Old Miami

Miami is not much more than 130 years old, and much of what made it famous is already gone: Royal Palm Hotel, the city's first big resort hotel, the Miami Orange Bowl, the Miami Arena and, in 2026, the Mandarin Oriental, Miami. Here are 23 lost places and what stands there now, and 20 landmarks from old Miami still standing, most of which you can visit.

Coral: gone. Teal: still standing. A pin marks where the place stood; a few are approximate, and their pages say so.

Gone

• Royal Palm Hotel1897 to 1930The Kimpton Epic hotel and the Met Square towers…
• McAllister Hotel1919 to 198850 Biscayne, a condominium tower built in 2007
• Flamingo Hotel1921 to the 1950sThe Flamingo South Beach apartments (built as Morton Towers)
• Nautilus Hotel1924 to 1968Mount Sinai Medical Center
• Roney Plaza Hotel1926 to 1968The Roney Palace condominiums, run with the 1 Hotel South Beach
• Everglades Hotel1926 to 2005The Vizcayne towers (first named Everglades on the Bay) on Biscayne Boulevard
• Coconut Grove Playhouse1927 to 2006; the auditorium came down in 2026The 1927 front building is being restore…
• Miami Beach Kennel Club (the dog track)Opened 1926 or 1928 (sources differ), closed and demolished 1980The Portofino Tower (1997) and South Pointe Park
• Tropical Park Race Track1931 to 1972Tropical Park, a Miami-Dade County park since 1979; the old stables are part of its equestrian centre
• Parrot Jungle (original site)1936 to 2002Pinecrest Gardens, a village park since …
• Miami Orange Bowl1937 to 2008loanDepot park, the Miami Marlins' ballp…
• Miami Stadium (Bobby Maduro Miami Stadium)1949 to 2001The Miami Stadium Apartments, with a state historical marker since 2017
• Bayfront Park bandshell (R.C. Gardner Bandshell)1950 to 1981Bayfront Park as redesigned by Isamu Noguchi from 1980, with the FPL Solar Amphitheater as its music venue
• Coconut Grove Convention Center (Dinner Key Auditorium)1950 to 2005, demolished 2013Regatta Park on Dinner Key
• Miami Seaquarium1955 to 2025Closed; the county site on Virginia Key is leased to Terra Group…
• Jordan Marsh (Biscayne Boulevard)1956 to 1992; the building still standsThe building still stands inside the Omni complex at NE 15th Street…
• Americana Hotel (later Sheraton Bal Harbour)1956 to 2007The St. Regis Bal Harbour Resort
• Deauville Beach Resort1957 to 2017, demolished 2022An empty oceanfront lot at 6701 Collins Avenue; voters turned down a rezoning for two towers in November 2022
• Dupont Plaza Hotel1957 to 2005The Kimpton Epic hotel and Epic Residences
• Miami Herald building (One Herald Plaza)1963 to 2013, demolished 2014A vacant bayfront lot owned by Genting's…
• Miami Arena1988 to 2008A parking lot in Overtown, across from the Historic Overtown/Lyric Theatre Metrorail station
• Mandarin Oriental, Miami2000 to 2025, demolished 2026A construction site for two new Mandarin Oriental towers (hotel and residences), due in 2030
• Burdines flagship storeThe flagship from the 1910s to 2018; the building still standsA Ross store, which reopened the building in 2020

Still standing

• Ancient Spanish MonasteryBuilt in Spain 1133 to 1141, rebuilt here from 1952An Episcopal church and visitor attraction in North Miami Beach
• Cape Florida LightSince 1825A lighthouse in Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park
• The BarnacleSince 1891The Barnacle Historic State Park
• Coral Gables Merrick HouseSince 1910A city-run house museum
• Vizcaya Museum and GardensSince 1916A county-owned museum and gardens
• Hialeah ParkSince 1922A casino; horse racing ended in 2016
• Venetian PoolSince 1924A public swimming pool run by the City of Coral Gables
• Freedom TowerSince 1925Miami Dade College's contemporary art museum and arts offices
• The Biltmore HotelSince 1926A hotel again since 1987
• Olympia Theater (Gusman Center)Since 1926A performing arts venue owned by the City of Miami
• Tower TheaterSince 1926Miami Dade College's cinema, programmed by the Miami Film Festival
• Opa-locka City HallSince 1926The restored Moorish Revival former city hall; city offices moved out in 2009
• The Wolfsonian–FIUSince 1926A design museum run by Florida International University
• StiltsvilleSince 1933Seven stilt houses inside Biscayne National Park
• Miami City Hall (Pan Am Dinner Key terminal)Since 1934Miami City Hall since 1954
• Fontainebleau Miami BeachSince 1954Still a hotel, with two newer towers added in the 2000s
• Miami Marine StadiumSince 1963Abandoned and fenced since 1992; voters approved an operator deal for its restoration in August 2026…
• Art Deco District (Miami Beach Architectural District)A historic district since 1979960 historic buildings in South Beach, many of them hotels
• Miami CircleFound in 1998A grassy park on Brickell Point; the circle itself is buried for protection
• MiMo / Biscayne Boulevard Historic DistrictA historic district since 20061950s motels, many restored and reused, along Biscayne Boulevard

From Wikipedia (CC BY-SA), the Miami Design Preservation League, Florida Memory, the Miami Herald and the places' own sites: each page lists its sources. Where sources disagree on a date, the page says so. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each page. Last checked 9 November 2026.