Grand Avenue
In 2023, a group of Florida International University and Miami Dade College architecture students, led by Dr. Gray Read (FIU) and Professor Bobbie Walker (MDC) recreated what Grand Avenue looked like in its heyday in the 1960s. The renderings presented on this page are drawn from their project which is titled “Visualizing Grand Avenue.”
During the era of segregation, Jim Crow laws limited the access that Black people had to white-owned stores. As a result, shops opened within the neighborhoods of Coral Gables and Coconut Grove to meet the needs of the burgeoning Black and Bahamian community, first on Charles Avenue, then on Grand. In the documentary “Graceful Voices” Leona Cooper recalled some of the neighborhood stores, “The colored folk had on Grand Avenue right here in the Coral Gables area, you had a dry cleaners, you had two grocery stores, you had the Row grocery store, you had the Chinese grocery store.”1
Theodore Johnson remembers a Chinese Grocery store being called “Joe’s.” 2 It may have been one of the 38 independently owned and operated grocery stores started by friends Joe Wing and Joe Fred Gong. 3 In Coconut Grove a grocery store owned by the Blumenthal family had a business in the back collecting rents for the owners of rental properties in the area. Seeing the need for affordable housing in the community they began buying land and building homes to rent out. Over time they became significant landowners in the neighborhood and remained so for decades.4 A third grocery store, was owned by the Cash family who lived on the second floor of the building that also housed a pool hall. Carmetta Cash Russell who, as a young adult worked in her parents’ store, remembers being woken up by late shoppers, “”They’d ring the bell and they’d want something out of the store,” she sighs. “I’ve had that dream many times. I’m in there looking for something on the shelves.””5
Shops on the corner of Grand Avenue and Plaza Street
Among the clothing establishments was Willie Leonard’s menswear store. One of his patrons, Luis Mellison recalled that Mr. Leonard made beautiful clothes, with the perfect fit, “We sang the gospel and he used to tailor all our clothes. People would come in from Carol City and Liberty City; they’d come from everywhere.” 6 Mr. Leonard used to run a Bible study class out of his store on Grand Avenue, and eventually shut the shop to become the pastor of St. Matthews Church.7 Another popular business was Marshall’s Shoe Shine Clinic established by James Marshall Rierson in 1963. Located in a building that also housed the Tip Top Bar, shoeshining alone kept Marshall so busy that he no time for doing shoe repairs. Speaking to the Miami Herald in 1980 he explained his business traffic peaked on holidays and the weekends, ““On Saturday I work between 8 in the morning till about 7 at night,” he said, “I stay open so they can pick up their shoes.””8
The Ace Theater, which opened its doors in 1930, not only entertained neighborhood residents with its film showings but also became the location for important community events. Renita Ross explained, “The ACE Theater was the Community Theater. Friday evening, after school, my cousin and I couldn’t wait to walk from my grandparent’s home on Florida Avenue to the ACE. The ACE was a major location for our social entertainment and cultural arts activity; and even before my birth, the ACE hosted Carver High School Class of 1950’s commencement program.”9 The staff that ran the theater are remembered for their quirky operating procedures, “When it was your turn at the ticket booth to purchase your movie ticket, Bobbie Sands, the cashier, made you count your money. If you couldn’t count your money, she would give your money back to you. You had to know how to count your money before you could purchase a ticket. “Fat Ernest” also known as Ernest, Ernie, and Ernie Fat was the ticket taker. He allowed no nonsense in the theater. Fat Ernest would have that flashlight going down the aisle; and, he knew where you sat and he knew your voice. He would put you out in a second.”10
This image depicts what the Ace Theater looked like when it was in operation. The owners of the theater have received funding from the National Park Service which they hope to use to repair and reopen the building that has remained unused for years (see below).
Exterior of the Ace Theater, 3664 Grand Ave, Coconut Grove, Florida. 2022. Photo by Nicole Combeau. FIU Libraries dPanther Repository To learn more about and support efforts to revitalize this building visit Ace Theater Foundation.
While some of the neighborhood bars had live music performances, the Grove never had the nightlife and a cultural scene like Miami’s Overtown. Ethel Williams recalls a quiet neighborhood: “You didn’t have, on Saturdays or Sundays, on Sunday’s you had nothing else to do but go to Church because nothing was open on Sundays. Not even a grocery store. Nothing was open. So people had to get all they had to get on Saturday. So you know years go on and they started to open. The only place we had was Church and go to school.” 11 With few places to hang out, Fredericka Brown, described how the opening of the Dew Drop Inn gave her and her peers a much needed place to gather: “We used to stand on a corner I tell my grandchildren, because they didn’t have no streetlights for us on this side and St James right here. And Charles being the main street there, they had a streetlight, so we used to stand on the corner, a group of us, this is how we socialize with each other and the white policemen because we didn’t have any black skin policemen at that time. And they would tell us, “Niggers go home!” we would say, “Well, we already home.” “Well, go in your house!”. Not doing anything, just socializing. And thanks to Mr. Robert Dunn he opened up Dew Drop Inn which was a serving pharmacy for the community, entertainment for the black children. And that’s where we had to socialize.” 12
The intersection of Grand Avenue and Douglas Road had the distinction of being the only place in Miami that had bars on all four corners, something that was frowned upon by the more conservative members of the community.13 Others remember these and other local watering holes with fondness. Reynold Martin recalls, “We had community centers like Three Chips and Tiki Club and Gil’s Bar and Last Chance, all those are bars and social institutions is that that I think actually make Goombay an environment that we all cherish to come to because everybody you went into you met people that you hadn’t seen in a while. Now there’s no bars, no social institutions of that nature.” 14
In addition to the many businesses, there were also numerous residences along Grand Avenue, a mix of apartment buildings and single-family houses. The apartment buildings were branded as “Concrete Monsters” by local activist Elizabeth Virrick, who opposed them on the grounds that such structures often became overcrowded and were poorly maintained by landlords, to the detriment of the residents living there.15 Nonetheless, many lived in these buildings for decades, adding to the rich social fabric of the neighborhood.
