Florida for $1,100.

The family worked hard to clear the land, planting a variety of crops with grapefruits becoming the most successful.

His son, George Merrick, had his sights not on the fields.

Rather on becoming a poet.

>>From the time he was little, he wanted to be a writer and a poet.

He finally goes to Rollins College at age 21, and then finishes in two years.

>>After graduation from Rollins, George heads to New York for law school, but his plans change when his father gets ill.

George then returned home to help run the family's growing business.

>>They were exporting just a tremendous amount of grapefruits.

>>George's father passed in 1911, leaving him in charg of the family and the business.

That's when George's vision for Coral Gables really began to take shape.

Inspired by his surroundings and those literary works, he began to dream of a planned city, reflecting the Mediterranean look.

>>He was a reader, he was a curious guy.

And as time went on, he began to dream of a planned city with Spain and the Mediterranean as an inspiration for his design.

And he began to make that a reality in the 1920s with his ideas and how he took in the latest advances in urban development and urban amenities and all.

>>Merrick' vision transformed Coral Gables into one of America's first planned communities.

In 1921, he initiated land sales and then began attracting prospective buyers.

>>About 5-6,000 people showed up for the land sale.

He had cutouts of conquistadors and just really promoted it.

So, so many people showed up.

That really mark the beginning of Coral Gables.

>>By 1925, the city incorporate and Merrick had close to 3,000 acres to create a suburb guide by the City Beautiful movement.

The movement was popular in the early 1900s and pushed for parks, tree lined streets and impressive architecture, all with the goal of making citie a more enjoyable place to live.

You really need to look at the designers of the different buildings and plazas and streets in Coral Gables.

They are really influential in its development, and its longevity is a beautiful place.

So you're talking about Phineas Pace, who designed Coral Gables City Hall.

You're talking about George's uncle Denman Fink who was an illustrator, but becomes an architect, almost self-taught.

Designs the Venetian pool among many things.

George's cousin H. George Fink, brilliant architect.

We still have his studio right off of Miracle Mile on Ponce.

Great designer of homes, among other things.

>>While architects and artists were bringing Merrick's dream to life Mother Nature had other plans.

The devastating hurricane of 1926, followed by the economic downturn of the approaching Great Depression, stopped further development, leaving Merrick in a financial hardship.

>>Tenacious in his beliefs and held on even when bad times came.

Died in debt.

But you know, was still ver active right up until the end.

>>George Merrick may not have found financial success from a city, but Coral Gables flourished thanks to the community that believed in his vision.

>>If George Merrick came back today, he would say, you know, it's amazing.

Despite all the challenges and all the changes, this place looks great and they retain so much of the original character.

♪♪ >>When you think of Cora Gables, maybe the Mediterranean architecture or the tree lined streets come to mind.

But what about that name?

Coral Gables.

The story begins insid one house, made with coral walls and a whole lot of history.

>>This house.

Well, I'll start with the fun fact to know and tell.

And that is that the name of the city of Coral Gables comes from the house, not the other way around.

So it's incredibly significant for this city.

It is the boyhood house of George Merrick, who grew up wanting to be a poet.

>>When the Merrick family arrived, it was wild, undeveloped land.

They bought 160 acres, sight unseen.

George was only 13 years old when his father began clearing the land.

Determined to make something of their plot of wilderness.

>>We have example after example after example of how George kept, kept the - kept the faith I guess because so many things went wrong.

At first they couldn't even get here because the entire city of Miami was under a quarantine for yellow fever.

The very first season they were here, the family basically had almost no money, but luckil there were guava on the property and George would shimmy up the guava trees, shake down the guava, put it in a wooden cart, but he sold those guavas to Captain Simmons, who was making guava jelly for people in England who absolutely went gaga over guava jelly.

And he made the amazing amount of $300 that first season.

Now we're talking 1900.

So that's equivalent t about $11,000 in today's money.

So a little 13 year old kept the family afloat.

>>While taking produce by mule to downtown Miami, George brought along books for the ride, a ride that often lasted four hours.

One of those books is credited with inspiring his vision for Coral Gables.

We know that George Merrick read tales of the Alhambra, because that was written when Washington Irving was ambassador to Spain in the 1830s, was considered the first travelog.

>>And it all bega here, inside this family home.

Today, the Merrick House stands as a museum, a tribute to one man's vision, a poet's dream.

