Once There Was A Place…
Wednesday, 09/09/2015 – 07:00 pm – 09:00 pm
Miami Center for Architecture & Design (MCAD)
100 NE 1st Avenue,
Miami, Florida 33132
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Cost: Free

If you’ve ever wondered what Biscayne Boulevard looked like when it was brand new – or what the Miami Beach Kennel Club looked like before it was South Pointe Park, or what Lincoln Road looked like when cars drove on it, Sylvia Gurinsky has a show for you.

Gurinsky, a history consultant, tour guide and freelance writer, has dug through the files at the Lynn and Louis Wolfson II Florida Moving Image Archives at Miami Dade College to find film and video clips that recapture vanished South Florida places and spaces.

The result: “Once There Was A Place…,” an informal tour through South Florida’s past presented by Gurinsky. The screening is open to the public and free of charge. Light refreshments will follow.

Among the sights recovered by Gurinsky’s research are the Brickell Mansion, home of William and Mary Brickell, captured in never-before-seen footage photographed shortly before the building was demolished.

Three Miami hotels that defined the Magic City’s boomtown skyline, the Columbus, Everglades and McAllister Hotels, are featured, as are the Diplomat Hotel, a MiMo classic designed by Norman Giller, and Morris Lapidus’ Fontainebleau, shown under construction on the beachfront site of Harvey Firestone’s mansion.

Sport facilities such as Miami’s beloved Orange Bowl and the Miami Beach Kennel Club, neighborhoods from Overtown to Sunny Isles and other sites are also covered in “Once There Was A Place…”