Single-family homes often had design elements that were reminiscent of the Bahamas. Sharony Green describes her family’s Grand Avenue home as follows: “Upon her arrival in South Florida, Lou, as my great grandmother was called, managed the Sugar Shack on Grand Avenue, a major east–west artery of Coconut Grove. This dwelling was hardly a shack, but a three-story conch house so named because it was made of local wood and sat on posts to permit the air to flow underneath, cooling the interior as was the case of houses constructed by white Bahamians, who were known for their consumption of conch.” 16 Antoinette Price, speaking in 2010, recalls the unique colors of the homes, “Because as a child growing up, you had the painted houses usually green and white and had the little picket fences. People took care of their yards.”17 Little is left of the homes and businesses that lined Grand Avenue in the 1960s, in part the consequence of urban renewal, civic neglect and most recently, gentrification.
Exterior of Traditional Shotgun House 3662 Thomas Ave, Coconut Grove, Florida. 2022. Photo by Nicole Combeau. FIU Libraries dPanther Repository
An important new development in the neighborhood was the 2016 opening of the Gibson Plaza Apartments for senior citizens and the Miami Dade College Gibson Center. The college center has been used for public events such as documentary showings and community workshops. It also plays a role in the neighborhood’s annual Goombay Festival. Other new additions to the streetscape include the Sports Hall of Fame Museum and the Taste of Coco Bahamas. In 2024, after years of delay, several new apartment buildings are under construction that will further transform the face of Grand Avenue. For those interested in learning about more the rich history of this street and the neighborhood, visit our tours page.
Festival goers in front of Gibson Plaza during Goombay 2024, Coconut Grove, Florida. Photo by Enrique Rosell.
A man enjoys a snack in front of the Sports Hall of Fame Museum at 3634 Grand Avenue, Coconut Grove, Florida, 2024. Photo by Enrique Rosell.
1 Leona Ferguson Cooper spoke of this in the documentary “Graceful Voices,” https://vimeo.com/231250426 2 March 2023.
2 Theodore Johnson guest lecture, February 2023, ARC 6906 at Florida International University.
3 Zhang, Wenxian. (2016). “Chinese in Florida.” In Far East, Down South: Asians in the American South edited by Raymond A. Mohl, John E. Van Sant, Chizuru Saeki.
4 Van Dyke, T. B. (1994). Miami’s second ghetto (Order No. 1358429). Available from ProQuest Dissertations & Theses A&I; ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global. (230872168). Retrieved from https://www.proquest.com/dissertations-theses/miamis-second-ghetto/docview/230872168/se-2
5 Carmetta Cash Russell was 83 when she shared this story. Nielsen, Kirk. (1999). “Grand Illusions” Miami New Times, 22 July, https://www.miaminewtimes.com/news/grand-illusions-6358206?showFullText=true 2 March 2023.
6 Nielsen, Kirk. (1999). See note 5.
7 Pastor Willie Leonard shared this story in the 2011 University of Miami Film: “History of Churches in the West Grove: Past, Present and Future” https://www.law.miami.edu/academics/centers-institutes/ceps/programs-projects/oral-history-film-project/index.html 2 March 2023.
8 Willson, Elizabeth. 1980. “Victim of Progress,” The Miami Herald, July 20, p. 342
9 Renita Ross (Samuels Dixon) quoted in “The Ace Theater Designation report” http://www.historicpreservationmiami.com/pdfs/TheACETheater-designationreport.pdf 23 November 2024.
10 Annette Wallace Turner quoted in “The Ace Theater Designation report” http://www.historicpreservationmiami.com/pdfs/TheACETheater-designationreport.pdf 23 November 2024.
11 Ethel Williams made these comments in the 2010 University of Miami Film “West Coconut Grove: Past, Present and Future” https://www.law.miami.edu/academics/centers-institutes/ceps/programs-projects/oral-history-film-project/index.html 2 March 2023.
12 Gibson, Thelma V.A. and Fredericka Brown (2022). “Commons for Justice Project” Interview by M. Brown, N. Guevara and A. Mehta-Kroll. 30 May http://dpanther.fiu.edu/dpanther/items/itemdetail?bibid=FI24022201&vid=00001 17 January 2023.
13 Willson, Elizabeth. (1980). “Road widening forces Tip Top to close,” The Miami Herald, April 27, p. 309.
14 Cooper, Clarice. and Reynold. Martin. (2022). “Commons for Justice Project.” Interview by M. Brown, A. Ramos, Y. Norther & J. McGee. 31 May http://dpanther.fiu.edu/dpService/dpPurlService/purl/FI24022202/00001 17 January 2023.
15 Mohl, Raymond A. (2001). “Elizabeth Virrick and the ‘Concrete Monsters’: Housing Reform in Postwar Miami.” Tequesta, 1(61): 5-37.
16 Green, Sharony. (2018) “Tracing black racial and spatial politics in south Florida via memory.” Journal of Urban History, 44.6: 1176-1196.
17 Antoinette Price made these comments in the 2010 University of Miami Film “West Coconut Grove: Past, Present and Future” https://www.law.miami.edu/academics/centers-institutes/ceps/programs-projects/oral-history-film-project/index.html 2 March 2023.