>>A lot of people who come here and know that George Merrick had something to do with making Coral Gables look Spanish question the look of this house becaus it doesn't look Spanish at all.

But we have to explain to them that this house was completed well before George Merrick ever thought about becoming owner of Coral Gables.

It reflects a family of bibliophiles.

We have some 661 book that are original to the family.

60 or so paintings in the house were either done by George's mother, George's brother, or George's uncle.

>>Today, visitors walk the rooms filled with furnishings, artworks and musical instruments.

Each tells just a piec of the Merrick's family story.

Yet this is more than a home.

It's a look insid the Merrick family's creativity and resilience.

>>Thi is ground zero for Coral Gables.

If you come here, then we'll lead you through the ideas of going to all of the places that George Merrick had a hand in.

♪♪ >>In Coral Gables history and elegance intersect at the Biltmore Hotel.

With its soaring tower, Mediterranean architecture and legendary guest list, the Biltmore is more than just a hotel.

It's symbolic of the city's dreams.

The Biltmore Hotel was intended to be the crown jewel of George Merrick's City Beautiful.

They broke ground on March 13th, 1925, and it opened less than a year later in January of 1926.

>>I envy that type of buildin schedule, for obvious reasons.

You set out to make a very, you know, massive project such as this, which at the time included 165 acres when including the golf course lands and so forth.

It really is impressive if you think about not just the size of this landmark and the structure itself, but the intricate details that go along with it which defin the character of the Biltmore.

Ten months is a really impressive time frame.

It's Mediterranean architecture is only complemented by its Italian and Spanish, its Moorish influences.

You see that throughout the property and somewhat culminates with the 93ft copper tower based upo Giralda tower in Seville, Spain.

That level of detail up to that point and then strew throughout the property itself.

>>Details like mahogany millwork, travertine floors, barrel vaulted fresc ceilings and Corinthian marble columns all reflect the craftsmanship that set the standard for luxury.

But it was more than beautiful.

The Biltmore was a destination.

It quickly became a hotspot for celebrities, presidents, and even some legendary outlaws.

The Everglades Suite on the 13th floor is nicknamed the Capone Suite.

It still carries traces of the past, including a rumored bullet hole in the fireplace.

>>We have no actual record of Al Capone staying with us.

There are numerous photos of him here.

There was not just sightings of him, but you know, meetings that were taking place here.

So while we cannot confirm, as we wouldn't confirm with any of our guests that stay here, it surely would suggest to me.

>>In 1942, the hotel welcome guestsd of a different kind.

That's when the U.S.

government took control during World War II.

>>And it was converted to an Army Air Force regional hospital facility.

It served in that capacity through the war years until it was eventually converted over into a Veterans Affairs hospital, and then it served in that capacity for several years subsequent to that.

>>The Biltmore was a temporary home to the University of Miami's medical school, first in the state, with classes starting in 1952.

It continued to be a primary teaching location for the university's med students until 1969.

Then, the hotel sat vacant for a few years until the federal government deemed it back to the city by the way of the Historic Monuments Act and Legacy of Parks program in 1973.

The city began renovations in 1983, and it was reopened as a hotel in 1987.

The economy closed its doors again in 1990, until it reopened in 1992, when the Seaway Hotels Corporation took over operation.

>>We do our best, and I can only speak for our stewardship of the landmark to ensure that the landmark remains true to its past.

>>The hotel withstood more than tim from the devastating hurricane of 1926 to Hurricane Andrew in 1992.

It served as a shelter for thousands.

>>It opened and then several months later, it was hit by the terrible hurricane of '26.

A lot of structures within the greater area were gone.

It wasn't but three months that the hotel at that time was down, and then it was bac into operation, actually serving as a shelter, housing about 2,000 homeless people at that time.

Fast forward that to when w took over the property in 1992 and several months after that Hurricane Andrew actually hit.

It too, again, leveled a whole area in all of South Florida when at that point, like in '26, it was considered a Cat five rated hurricane, really level devastation on the area.

And again the Biltmore served as a place by which people that had nothing else came to and sheltered for some time.

So when it says that it stands, the test of time, it truly can claim that mantle over a lot of other places.

>>For Coral Gables, the Biltmore is more than a landmark.

It's become a place where history, community and culture come together.

