The First Hotel on the Beach

In 1915, the same year Miami Beach became a city, a Scottish immigrant plumber named William J. Brown did what the millionaires were still sketching: he opened the beach's first hotel. Two wooden stories, 36 rooms, a shared kitchen downstairs, built of famously hard Dade County pine. No marble, no orchestra. Working people came, and the beach had its first real address.

Buried in stucco, rediscovered by a hurricane

Then the beach outgrew it. In the 1930s the little wooden building was cocooned in stucco to look modern, and everyone slowly forgot what was underneath. It took a hurricane to remind them: when Andrew tore through in 1992, the stucco peeled and there stood the 1915 pine, intact.

In 2002 engineers jacked the whole building into the air on steel beams, moved it, and restored it top to bottom, the first wooden commercial building in Miami Beach ever saved that way. Today it serves hundreds of dinners a night as one of the most famous steakhouses in the city. The first hotel on the beach never checked out.

Have you ever noticed the little building at 112 Ocean Drive?

Where to find us on Collins

Green Market sits at 5101 Collins Ave in Miami Beach, open 7am to 10pm every day. Coffee from the espresso bar starts at $2.50, combos from $5.79. Walk in from the beach, or order on WhatsApp at +1 (305) 876-4513 and we deliver across Miami Beach.