Miami Places Guide: Historic Districts, Bayfront and Landmarks

The City of Miami says it has 10 local historic districts and over 100 individual historic resources and sites in the Miami Register of Historic Places (City of Miami Historic Preservation).

Five of the nine districts the city describes lie along Biscayne Boulevard, and two, Downtown Miami and Lummus Park, are in downtown Miami. The table below lists the nine districts the city describes on its historic districts page, with the area and designation year it gives (City of Miami Historic Districts).

The count does not line up. The Miami historic districts page describes nine districts, while the preservation office routes questions about Spring Garden, South River Drive and Buena Vista East historic districts, and Coconut Grove West, to its staff (City of Miami Historic Preservation). The full list of individual Miami historic sites lives only on an archived city website, and the preservation office recommends speaking to a preservation staff member before undertaking a project on a historic property. Last verified: October 15, 2026, on the City of Miami website.

Morningside, designated in 1984, has the earliest designation date of the nine City of Miami historic districts the city describes; it is a Land Boom era suburb between Biscayne Boulevard and Biscayne Bay from NE 55th to NE 60th Street (City of Miami Historic Districts).

James H. Nunnally, president of the Bay Shore Investment Company, planned Morningside in 1924 as an exclusive neighborhood overlooking Biscayne Bay. The city calls it the best surviving example of a Land Boom era suburb in Miami, with buildings designed by more than 40 local architects and landscape design featuring many mature tropical trees and plants, and Morningside was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1992 (City of Miami Historic Districts).

Buena Vista followed in 1988. It began as a small village in the 1890s and grew as the Biltmore and Shadowlawn subdivisions during the 1920s Land Boom, with Mediterranean Revival, Mission, Craftsman and Art Deco houses. Palm Grove, designated in 2009, is the largest and most eclectic Miami historic district, with middle class homes and apartment buildings from the 1920s through the late 1950s, ranging from modest Miami style bungalows to multi-family post war residences. Riverview, designated the same year, preserves Mediterranean, Mission, bungalow, Art Deco and Mid-Century Modern buildings from 1920 to 1950 adapted to the Florida climate for the moderate income population that settled in the region. Bayside, designated in 1991, joins four subdivisions developed over more than 40 years, and its houses mix Mediterranean Revival, Art Deco and Streamline Moderne. Beverly Terrace, at 3224 and 3300 Biscayne Boulevard, protects Mediterranean Revival apartment buildings from 1925 designed by Hampton and Ehmann; one of the planned four buildings was demolished and the fourth was never built (City of Miami Historic Districts).

The MiMo / Biscayne Boulevard Historic District covers Biscayne Boulevard from NE 50th to NE 77th Street and was designated on June 6, 2006; its historic character is defined by its Miami Modern (MiMo) motels (City of Miami Historic Districts).

Construction of Biscayne Boulevard began in 1925, the peak of the Miami real estate boom. After World War II the boulevard became the place for a new kind of lodging built for 1950s car culture, the motel, and those futuristic Miami Modern motels now define the district, whose period of significance runs from 1923 to 1967 (City of Miami Historic Districts).

Downtown, the Lummus Park Historic District holds one of the last residential neighborhoods in downtown Miami. The city created Lummus Park as public green space in 1909, most buildings there went up before 1926, and the Scottish Rite Temple by Kiehnel and Elliot stands in the district. The Downtown Miami Historic District, designated the same year, covers the old commercial heart of the city, with buildings from 1903 to 1955 in Masonry Vernacular, Commercial, Mediterranean Revival, Art Moderne and Neoclassical Revival styles (City of Miami Historic Districts). The City of Miami preservation office handles Standard and Special Certificates of Appropriateness for historic properties, and decisions of the Historic and Environmental Preservation Board can be appealed (City of Miami Historic Preservation).

The Miami waterfront places in this hub are two downtown parks run by the Bayfront Park Management Trust, Dinner Key with Miami City Hall, and Historic Virginia Key Beach Park (Bayfront Park Management Trust).

Downtown, Bayfront Park, at 301 Biscayne Blvd, is a 32-acre waterfront park open daily 7:00 AM to 11:00 PM, and Maurice A. Ferre Park, 1075 Biscayne Blvd, is a 30-acre waterfront park open daily 7:00 AM to 10:00 PM, connecting green spaces, public art, cultural institutions and scenic walks along Biscayne Bay (Bayfront Park Management Trust).

Dinner Key in Coconut Grove served as the base of Pan American Airways flying boats, the Clippers, and the original Pan Am terminal building next to Dinner Key Marina now serves as Miami City Hall (City of Miami, Dinner Key). Historic Virginia Key Beach Park, listed in the City of Miami park directory as a waterfront park, is at 4000 Virginia Beach Drive, phone 305-960-4600 (City of Miami park directory). The Miami recreation hub covers the beaches, marinas and boat ramps in detail.

The Freedom Tower at 600 Biscayne Blvd. is a National Historic Landmark because it housed the Cuban Assistance Center that helped Cubans arriving in Miami during the Cold War (National Park Service).

The building opened on July 26, 1925 as a newspaper headquarters and printing plant, rises 17 stories and holds over 82,000 square feet (National Park Service). It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on September 10, 1979 and designated a National Historic Landmark on October 6, 2008. Miami Dade College manages it through its Museum of Art and Design. The National Park Service calls the tower the Ellis Island of the South, because from 1962 through 1974 it served as the Cuban Assistance Center, where the U.S. government helped Cubans seeking political asylum with housing, finances and education. The Miami Freedom Tower guide in the landmarks section covers visiting the tower.

PortMiami, a Miami-Dade County seaport, calls itself the Cruise Capital of the World and reported a record 8,564,225 cruise passengers in its latest fiscal year, as shown on its homepage on October 15, 2026 (PortMiami).

That count was up from 8,233,056 the previous fiscal year, a 4.02 percent increase. The same Miami-Dade County page reports 1,115,058 cargo TEUs, $61 billion a year in economic impact and 340,078 jobs (PortMiami). The same page does not agree with itself: its cargo section says the port handled more than 1,120,913 TEUs in the last fiscal year, and its business section cites more than 340,000 jobs and $42 billion a year. PortMiami's pages sit on the Miami-Dade County website, not the City of Miami's.

PortMiami describes itself as Big Ship Ready after $1 billion in infrastructure upgrades, including the Deep Dredge Project and the Port Tunnel (PortMiami). The same page describes a Miami-Dade County Shore Power Program run with the port's cruise partners, and a directory of fully permitted ground transportation companies offering charter and shuttle service for individuals and groups heading to PortMiami.

This Miami places hub has no deeper guides of its own yet; the Miami guides that cover individual places sit in the landmarks and real estate sections.

The historic districts on this hub are all City of Miami designations listed in the Miami Register of Historic Places.