The seeds of change were planted in Miami Beach in the late 1970s and into the ‘80s.
The first two renovated Art Deco hotels, the Cardozo and the Carlyle, reopened in 1978. Vacant storefronts and restaurants began to find new life as clubs in the ‘80s and early ‘90s. Younger people moved in and visited.
Some of us remember the old South Beach, with its neighborhood bakeries, languid pace, shabby but genuine character, and the retired people who took over the place. They gathered each day on hotel porches, made their way to the beach across the street for some sunshine, then returned to their small rooms to cook dinner on a hot plate.
By late 1970s and early ‘80s, Miami Beach, after its first heyday from the 1930s through the ‘60s, was a place in transition.
Let’s see what it looked like from the Miami Herald Archives.
SOUTH BEACH
The Biscaya Hote in South Beach in 1981.
The east end of Lincoln Road Mall stands nearly deserted in 1987.
South Beach in 1981.
Club 1235 on Washington Ave. in 1988.
In 1988, Barbara Capitman is escorted off the terrace of the Senator Hotel after trying to place a plaque on the front door of the hotel before it was scheduled to be demolished.
Washington Avenue.
Cavalier Hotel on Ocean Drive in the 1980s.
Israel Resnicovitz, 77, a retired bakery truck driver, in 1989.
Belle Isle condominium off Venetian Causeway in 1980.
THE WATER
Miami Beach Marina in the 1980s.
In 1982, the view north from Government Cut showing Miami Beach hotels.
Large Motor and sailing yachts are being hauled across the MacArthur Causeway to the Miami Beach Convention Center in 1983.
RESTAURANTS
Florida Gov. Bob Graham autographs a poster of himself as Jeanne England and granddaughter Melissa look on as he visits tables at Wolfie’s restaurant in Miami Beach in 1986.
Embers Restaurant in Miami Beach.
Louis Kovacs plays at Budapest restaurant in Miami Beach.
In 1979 at the Concord Cafeteria in South Beach, the Ring Boxing 31 Club discusses the sport.
HIGH SCHOOL
Miami Beach Senior High before demotion and a rebuild. The Prairie Avenue campus opened in the early 1960s.
Driver ed teacher Elston Davis directs a student into a reverse turn in 1983.
Members of the Miami Beach High football team in 1979: Larry Baker, left.
MID BEACH
Mount Sinai Hospital, at he foot of the Julia Tuttle Causeway, in 1980s.
Collins Avenue’s “concrete canyon,” looking north from the 5300 block. Collins Avenue in 1984.
NORTH BEACH
Parkview Point apartment building in North Beach in 1980.
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