Brief History of Miami

Prior to the 1870's Miami was mostly unsettled farm land. The Lum brothers purchased 160-acres of land in the area with the intention of growing coconuts, and one of their daughters decided to name their land "South Beach" in recognition of the water surrounding the land. The first official structure was a farmhouse built by the Lum brothers in 1886. The coconut business was not as successful as they had hoped, so the Lum brothers moved and left their land to John Collins. In 1912 Collins sold 400-acres to the Lummus brothers. The Lummus brothers had ideas to develop the island with single-family homes and build a bridge to connect the island to the mainland. In 1913 they began to build their bridge until they ran out of money, but were saced by Carl Fisher who funded the completion of the bridge that is now known as the Venetian Causeway.