A Special Moment In Time: Brown’s May Not Have Been The First Inn On Miami Beach!

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By Seth H. Bramson

The “conventional wisdom” dealing with Miami Beach’s history has, for almost the entire history of the city, held that the first hotel on Miami Beach was Brown’s, on south Ocean Drive. The only problem with that “c w” may be that the U. S. Lifesaving Service’s Biscayne House of Refuge, located at approximately between today’s 72nd and 73rd Streets and Collins Avenue, and which first opened in 1876 as one of several entities placed approximately 20 to 25 miles apart along the lower Florida east coast for the purpose or rescuing shipwrecked sailors, may have been, beginning with the arrival of Captain William Fulford as its keeper in 1890, the first building to serve as an inn or hospitality venue on Miami Beach.

Fulford, who had captained vessels operating along Florida’s east coast beginning in the late 1880s, was intrigued with the area that would someday become Miami and as he traveled the sea lanes he eventually picked a site where he would establish his homestead, a place that would be known first as Fulford and, later, as Fulford-by-the-Sea, eventually to become North Miami Beach, but that part of the story will be saved for another telling.

The captain, with his wife, took over a ramshackle, run down building in 1890 and little by little began rehabbing it, buying new furniture, replacing rotting wood, repairing stairs and fixtures and generally making it a comfortable spot for visitors, the story being told in its entirety in From Farms and Fields to the Future: The Incredible History of North Miami Beach.

While the Biscayne House of Refuge was first established, as noted above, in 1876 to help shipwrecked sailors and castaways, it became progressively less important in fulfilling that function as ships and navigational devices improved. According to one account, the Fulfords, gracious and genial as they were, and always warmly welcoming visitors, eventually had so many patrons at the House that it must be concluded that at least some of them paid for the privilege of being the Fulford’s guests.

That same account goes on to state that, with three rooms and a kitchen on the main floor and a huge dormitory-type room under the upstairs sloping ceiling, there were a surprisingly large number of applications for room and board for short-term visitors, some of whom were turned away due to lack of space.

Utilizing fresh fruits and vegetables on their dining table (which were gathered from their farm, which was located on the mainland side and was part of the requisite for property improvement necessary to prove the homestead claim that the captain had made on the tract which he planned to purchase from the government in what is today’s North Miami Beach) the House of Refuge developed a reputation for fine and high quality board to go with its sometimes-available rooms.

With the revelation of those facts, it might be reasonable and justifiably argued that, in addition to being the Lifesaving Service’s outpost on the lower east coast of Florida, the Biscayne House of Refuge was, even before the now-famous-in-Miami Beach-history Brown’s Hotel was built, that hotel’s predecessor as the first hostelry on what would eventually become one of the world’s most renowned winter resorts.

Today, the site of the House of Refuge is memorialized by and with a large bronze marker which is between 72nd and 73rd Streets on the east side of Collins Avenue. The Lifesaving Service became part of the Coast Guard while the property, now known as North Shore Park, extending from the ocean to the canal just west of Dickens Avenue between 72nd and 73rd Streets was traded by the Coast Guard to the City of Miami Beach, the city giving the Guard the then-underwater property which was developed by that branch of the service to become today’s Miami Beach Coast Guard station, located on the south side of the east end of the MacArthur Causeway.

As always, trusting that you have enjoyed the above we look forward to sharing the next exciting episode in Greater Miami history with you shortness. Meantime, enjoy a wonderful, happy and safe New Year as well as a grand weekend. And before closing a little sidebar is in order here: I met the beautiful and elegant Myrna one week and one day after Thanksgiving, 1973. (That is another grand story for another time but suffice to say that the great Oliver (Butch) Stallings was very much a part of that meeting!) This year—2018—marks 45 years to the day—November 30th–since I met that stunningly beautiful woman and chased her for three years until she caught me. November 27th marked our 42nd anniversary, which is not bad since I am her third and last husband and she is my first and only wife! See you all next time. Be—and stay—well, don’t overeat and don’t overindulge. Mr. Berkwitt and I want you all to be here for the upcoming episodes!

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