>>Funding for Florida Road Trip was provided through a grant from Florida Humanities with funds from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

>>Join us on this Florida Road Trip as we head south again to Miami Beach.

We learn about two women who played major roles in the city.

We check out the historic Art Deco and make a pitstop at a monastery that was built almost 900 years ago.

Get ready to hit the road with us, we're headed to Miami Beach.

[MUSIC] Thank you for joining us, I'm Allison Godlove.

We're here in Miami Beach, known for its lively nightlife and beautiful beaches.

But much like the rest of Florida, it started as a swampland.

>>Miami Beach became a city in 1915.

It was founded by Carl Fisher.

And so the city beforehand, it was uninhabitable.

It was a mangrove barrier island.

Nobody was living here.

At some point it was a mango pineapple farm but that kind of failed.

And through John Collins and Carl Fisher, they went through different steps so that they can make it a habitable city.

Florida was at that time an area where a lot of more folks were coming into and living.

It started in the 1860s during the Seminole wars, and as well as the civil war and then it just continued more after Reconstruction.

And folks just wanted something new, something different.

And by the late 1800s, they're like, how can we make this a more habitable city below Lake Okeechobee?

>>John Collins built the bridge connecting Miami to Miami Beach for easier access.

But Carl Fisher promoted the city in a different kind of way using his elephants.

>>Carl Fisher was like, what better way to get folks if I bring my elephants and not just one, two.

And he named one Carl Junior and the other one Rosie.

And he promoted that so that all these companies who were selling these lands would promote it to other folks who were buying property here in South Florida.

And so that kind of did it.

>>Miami Beach is considered a natural but also manmade island.

It's one of only a few in the United States.

>>It is considered manmade to a degree.

When we chopped up all the mangroves, mangroves are very important to south Florida because mangroves are almost like a cushion for when hurricanes come, they protect us.

And so when that was destroyed, you don't have anything of environmental value and you have the beaches and the erosions.

And so how can you have that and the hurricanes and the houses and the thing that kind of cost a lot of risk was the distance between Fisher Island and a mainland Miami beach.

And so they decided to do this thing called the governor cuts, which would allow more vessels to come in through Miami and Miami Beach for supplies and what have you.

But for the area's growth, they did have to bring a lot more sand from other places so that the land can widen.

>>Driving the streets of Miami Beach today, you still find the vision of Collins and Fisher, who wanted the city to be more than just a place to live and work.

>>So Miami Beach is known for fun.

It's known for gambling, its known for nightclubs.

And that's something that you would associate it.

But now but actually, since its beginning in the 1915, you have a lot more of these industries popping up.

And courtesy of Carl Fisher and John Collins, who they said in order for folks to come, they also need to count for pleasure.

[MUSIC] >>Rose Weiss earned the nickname the mother of Miami Beach.

Her personal story is inspirational.

It shows how one person doing seemingly small things can make a big impact.

>>Rose Weiss, now she was known as mother of Miami Beach, but she also did not come from here.

She originally came to the United States from Europe and then to New York.

But in 1919, she came down to a little sandbar and transformed it.

Not only did she become a part of it, within a couple of days, she met so many people and somebody invited her to a city council meeting.

She had only been there a day or so.

And she said, well, that sounds interesting.

Well, she began to sit in on them for 38 years.

She never missed a city council meeting.

She said somebody has to keep an eye on things.

Now, you have to understand, at this time, women didn't even have the right to vote and people like herself could only live on the southernmost tip because Rose Weiss was Jewish and most of the property was what they called restricted.

Mm hmm.

Even the one who became her friend, Carl Fisher, who really promoted and built up Miami Beach.

His properties were restricted.

But this did not stop Rosie Weiss.

She felt that if she taught people what it was really like, the her as a person, she could change their hearts and minds.

And she did.

But they could only rent or buy property south of Fifth Street on the very southern tip.

But she started to meet people she made friends with the mayor's wife, Mrs. Pankhurst.

That was John Collins daughter, and she began to see what needed to be done.

She started the first children's park in South Beach.

That's right.

She said it took more work to get that done than almost anything else because children don't vote.

Carl Fisher was really good at promoting and he got two elephants, one named Carl Jr and one he named Rosie.

Yeah, Yeah.

She heard the stories about that.

Somebody wanted to know who was better known her or the elephant.

They sent a postcard.

She got the postcard.

In fact, there was a picture of Rosie on Rosie.

They got her up on the elephant.

It made newspapers across the country.

It worked.

And people started to learn about this beautiful little sandbar.

And even after the hurricane of 1926, when some people were ready to give up on it, she said, no, it's like a family.

