MORNINGSIDE WAS MIAMI’S FIRST HISTORIC DISTRICT 25 YEARS AGO

 

Developed between 1922 and 1941, the Morningside Historic District, originally called Bayshore,  is significant to the history of architecture, landscape architecture, and community development in northeast Miami. This section is one of Miami’s most intact historic neighborhoods, an example of a boom-era suburb.

Architectural housing styles include Mediterranean Revival, Art Deco, Tudor Revival, Moorish and Mission, and the vernacular  masonry style houses reflecting the 1920’s and 1930’s diversity and direction of architectural design.  1950’s ranch houses are also in the area. Local materials used included keystone and oolitic limestone, decorative tropical motifs, wrought iron screen doors and precast concrete vents displaying palm trees, flamingos, and pelicans. Tree-lined boulevards are featured, creating a park-like effect, and the location on Biscayne Bay offers beautiful panoramic water views. 

This neighborhood was envisioned as an exclusive, residential community and attracted many influential and prominent local residents.  Deed restrictions kept the area exclusive, and duplexes, apartments and hotels were prohibited.

The Miami Morningside Historic District is bounded by N.E. 60 Street on the north, Biscayne Bay and Morningside Park to the east, the rear lot line between N.E. 55 Street and N.E. 53Street on the south, and Biscayne Boulevard on the west.  It encompasses about 100 acres and includes 218 single family detached houses.

AUCTION COMING FOR 1790’s HOME WHERE SHERMAN COMMANDED CIVIL WAR TROOPS

         

An ultimate collector’s win is becoming available at auction on January 23^rd and January 24th.  For those desiring to own a piece of Civil War Americana, the Powe-Marshall house and its contents in Cheraw, South Carolina will be sold, due to financial hardship of the Marshall family, by Shortt Auction and Realty.  Mrs. Marshall is 4^th generation granddaughter of Thomas Powe, who, with his son, built the 4700 sq ft home between 1786 and 1790.  In the ensuing years, many important people resided in the home.  There are 11 rooms and 4 baths.  Grounds and gardens are elaborate and feature a creek.

The home was renovated in 2007 and 2008 adding modern amenities while keeping original architectural details.  The original pine wood plan floors, hewn ceiling beams and crown glass windows remain in the home, which sits on 4½ acres and includes an addition built on in about 1800.  Detailed wood mantles, moldings and wainscoting are featured.  Ceilings are 11’ high.

General Sherman used the house as his headquarters for several days in 1865.  Henry McIver of Cheraw, a signer of the Ordinance of Secession in 1860 and captain of the Confederate Calvary also lived in the home.  Lawmen and state justices have also occupied the property.  Cheraw became somewhat of a refuge and storehouse for valuables for those fleeing coastal cities and island towns during the Civil War.  Included in the auction will be a Babcock Square Piano C.1814-1816.  For more info call 800-599-7188 or go to www.shorttauctions.com.

DADE COUNTY’S OLDEST HOME BUILT IN 1891

On 40 acres of bay front land purchased in 1886 for $400 and a sailboat valued at $400, Ralph Munroe, a yacht designer, first built a boathouse with upstairs living quarters in 1887.  The main house was completed in 1981, 1-story, on wood pilings.  The central room of the bungalow was octagonal in shape.  

This period in time was called The Era of the Bay.  Location is in Coconut Grove, Barnacle State Park, on the shore of Biscayne Bay. Munroe was a seaman, civic activist, naturalist and photographer who cherished the natural world around him.  Walking in the park you pass through a tropical hardwood hammock.  Sit and rock in serenity and beauty on the spacious porch or under a tree.

In 1908 the structure was lifted and a new first floor inserted below.  The hurricanes of 1926 caused damage and Andrew in 1992 caused minimal damage.

For more information see  http://www.floridastateparks.org/TheBarnacle/.

TAKE A MOMENT TO WATCH THIS WONDERFUL TOUR

VICTORIAN HOMES IN ELMIRA, NEW YORK

Charming snowy days in upstate New York, now and in the past.

