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Cape Florida Lighthouse
At the park's southernmost tip, the 1845 Cape Florida Lighthouse, the oldest structure in Florida, replaced one that was severely damaged in 1836 by attacking Seminole Indians. You can tour at and (free); tours are limited to about 12 people, so put your name on a sign-up list at least 30 minutes beforehand.
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Casa Casuarina
Casa Casuarina is a bit macabre. Not in and of itself: on its own, the Casa is a gorgeous if gaudy mansion smack on South Beach. But people mainly come here to see where fashion designer Gianni Versace was gunned down (before shopping at, no kidding, a now-closed nearby Versace outlet).
Here's the history: Back in the 1930s the Casa was dubbed the Amsterdam Palace, modeled after the Governor's House in Santo Domingo, where Christopher Columbus' son kicked it.
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Casa Elián
The surreal house of Elián Gonzales, subject of one of the most bitter international custody battles of the 1990s, is a shrine, a time capsule and an exercise in the creation of public iconography. Since 2001, the house has become a temple to the symbology of the most anti-Castro Cuban exile politics. The little property is scattered with homages to Jesus, American flags and images of Elian himself, who is all but explicitly labeled a little saint of his people.
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Coral Gables City Hall
This muscular yet elegant building has been housing tedious city commission meetings since 1928. Check out Denman Fink's Four Seasons ceiling painting in the tower, as well as his framed, untitled painting of the underwater world on the 2nd-floor landing. A farmers market is held on the grounds from to Saturday, January to March.
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Cuban Memorial Boulevard
The two blocks of SW 13th Ave south of Calle Ocho contain a series of monuments to Cuban patriots and freedom fighters, which here includes the dead of the Cuban Independence struggle and anti-Castro fighters.
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Holocaust Memorial
Holocaust memorials tend to be somber, but this one, dedicated to the six million Jews killed during the shoah , is particularly grim, and doesn't seem to offer any sort of hopeful end note; the theme is one of relentless sadness, betrayal and loss. The memorial was created in 1984 through the efforts of Miami Beach Holocaust survivors and sculptor Kenneth Treister.
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Merrick House
It's fun to imagine this simple homestead, with its little hints of Med-style, as the core of what would eventually become the gaudy Gables. When George Merrick's father purchased this plot, site unseen, for around US$1100 , it was all dirt, rock and guavas. The property is now used for meetings and receptions, and you can tour both the house and its pretty organic garden.
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Miami City Cemetery
Fast fact: the first person buried in Miami was black. Depressing addendum: the first recorded burial in Miami was of a white guy. The long narrative of this troubled, diverse city is in its bones, and 'dem bones are concentrated in this eerie, quiet graveyard.
The dichotomy of history and modernity gets a nice visual representation in the form of looming condos shadowing the last abode of the Magic City's late, great ones.
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Stiltsville
Out in the middle of Biscayne Bay, seven houses hover on pilings over the shallow waters, the remnants of the historic community of Stiltsville .
It started in the early 1930s, when a fisherman named 'Crawfish' Eddie Walker built an off-shore shack where he could entertain his fishing buddies. At its peak there were 27 offshore structures, but hurricanes have claimed many of the buildings. Slated to be torn down in 1999, the buildings were saved by a petition with 75,000 signatures.
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Viernes Culturales
One of the best times to experience Little Havana is the last Friday of the month during Viernes Culturales, or 'Cultural Fridays', a street fair showcasing Latino artists and musicians.
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