You have a sick child.

That's when you go and do everything you can.

You don't give up on that child.

And that's how she felt about Miami Beach.

She even gave it to the design, the first flag, the flag of Miami Beach that still flies there.

She designed and they presented it the very first time when they had their 50th anniversary.

And she even gave Miami Beach's motto, the motto, you know what the motto is?

Forward with caution.

I think not such a bad idea to this very day.

Rose Weiss, she never stopped working for her adopted home.

[MUSIC] >>Miami Beach is home to the largest concentration of Art Deco in the world.

The only place that comes close is Mumbai in India.

>>We see Art Deco as kind of defining the brand of Miami Beach and not just Miami Beach with the region.

The postcard of South Florida.

Even when you look at the Grand Prix that was recently here, they kept saying, oh, it's coming to South Beach.

Well, no, it's about 20 miles away, but that's okay.

We'll take it because Ocean Drive and our art deco really, I think, helps to define who we are.

It's that unique DNA that makes us a very special place to visit.

We don't look like every other coastal town because we have that history.

We have the low rise feel.

We have really kind of the tropical historic fabric that makes this, I think, a draw to many people.

>>The Art Deco style originated in Paris and began to emerge in the U.S. in the 1920s and 30s.

Here in Miami Beach, you see how the economic times impacted the style.

>>The Art Deco district is comprised of buildings that honor that industrial revolution.

So many of the facade have these thing called eyebrows, which is part of the design.

They ensure to mimic the locomotive, the steamboat, the automobile, this these powerful machinery that was coming in.

And so it is reflective of the time and also shown in the architectural structure of these buildings.

>>It was the middle of the Great Depression, but the buildings were decorated more on the front, the facades.

So when you look at our Art Deco buildings, you'll see beautiful geometric facades with almost a mathematical precision of symmetry.

But then behind it, relatively simple.

>>Not all Art Deco is the same, and Miami Beach has a distinctive look.

>>In Miami Beach, the Art Deco is unique because it has a streamlined modernistic feel that is also tropical.

And so it takes elements that are found here in nature, like palm trees and birds and natural materials like the limestone, which is a bedrock of our substrate and creates these beautiful buildings inspired by the environment.

>>Miami Beach is made up of 14 local districts with approximately 2,600 historical buildings.

Ciraldo believes about 1,500 of them are in the Art Deco style, with approximately 800 centrally located in the Art Deco district.

>>We had a lot more, but unfortunately due to hurricanes, but also folks thinking that this is not something to protect.

We've lost a lot of these buildings, historical buildings.

>>The Miami Design Preservation League was formed in the seventies to protect Miami's architecture, and the main reason the art Deco still exists today.

>>All in all, there were approximately 800 buildings that, through the work of the organization, were able to be placed on the National Register of Historic Places.

That actually is a first urban and 20th century district.

So if you think about American history, there's so much history, especially in Florida.

We have St. Augustine, we have all sorts of other historical communities.

Miami Beach, what's unique about us is that we are a 20th century urban, historic community and the first of that kind in Florida.

[MUSIC] >>The Art Deco in Miami Beach is iconic.

You see it all the time in TV shows and movies, but we wouldn't be able to enjoy it today if it wasn't for the efforts of one woman who helped establish the Miami Design Preservation League.

>>The organization was founded in 1976 by Barbara Baer Capitman and friends, and it was meant as a time to celebrate the bicentennial of the country.

And they were looking for a local project to honor American history.

She had a vision for Miami when others didn't.

If you look at Ocean Drive now, it's a dynamic, vibrant place that back then in the seventies, it was a little different.

You may have seen movies like Scarface or Miami Vice, and it was really a rundown place.

And so people were sort of looking at how could we erase it and start from scratch.

But Barbara had a vision that it was the place it maybe needed some shining and some reimagining, but that it had all of the ingredients to be a real urban dynamic place with people from all different walks of life and ages coming together harmoniously.

And I think it also ties to the potential of an individual to make change.

And, you know, without her voice, without the voice of the citizens, Miami Beach wouldn't be what it is today.

>>She was in the forefront of protecting these buildings.

She saw the boom, the bust, the gambling, the nightlife, the neon lights, which are you go hand in hand with art deco.

And for it to fall in such a disarray.

She went and asked for this preservation, and she she did this.

This is a little old lady about this high.

But she.

She kept fighting.

She kept fighting for the preservation of these these buildings.

And we will not have them without her.

Capitmans mark on Miami Beach extends beyond the preservation of historic buildings.

>>I think that her legacy talks a lot about kind of citizen activism and involvement, making sure that neighbors have a seat at the table.

