Building Better Communitites

Historic Preservation Underway

Work is now underway to preserve the Historic Hampton House, a once popular gathering place for black musicians and celebrities.  Thanks to a $4.7 million allocation from the Building Better Communities General Obligation Bond (GOB) Program the 1950s era motel will be restored to serve as community center in the Browsnville area.

At its height of popularity, the Hampton House hosted well-known entertainers, including Sammy Davis Jr and Count Basie, along with national figures, most notably Rev. Martin Luther King Jr and a young boxer named Cassius Clay who became world champ, Muhammad Ali.

"The Hampton House is part of the heritage of this community," said Miami-Dade Commissioner Audrey M. Edmonson, who remembers the motel as a young girl and has recently led the effort to get the project underway.  "For many years, it served as a focal point for entertainers and others in the Black community and should be preserved."

The Historic Hampton House Trust is overseeing renovations which include stabilizing the deteriorating building that has been largely neglected since it closed in 1976 when integration gave Blacks more options for entertainment venues and places to stay when visiting South Florida.

"The Hampton House will have a new lease on life as a cultural and educational destination in our city," says Dr. Enid Pinkney, CEO of the trust, who has led the effort for nearly a decade to save the structure, located at the corner of Northwest 42nd and 27th Avenue.  Dr. Pinkney expects that the renovated building will help re-vitalize the Brownsville area and neighborhoods nearby while providing young people a glimpse of what life was like in the 1950s and 1960s for South Florida's African-American residents.

Other GOB-funded historic preservation projects include:

• The Farm Life School built in 1916 to serve rural families in South Miami-Dade
• The historic entrance to Pinecrest Gardens
• The Lyric Theater in Overtown
• First Miami High, the first high school in South Florida
• The Curtiss Mansion, the 1925 Miami Springs  home of aviation pioneer Glenn Curtiss