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Coral Gables in Florida

Monday, 25 January 2021 - 11:00 am (CET/MEZ) Berlin | Author/Destination: North America / Nordamerika
Category/Kategorie: General, Miami / South Florida

🔊 Listen to this Post Coral Gables, officially the City of Coral Gables, is a city in Miami-Dade County, located southwest of Downtown Miami, with a population of 50,000. Coral Gables is a Mediterranean-themed planned community known for its climate and historical character.

Coral Gables was one of the first planned communities, and its planning was based on the popular early twentieth century City Beautiful Movement. It is infamous for its strict zoning regulations. The city was developed by George Merrick during the Florida land boom of the 1920s. The city’s architecture is almost entirely Mediterranean Revival style, mandated in the original plan, including the Coral Gables Congregational Church, donated by Merrick. The domed Catholic Church of the Little Flower was built somewhat later, in a similar Spanish Renaissance style. By 1926, the city covered 10,000 acres (4,000 ha) and had netted $150 million in sales, with over $100 million spent on development.

Merrick meticulously designed the downtown commercial district to be only four blocks wide and more than 2 miles (3.2 km) long. The main artery bisected the business district. Merrick could boast that every business in Coral Gables was less than a two-block walk. The city used to have an electric trolley system, which was replaced by the popularity of modern automobiles, but now a new free circulator trolley system, initiated in November 2003, runs down Ponce de León Boulevard. In 1925, roughly simultaneous to the founding of Coral Gables, the University of Miami was constructed on 240 acres (97 ha) of land just west of U.S. Route 1, approximately two miles south of downtown Coral Gables. By the fall of 1926, the first class of 372 students enrolled at the university.

Miracle Mile is a 0.503-mile-long (0.810 km) section of Coral Way between LeJeune Road (SW 42nd Avenue) and Douglas Road (SW 37th Avenue). It is the main east-west road through the city’s downtown central business district, consisting of many shops, financial institutions, restaurants and arts institution. The LeJeune Road end of Miracle Mile is anchored by the Coral Gables City Hall. Miracle Mile and the surrounding Downtown Coral Gables area is served indirectly by the Miami Metrorail by transferring from the Douglas Road station to the Coral Gables Trolley at the station. The trolley runs up and down Ponce de Leon Boulevard from Miracle Mile to the Metro. The boulevard is lined with restaurants, shops, boutiques, art galleries, and today “Downtown Coral Gables, including Miracle Mile, is one of South Florida’s most sought-after shopping destinations.”

Read more on Coral Gables, MiamiAndBeaches.com – Coral Gables, Wikivoyage Coral Gables and Wikipedia Coral Gables (Smart Traveler App by U.S. Department of State - Weather report by weather.com). Photos by Wikimedia Commons. If you have a suggestion, critique, review or comment to this blog entry, we are looking forward to receive your e-mail at comment@wingsch.net. Please name the headline of the blog post to which your e-mail refers to in the subject line.

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