♪♪ While Coral Gables may be best known for its Mediterranean architecture, the city's historic villages showcase a variety of styles from around the world.

>>As George Merrick was thinking about the city and how it would look.

He he loved the old Spanish the Mediterranean Revival style, but thought that integrating different styles, sort of that outskirts of the main neighborhoods, would be a great idea because he knew that he would be instantly creating these wonderful landmarks.

>>Merric just didn't want to build homes.

He wanted to build a global city.

What better way to do it than through architecture inspired by countries from around the world?

>>There were plan for about 14 villages, all told, but only seven were created.

The Chinese village probably the one that's the most striking.

The other villages include Dutch South African, French Normandy, Florida pioneer, French country, French city and Italian.

They were residential from the start and designed to form small, close knit communities.

>>So when people moved into the villages, even though they were far from downtown, they would have instant neighbors.

>>And the visio didn't stop with the buildings.

Merrick and his team had a vision for the landscape as well.

>>He made sure that street after street, block after block had shade trees, had these great cover.

And that's one of the great things about Coral Gables I think.

>>When you look at the old photographs of the city and think about Merrick's plan, every single street is tree lined.

Somehow this guy had a vision o what the city might look like.

>>There may be only seven villages, but they've made a lasting impression.

Today they're all registered, historic and protected by Coral Gables Preservation Ordinance.

>>If you look at most of the doors and all of these residences within the villages, they all have these little plaques, ceramic plaques that say Coral Gables.

All of these are on the city's Register of Historic Places.

They're all historically designated, and that brings a certain responsibility to the owners and care and concern for these buildings.

>>Fro the blue rooftops in the Chinese villages to the colonial homes and the pioneer villages.

There's nothing else like them in Florida.

It's another example of how George Merrick dreamed big, and that vision still shapes Coral Gables a century later.

>>People that were here originally understood just because of the beauty of the designs of these villages, that they were some place special.

It truly is a city beautiful.

♪♪ >>When George Merrick set out to build his dream city of Coral Gables, he knew that every great city had an institution of higher learning.

Thus, the University of Miami has always been part of that plan.

Ever since the early days, this campus has helped shape the growth of Coral Gables.

>>The university was founded pretty much when Coral Gables was founded in 1925.

They set aside 160 acres right here today and said, that's going to be what they thought of at the time, actuall was the Pan American University.

That never kind of came about.

And it ended up becoming the University of Miami.

>>Just a few weeks afte the university opened its door, a devastating hurricane left it in ruins.

>>But took a number of years to get it going again.

And certainly our name hurricanes, was richly earned.

For more than a decade, the university struggled to keep afloat.

>>I think it's a story, a really cool story of resilience building on a foundation.

And it was really the GI Bill.

And, you know, the kind of founding of air conditioning, if you will, in the 40s, 50s that propelled the university into the 60s and the 70s.

And then it was really the 80s.

Think about, you know, the kinds of things that occurred, especially in sports.

Five national championships between 1983 and 2001 in football, that was just really pretty bricks and mortar and arts and sciences, liberal arts.

And then it evolved over time to education.

And think of i today with music, architecture, certainly business, engineering.

We have nine schools and colleges.

That's for a medium sized private university to have nine schools and colleges and a law school and a medical school is very, very unusual.

>>You can still find history on campus today.

One of the first structure is the Solomon Merrick Building, named after George's father.

>>What came later, actually, was really the beautification of the campus.

And that really didn't come until the early 80s, and that you can kind of see how beautiful Coral Gables looks today, but als how beautiful the campus looks.

>>One of the most picturesque spots also sets the university apart from other institutions.

>>I think it's kind of a unique campus because you have a lake in the middle of it.

Lake Osceola, right?

And so you have this lake that actually connects with the entire canal system in Coral Gables.

>>Among th university's many contributions to culture and history is a one of a kind archive.

Preserving the voices an stories of an entire community.

>>The Cuban Heritag Collection was founded in 1998 as a distinct archive and library within the University of Miami Library system.

>>But its roots go back even further, thanks in large part to a handful of women determined to preserve the stories of the past.

>>Oral history is really important for us to gain firsthand perspectives from people who lived the historical moments that researcher today want to know more about.

So that's why we're really trying to advocat to do more of that type of work.

It's one thing to read a second hand account of something, but then when you're able to see directly from someone who lived that experience, it's much richer and you're abl to kind of capture their stories in a more informative way for future generations.

