Miami Beach Hotel That Hosted the Beatles Is Demolished
Miami Beach today looks like a wreck from the past as the city looks at its past. The once glorious and historic streets are now filled with empty buildings and vacant lots.
After decades of a tourism-based economy, the city is slowly but surely losing its beauty and flavor.
But, the City of Miami’s Beach Commission is still determined to preserve Miami Beach’s architectural legacy and culture as it moves to turn the city into a tourist-friendly resort destination.
The Beach Commission approved the demolition of the Miami Beach Hotel, which was built as a luxury hotel by William Waldorf Astor in 1898, according to the Miami Herald.
Miami Beach Commission Chairman Thomas Suarez said his fellow Beach commissioners asked him to consider the hotel demolition because it had long fallen into disrepair.
“For decades it’s been vacant,” Suarez said. “It’s been neglected by the city and its citizens.”
The hotel was built on a historic site near Biscayne Bay.
Miami Beach has been struggling with how to preserve its legacy and culture and turn the city into a tourist-friendly resort destination, according to the Miami Herald.
Now the Miami Beach Hotel is being demolished not only because of the crumbling structure, but because of the loss of the hotel’s cultural value, Suarez said.
The hotel, which was built between 1898 and 1899, was built on a historic site near Biscayne Bay, which was once a bustling seaport. The hotel was originally meant as a place where wealthy people could stay in South Florida during the summer.
In the late 1800s, William Waldorf Astor bought the 400-acre site in Miami Beach so he could build his Grand Hotel. He bought the land in partnership with Charles E. Biddle, a New York City investment adviser, according to Miami Beach Historical Society.
Astor was born in 1839 in the English city of Liverpool. Astor was a merchant who was one of the wealthiest men of his time