Any time people come now to develop in Miami Beach, there's a conversation within the community about what the project will be, what it will benefit the community, what are some risks that it has.

And I think that all comes because folks here that are owning property and renovating our historic buildings, they want to be a part of the community.

And with Barbara's work to really bring all parties to the table, I don't think we would have the dynamic community that we have today.

So that voice of the people is so critical even to our economic success today.

And that's something that she you know, she was known as being stubborn and kind of never wanting to compromise.

But at the same time, I think she offered a unique perspective that has really helped us retain what we value so much in our community today.

[MUSIC] >>At one time, it was labeled the world's largest jigsaw puzzle.

But now the Ancient Spanish Monastery is known for how it tells historical stories that were previously not shared.

>>There's 35,000 stones.

Some of them weigh a ton and a half.

>>The Ancient Spanish Monastery is the oldest building in the western Hemisphere.

It was built in the year 1141, obviously not originally in Miami Beach.

It was a home to monks for nearly 750 years in northern Spain.

>>In the 1800s, there was a civil war that broke out in Spain.

And when that happened, the lands were seized.

The monks escaped.

Most of them were French or of French descent and went back to France or they went to other community houses.

And the monastery lay empty for around 100 years.

>>That's until millionaire William Randolph Hearst purchased it, with plans to move it to California to serve as a museum.

But first, it would need to be dismantled down to just stones.

>>When he purchased this monastery, he had it dismantled and they were shipped to the United States in 13,000 crates.

And they arrived to Brooklyn, New York, where they remained for about 25 years.

And Mr. Hearst intended to build that right away.

But he purchased the monastery in the 1920s, never expecting the stock market to crash in 1929.

And so that put everything on hold.

>>World War Two put the museum project on hold again.

>>Unfortunately, Mr. Hearst died in 1951, and so his heirs decided to sell all of the contents of his warehouse in Brooklyn, which included these 35,000 stones.

They were purchased by two men from Ohio who purchased them with the idea of reconstructing the monastery and making it a tourist attraction here in Florida.

>>Reconstructing it proved to be the real challenge.

>>It was a massive undertaking to reconstruct the monastery.

Originally, the stones, when they were dismantled in Spain, were placed in crates.

Every one numbered.

So in the ribs, in the arches, you might have arch number 15 stone A, B, C, D, then arch 16 A, B, C, D, so they could put the stones back originally where they were in Spain.

Each stone was packed in excelsior, which is a form of wood, actually, that kind of looks like it's a soft packing.

And they had a pieces of paper that went with them to show exactly where they went with the whole complex.

Unfortunately, when they arrived in the United States hoof and mouth disease had broken out.

And so the United States government quarantined everything and they began to be afraid that somehow this hoof and mouth disease would come from Europe, would start to infect our livestock and possibly even transfer to humans.

So they had all of the hay burnt, not knowing that inside the hay were the directions of how to put the monastery back together.

And when they were opened here in Florida, nobody had the directions.

>>And that's why it's named the world's largest jigsaw puzzle.

It took about three and a half years to put it back together.

>>They could have cheated.

They could have used steel beams for the foundation and the structure and merely faced it with the stone.

But they decided to make it as historically accurate as possible to use the same building materials, the same kind of grout and mortar, the same procedures, and even the wooden implements and tools.

And that proved to be a huge undertaking.

>>Part of the challenge of keeping the reconstruction authentic was finding stonemasons who had the proper training to put the medieval building together.

>>So in actual fact, they got Bahamian men to come here and be the foreman.

This was unheard of in the 1950s here in the South, particularly in Florida, where Jim Crow laws reigned.

We had about 20 acres at that time, and we were completely fenced in.

So we ran our own rules inside here.

Our archives have several pictures of the workers, both black and white, shirtless, smoking cigarettes, and after lunch, laughing, talking, enjoying coffee.

It was a different atmosphere in a place here.

>>Each year, the Spanish monastery sees about 130,000 people visiting from all over the world.

>>The monastery is more than just a building.

It's really about the stories of the men and the women who either lived, worked or came in contact with this amazing building.

Throughout its nine centuries of history.

[MUSIC] >>Something I learned on this trip is that at one time, Jews made up 80% of the population of Miami Beach.

It's why it has a couple of nicknames Little Jerusalem and Shuttle by the Sea.

>>The Jewish history of Florida is much older than most people realize, but when Ponce de Leon discovered Florida for Spain, people don't realize it because he sailed for Spain.

And it was during the Inquisition, which was from 1478 to 1834.

Only Catholics could settle in Florida.