We have a lot of documentation that showcases the different waves of migration from Cuba from the 1960s to the present.

Even predating 1960s, the revolutionary period from Cuba when they were working on independence from Spain.

We also have interesting documentation of the Mariel boatlift of 1980, which was a more contemporary migration.

We have materials related to the rafter crisis of 1994.

So you really se all different types of material that tells those stories o migration from Cuba to the US.

>>The University of Miami story is one of vision, resilience and community.

If you're walking by Lake Osceola or digging through the Cuba Heritage Collection, it's clear this is a place where history is alive.

>>We're small enough to feel small every day, but we're large enough that there's spirit, and there's a real feeling of community here and everyone that goes here, they're very proud to be a Miami hurricane.

♪♪ >>In Coral Gables, nature takes center stage.

And trust me on this, there's no greater example than the Fairchild Tropical Botanical Garden.

This living legacy firs took root almost a century ago, when visionary seeds were planted.

>>We opened to the public in 1938, and we're the big botanical garden here in South Florida.

1938 was a time when Miami was, and Coral Gables were much smalle communities than they are today.

Robert Montgomery donated the land.

He had lived previously u in the northeast, where he was donor to the New York Botanical Garden.

So he already understood what a garden could be for a growing city.

Marjory Stoneman Douglas the champion of the Everglades, was also the champion of Fairchild Garden.

She wrote a paper on wh we needed a botanic garden here, and why it should be named after Doctor David Fairchild.

We're so lucky to have ou garden connected to his legacy.

He was a plant explorer for the US Department of Agriculture, and his job was to travel around the world finding new plants that could improve American agriculture.

>>Fairchild was considered a superstar of botany as a plant explorer for the US Department of Agriculture.

He traveled the world collecting new specie to improve American agriculture.

>>This was the late 1800s early 1900s, at a time when the population of the country was burgeoning and we had to figure out how to activate agriculture across the nation to feed all of these people.

>>David Fairchild retired in the area, but his plan exploration didn't stop there.

In the early days of the garden, he would travel and bring plants back right here.

>>He loved plants.

He's such a great plant enthusiast and that spiri of not just finding new things, but telling the story of those things is what pervades the whole garden.

He wrote a series of biographies, stories about all the plants that he encountered and not just the plants, but the people and the land and the mode of transportation and the whole context of the plants.

We have people here today that continue that, and everything we bring back and plant in the garden has to have a story along with it.

>>But the garden's missio goes beyond preserving the past.

They're also looking to plant some roots in the future by working with NASA and students on research.

>>We have students helping us and helping NASA figure out how to grow food plants on the International Space Station and eventually feeding astronauts on the way to Mars.

>>Fairchild is also helping to reintroduc native orchids to South Florida.

It started 12 years ag with the Million Orchid Project.

We've got just over 700,000 individual orchid plants that we've put all over, you know, urban landscapes in South Florida.

So now these orchids are back.

For the first time that number of orchids has been climbing instead of falling.

>>Exploring the gardens is more than just seeing trees grow from the ground up.

This is an immersive experience.

Step inside the rainforest and feel like you've been transported to the tropics.

>>Our rainforest is just extraordinary.

We're able to grow rainforest plants from all over the world and we've created an environment within South Florida's growin conditions that's really unique.

>>And just a few steps away awaits the butterfly conservatory.

Inside, find exotic butterflies from around the world, all free roaming, all looking for flowers to feast upon.

♪♪ After spending time in the butterfly conservatory, it's hard not to be amazed.

David Fairchild didn't want to just build a garden.

For him, plants were a wa to connect people and inspire.

He was very passionate and very clear in the early days.

More so than any of the other founders, that the point of Fairchild is to improve the community.

And as we look around Coral Gables, we can see the results of hi work, his legacy and everything that's come after, because the plants that you see around Coral Gables, the beautiful landscapes, many of those plants came through this garden.

>>Well that's going to wrap up our tour through the history of Coral Gables, a city built on a dream with an international foundation.

Thanks for joining us, I'm Scott Fais.

We'll see you down the road for the next edition of Florida Road Trip.

Until then, safe travels everyone.

♪♪ >>This program is brought to yo in part by the Paul B. Hunter and Constance D. Hunter Charitable Foundation, a proud partner of WUCF and th Central Florida community.