Here Comes the Neighborhood
“Victorian-era architecture is not a style immediately associated with Los Angeles, so Angelino Heights is a rare neighborhood.” CORAL GABLES, FLORIDA Today Coral Gables is beloved for its Mediterranean Revival architecture and tree-lined avenues, but when the family of founder George Merrick arrived in 1899, “This was a blank canvas,” says Brett Gillis of the Historic Preservation Association of Coral Gables. “There was no electricity and no running water. This was America’s last frontier.” Merrick was a fan of the City Beautiful movement, which aimed to create idyllic urban environments, so when he set out to develop Coral Gables in the 1920s, he envisioned a community of homes made from local marine limestone (aka “coral”) with matching gabled roofs. Though the influx of new residents soon outpaced this time-consuming construction method, a number of early stone homes still exist. The best way to see them is to take a jaunt down Coral Way through the heart of the city. Don’t miss the Historic Merrick House Museum—the plantation home owned by Merrick’s family. Also noteworthy are the grand Biltmore Hotel, featuring a bell tower modeled on Spain’s Cathedral of Seville, and the Alhambra Water Tower, designed to resemble a Moorish lighthouse. It’s the first city landmark to be saved by preservation efforts. Although Coral Gables features mostly Mediterranean-inspired architecture, which the locals refer to as Old Spanish, there are also seven thematic villages introduced in 1925 and completed a few years later. These include a Pioneer Village, a French Normandy Village, an Italian Village, and a Chinese Village that is among the best examples of traditional Chinese architecture on the East Coast.
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The historic Biltmore is a Coral Gables icon.
—Laura Massino Smith, architectural historian and director, Architecture Tours L.A.