>>That was the case until Britain took possession of Florida.

>>They didn't care who settled.

They just needed people here.

So anyone could settle, including Jews.

>>Henry Flagler opened up the opportunities for South Florida.

When he extended his railroad down the state.

>>One of the things about Jewish history that's interesting is in order to to be Jewish, you need a support system of other Jews.

For example, in order to pray, you need ten men.

If you're Orthodox Jewish, which these early settlers were, you need kosher food.

And so people would start arriving to provide those services, and then a small community would begin to evolve.

And so that's what happened in the starting in 1913.

By 1929, there were enough Jews in Miami Beach that they needed to build a synagogue, which is now part of this museum in the two buildings that made up that first synagogue.

>>Because Miami Beach was started by industrialists, very wealthy industrialists.

>>The first few landowners in Miami Beach didn't welcome everyone with open arms.

>>They put restrictive covenants in their land deeds that you had to be of Caucasian race and less than one quarter of Hebrew or Syrian blood.

They did not want any blacks.

They did not want any Jews.

Because they said that would lower the value of their land and they were not the kind of people they wanted to attract to come to Miami Beach.

>>Jews in those early days were primarily only allowed to buy property south of Fifth Street, which is where we are located at the very end.

>>The Jewish population started to expand in the area after World War Two.

>>During World War Two, Miami Beach was an Air Force training base.

And interestingly enough, if you go out to parts of Miami Beach and dig down about five feet, you come to a runway.

>>In 1942, there were about 300 hotels on Miami Beach at that time.

And the military took over about 70% of those for barracks.

That's when the population really increased after the war because a lot of the officer training candidates who came to train were Jewish and they got sand in their shoes, literally.

They love the sand, they love the sunshine.

The Jewish community had been very welcoming.

They said, we want to move there and bring our family, have families and live there.

>>The Jewish community continued to grow building hotels, businesses and apartments.

In the seventies, 70,000 Jews now lived in the area, which was 80% of the Miami Beach population.

>>There's an expression in Hebrew called Ldor Vdor.

From generation to generation.

It's it's a value.

It's a Jewish value to pass things down from generation to generation.

>>The Jewish Museum of Florida, FIU is dedicated to keeping the stories alive across generations.

>>And what makes Florida so unique is its diversity of people.

It's a very diverse community and each one needs to tell their story.

So I think I hope that we're a role model for other ethnic groups to do the same thing, to say their stories.

[MUSIC] >>Not far from the neon lights of Ocean Drive is Lincoln Road, one of the first outdoor pedestrian malls in the country.

>>So Lincoln Road was really built by our founder, Carl Fisher, as like the Fifth Avenue of the South.

It's meant to be our main shopping street, and it really has held our position since it was first developed in the 1920s.

>>Carl Fisher was a fan of President Lincoln and named the road after him.

>>Now, of course, it does not go well with the people living here because being here in South Florida, especially during the 1913, 1914, 15, you did have a lot of Southern folks who still were part of that movement that believed in the Confederacy.

So here comes somebody's naming a large shopping area after Abraham Lincoln.

>>He wanted to make a winter destination for the industrialists of New England in the Midwest to come down, hopefully with their cars and come visit Miami Beach.

So Lincoln Road was sort of meant to be the ultimate car mall destination.

Around the mid 1950s, the road was suffering as many sort of retail malls were at the time with the advent of bigger shopping malls that were all inside air conditioned.

And so at that time, the visionary designer, Maurice Lapidus proposed to close the road to cars and make it a pedestrian only mall.

And his idea, he said well, think about it, but a car never bought anything.

And so his idea was, why don't we close it down and make it into more of a promenade for folks to walk?

And that was what really helped revitalize Lincoln Road at the time.

>>The road was important to Miami Beach when it was built and still is today.

>>It's a historical landmark because it is the lifeblood to Miami Beach.

It would allow mom and pop shops to thrive in.

And so without that, the a lot of folks who are starting to live in here, that was their best way for getting that traction to come into Miami Beach and for their shops to flourish.

>>And now it's known as one of the most famous pedestrian malls in the country and still to this day is used by planners all over the world as an example of good urban outdoor mall design.

>>One thing we can take away from this stop in Miami Beach is that one person or one idea can have a lasting impact on a community.

There are examples all around this city, and I bet they're in your hometown too.

Let's keep exploring this great state together.

You never know when we may pop up in your backyard.

Thanks for joining me on this Florida Road Trip, I'm Allison Godlove.

[MUSIC] >>Funding for Florida Road Trip was provided through a grant from Florida Humanities with funds from the National Endowment for the Humanities.