CARLA BRUNI SARKOZY’S ITALIAN CHILDHOOD HOME UP FOR SALE

 

Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, listed by Forbes Magazine as one of the world’s wealthiest men, is now fiipping the Castello di Castagneto Po in the hills northeast of Turin. The wife of French head-of-state Nicolas Sarkozy spent her early childhood living in the property but the family relocated to Paris in the early 1970’s as The Red Brigade Marxist guerrilla group stuck fear among Italy’s elite and sent death threats.  The family sold it to the Prince earlier this year.

The castle is 21,000 sq ft, has 40 rooms that  the family extensively restored and lavishly appointed in 1952.   There are 185 acres with vegetable gardens, orchids, flowering terraces, ancient greenhouses, a caretaker’s house and barn.  The castle was destroyed in 1705 in warfare, and rebuilt in neo-Gothic style in 1835.  The imposing façade brings up images of fairy tale princesses. The property was sold for about $30.96MM, purchased for about $27.5MM by the  Prince.  Bruni-Sarkozy’s industrialist father, Alberto Bruni Tedeschi, paid less than one million British pounds in 1952. 

MIZNER-DESIGNED LA BELLUCIA SALE MAKES 2009 RECORD

 

 

Listed for $27.5MM, this beautiful storied mansion in Palm Beach was the county’s largest sale on record in 2009.  The home was built in 1920 and named by owner, a physician and capitalist, Willey J. Kingsley, for his wife, Lucy, who founded the Garden Club of Palm Beach 

The mansion was owned later by Ailsa Mellon Bruce, termed in the 1950’s Forbes magazine as the richest woman in the United States. Then it sat on an isolated stretch of beach. The house is now subject to code enforcement actions by the Landmarks Preservation Commissioners. There are 9 bedrooms in the 12,000 sq ft estate on 3.8 acres and sits on a ridge with 234 feet of oceanfront land. The property is located at 1200 South Ocean Boulevard.

The new owner, now a real estate mogul, once waited tables at The Breakers to earn money for college.  The Mizner mansion was formerly owned by NFL Tampa Bay Buccaneers owner Malcolm Glazer.  Glazer owns another home on South Ocean Boulevard, and had planned to remodel this property, but instead decided to sell. 

There are 10,000 full-time residents and an additional 20,000 in town during peak season which is November through April.  The highest price ever paid for a private residence in America went to Ronald O. Perelman in 2009 for $70MM for his oceanfront mansion.

1820 TEN ROOM HOUSE FOR SALE ON NANTUCKET

Only a half mile to the beach, this charming Colonial home has 3 fireplaces, 5 bedrooms, 4 ½ baths.  Floors are wood.  There is a patio porch and garden and one car garage.  Acreage is .12.  Featured are the original wide pine flooring, and interior doors.  With a side yard and backyard, brick driveway and detached garage, this is a simply charming historic home on Main Street.  List price is $2,150,000.

HISTORICAL ST. PETERSBURG FL MANSION FOR SALE FOR $18MM

This 1920’s style mansion is on Snell Isle with a fabulous panoramic view of Tampa Bay.  Currently appraised by Pinellas County Appraiser’s office for $4.62MM, purchase price in 2006 was $5.1MM.  New upgrades have increased the price, including central air and heating in 10,000+ sq ft of living space (there was none before), replacement of a 600’ seawall, addition of a 75’ long heated pool, and installation of docks to accommodate additional yachts. 

The structure was returned to it’s original condition by master craftsmen.  They found fireplaces, beams, archways and ceiling paintings previously concealed from view by drywall and paint.  New fixtures and amenities were installed, some coming from castles in Europe.  Seawall balustrades were duplicated on the balconies.   

If you are looking in this price range, this property is a “must-see”!

GUBER SELLS TARA PLANTATION IN HAWAII

Tara Plantation is about 174 acres and features a 13,154 sq ft plantation-style main house with six bedrooms and eight-and-a-half bathrooms.  Included on the property are two 4,000 sq ft guesthouses, his-and-hers living rooms, horse stables, a pool, a beach cabana, caretaker’s house and yoga studio.  A spring-fed pool and sand beach are on the property that is situated on a bay where the sandy beach is both safe from large swells and affords privacy.  Guber built the residences in 1999 and 2000.

In 1998 Guber’s Mandalay Properties Hawaii bought the oceanfront property for $7.3MM, listed it more than four years ago for $46.5MM and last December cut the price to $39.5MM.  The house was sold for $28MM in Hawaii’s biggest property transaction for 2009.