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Today Coral Gables is the Latin American headquarters for hundreds of multinational firms and internationally known for its beautiful Mediterranean Revival architecture. Dating from the early 1920s, the community was carefully planned by George Merrick and drew heavily on inspiration from Spain, with many streets in the original sections – like Castile, Alhambra Circle, and Granada – graced with Spanish names. Dubbed the “Miami Riviera” Coral Gables featured lush tropical landscaping, plazas, parks, and grand entrances. Plans included areas for shopping, manufacturing, and business as well as for churches, clubs, medical care, hotels, and leisure pursuits such as golf, horseback riding, and swimming. The architectural style was designated as “Spanish, Venetian, Moorish, Italian or other similarly harmonious types . . .”

Typical entry to courtyard in the Chinese Village, Coral Gables, Florida.

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The Chinese Compound is the most unusual and distinctive of the seven completed villages. Vivid red, yellow, blue, and green features make this 1926 village a standout in the neighborhood. The properties are unique with distinctive Chinese-inspired moon-doorways, lattice features, faux bamboo inserts, and up-curving roof lines. Designed by Yale-graduate Henry Killam Murphy, a noted scholar of Oriental architecture, the complex features a common wall connecting the homes creating a sense of communal living.

Chinese Village

George Merrick meticulously planned Coral Gables in the early 1920s with an architectural style designated as Spanish, Venetian, Moorish, and Italian. Much less known are the thematic villages Merrick commissioned in 1925. Fourteen styles were planned for 1,000+ homes but a devastating hurricane and national financial crisis ended building in 1927 with only 80 completed in half the styles. Planned but never built Villages were African Bazaar, Japanese, Mexican Hacienda, Neopolitan Baroque, Persian Canal, Tangier, and Venetian Town/Canal.  Fortunately, today we can still see homes in the Chinese Compound, Dutch South African, Florida Pioneer (Colonial), French City, French Country, French Normandy, and Italian Country/Venetian Villages.

A Dutch East India Compound was also planned (but never built). Four of the homes are part of a compound design, which tied together individual properties with a surrounding wall. The fifth home stands alone. Architectural elements include spiral chimneys, high domed arches, scrollwork, and steeply pitched roofs. Architect Wyeth also designed plans for Persian and Persian Canal Villages that were never built. Wyeth was well-known for his work with Addison Mizner in the development of Palm Beach and Boca Raton.Other planned but never built Villages were African Bazaar, Japanese, Mexican Hacienda, Neopolitan Baroque, Tangier, and Venetian Town/Canal. Fortunately, today we can still see homes in the Chinese Compound, Dutch South African, Florida Pioneer (Colonial), French City, French Country, French Normandy, and Italian Country/Venetian Villages.

Dutch South African homes date from 1925 and feature distinctive gabled and dormered roofs. Well-known Palm Beach Architect Marion Sims Wyeth designed the homes to resemble the farmhouses built by Dutch colonists (known as Boers) who settled in South Africa in the 1600s. The homes are located off Le Jeune Road and Maya Street.

Dutch South African Village

The large homes with big yards on this block were inspired by country farmhouse estates and French chateaux. Residences have 9.5' ceilings and four bedrooms plus two maids' rooms with full baths. Brick, carved wood, wrought-iron balconies, and towers are typical design features. Architect Frank Forster designed the farmhouse-style homes and Edgar Albright and Philip L Goodwin the more rustic styles. Each property is unique in design.

A provincial, rural flair with half-timbering, towers, and steeply pitched cross-gabled roofs can be seen in the charming 18th century-inspired French Country Village. In 1925 and 1926 two architects designed the homes along the 500 block of Hardee Road. Many were still under construction when the devastating 1926 hurricane hit Miami, but because plans were complete could eventually be finished as intended.

French Country Village

Mott B. Schmidt designed the townhomes on the north side of the street with a notably more formal appearance inspired by French Assembly members' Versailles residences. Walls of varying heights and hedges surround the homes and glimpses through gates and openings offer enticing sights of gardens, patios, and entrances. Although walls are contiguous each home is detached and is a single-family residence.The homes on each end of the north side block are mirror images of one another, repeating a pattern culminating in the center residence.Larger, more rustic homes on the south side of Hardee Road were designed by architect Philip Goodwin and are individually situated on landscaped lots.

French City homes were inspired by 17th and 18th-century designs. Although both sides of the 1000 block of Hardee Road are lined with beautiful classical and formal homes, those on the south side are more rustic in design. Each side of the street was designed by a different architect and built in 1926.

French City Village

Just prior to WW2, the French Normandy Village housed five fraternities from the University of Miami and during the war was a home-away-from-home for soldiers. Bult in 1926 and 1927 the Village was designed by architects John and Coulton Skinner. Of the original 71 units planned only 11 were ever constructed.

Resembling a 15th century French Village right out of a storybook, homes typically have half-timbered elements, many with projecting second stories, dormers, and shingled gabled roofs. The closest Village to downtown Coral Gables, just off busy Le Jeune Rd, thousands of daily drivers probably don’t realize what’s just around the corner in this small, cozy enclave that circles on and off Le Jeune.

French Normandy Village

The area is designated the Italian Village Historic District. These Italian Country and Venetian-style homes were built in 1926. Although the most spread out of the Villages, the corner of Altara and Monserrate is a good example of the area. Homes were built at a zero-lot-line and follow the curve of the street. A common feature is a courtyard off the living areas. Architects were A.L. Klingbeil, John and Coulton Skinner, R.L. Ware, and Robert Law Weed.A Miami Herald report from 1927 mentions the completion of a Venetian Waterway house that may also be (or have been) near this area.

Seventeen homes make up what is known as the Italian (Venetian) Village, inspired by rural farmhouses. This is a larger area and the homes are spread over several blocks. Even with the most complete homes and a bigger area, this is the least known of the Villages.  The area includes homes on Altara Avenue, Palmarito and Monserrate Streets, San Antonio, San Esteban, and San Lorenzo Avenues.

Italian Village

As you drive down the street you will see even the more modern homes have captured many of the elegant Colonial features, such as two-story porticos, verandas, slate roofs, and picket fences. The homes back up to the private Riviera Golf Course, which in the 1920s was a part of the Biltmore Golf Course. According to Coral Gables, Miami Riviera, the architects may have selected the name Florida Pioneer Village to "distinguish it from other Southern Colonial models." The project was part of the work completed by the American Building Corp. with builder Myers Y. Cooper Company. Cooper was a former governor of Ohio.The American Building Corp copied the designs and used them for homes built in Cincinnati throughout the '30s, '40s, and '50s.

The name Florida Pioneer Village is a bit confusing. This street transports visitors to the era of the antebellum south with Colonial two-story homes sporting balconies, columns, bulls-eye windows, and spacious, elegant properties. Designed in 1925 by architects John Pierson and John and Coulton Skinner, and inspired by the Greek Revival period, the large Georgian-style homes feature high ceilings and separate quarters for both guests and staff. In 2007, the homes were included in the Santa Maria Street Historic District.

The Seven Villages of Coral Gables

Chinese Village

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