Across from Liberty Square in Liberty City, a historic corridor once flourished. During segregation, when discriminatory housing policies restricted where Black families could live, Miami’s wealthy Black entrepreneurs and civic leaders built grand homes along Northwest 67th Street. Built between 1947 and 1953, the area became known as Millionaire’s Row.
Today, University of Miami graduate architecture students are helping revive this overlooked history, one custom-designed marker at a time.
The first marker was installed outside the historic 1947 Mediterranean-style Lindsey residence. For Jacqui Colyer, who bought the Lindsey House with her sister in 2019 after having admired it since childhood, the project addresses an urgent crisis: historic Black spaces are vanishing far faster than public institutions recognize them.
“Not enough of our spaces or Black spaces of historical significance are really recognized, even given some type of honor and tribute,” Colyer said. “Gentrification is slowly taking away this community, and it will be gone.”
For students Adia-Simone Rhoden and Hanah Badran, the project offered an education extending well beyond architectural drawings.
“Just working on the Millionaire’s Row project in itself has been like a great opportunity — being able to go out into the community, learn about history that I didn’t even know about because we don’t learn all of these things in school,” Rhoden said. “This environment allows us to learn things as well as teach other people about history that needs to be known.”
The students completed the work through UM’s Community Housing and Identity Lab (CHIL). Founded in 2019 by Associate Professor Germane Barnes — who also directs the award-winning research and design practice Studio Barnes — CHIL provides pro bono design assistance to communities that cannot afford conventional architectural services.
“The ultimate goal is creating a hub for students who want to do community-oriented design and have a practice that is more rooted in the social politics of architecture and its impact on the built environment,” Barnes said. “They’re able to get real-world experience while they’re here within the school.”
CHIL has previously partnered with the Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami on a children’s play structure modeled after historic shotgun houses, as well as a community garden in Delray Beach’s historically Black neighborhood, The Set.
Designing from history
The collaboration began in summer 2025 after Sheila Wamble, executive director of Arts for Learning, introduced Barnes to Colyer. Colyer wanted a recognizable memorial for the corridor but lacked the funding for a commercial architect. Barnes agreed to take on the project with his students.
“I care a lot about Liberty City, even though I’m not from Miami,” said Barnes, a Chicago native. “I’ve done so much work here; I feel like a part of that community.”
Rhoden, a master’s student from Queens, New York, joined the project immediately, followed by Badran, an international master’s student from Cairo, Egypt. The students met with Colyer, toured the neighborhood and reviewed historical books, photographs and archival materials.
“During that process, the goal was to kind of understand the history because if we didn’t really understand it, then how could we design something for the neighborhood?” Rhoden said.
During segregation, middle- and upper-middle-class Black business leaders built luxurious mansions along Northwest 67th Street between Northwest 12th and 14th Avenues. The corridor included the Lindsey, Banister, and Sarah Thompson residences, among others, and several prominent churches like the Liberty City Church of Christ.
The Lindsey residence was built for Ellis “Peaches” Lindsey and his wife Anne. Ellis accumulated wealth through real estate, businesses and bolita, an underground lottery popular in Black and Cuban communities before Florida’s state lottery. He was shot outside the house in 1948.
The students expanded their research beyond the house, examining Overtown, Brownsville, the segregation wall along Northwest 12th Avenue, and the displacement caused by discriminatory housing policies and I-95 construction. For Badran and Rhoden, that history was completely new.
“I’ve learned how to dive deep into research and understand the history of the people and the community before you start dropping ideas and designs,” Rhoden said.
That methodology reflects Barnes’ approach to design.
“The way we teach architecture at the University of Miami is it’s people first, building second,” Barnes said. “You can’t remove the anthropological implications of architectural interventions because, eventually, someone has to live in those spaces and a city has to change because of those spaces.”
He added: “Whenever they’re designing something in a place, it needs to reflect that place, and those places have identities.”
Every CHIL proposal undergoes a public feedback loop with the client.
“It’s a reciprocal process,” Barnes said. “That methodology makes better architects because you recognize you’re in service of a larger community than yourself.”
A marker inspired by music
The first marker focuses on the Lindsey residence, a house rich in cultural history. According to Colyer, Ellis helped fund a local Black credit union to assist residents with home financing, while Anne was a renowned socialite whose gatherings drew iconic figures. Cab Calloway, Blanche Calloway and Nat King Cole performed at the home, while Josephine Baker and boxer Joe Louis were frequent guests.
“Music was part of everything that went from Liberty City,” Colyer said. “I mean, music, music, music.”
Badran initially envisioned a standard historical sign.
“I thought, OK, a marker that says Millionaire’s Row, make it pretty. But no, you really learn to look into the history of the project, the people you’re helping, and then that guides your design.”
The marker’s form resembles the sound wave of Josephine Baker’s song “Paris, Paris.” A friend of Anne, Baker often stayed at the Lindsey residence and the Hampton House during segregation in Miami. She also used her international fame and status to challenge discrimination by refusing to perform at venues that would not integrate.
The marker’s bright orange color, inspired by the orange and clay-colored doors in Liberty Square, was intensified to attract pedestrians.
“We transformed this history and the story into a beautiful marker,” Badran said.
Bringing the design to life required structural budgeting, full-scale modeling, and coordination with fabricators. After an early iteration stalled, Colyer allowed the team the space to refine their work.
“What she [Colyer] provided the most is a platform to experiment, but also a platform to fail,” Barnes said. “Unfortunately, many times young people and young people of color don’t always get the chance to fail — they have to be perfect. She provided the students with grace to find their footing and their voice.”
The final shop drawings were completed in February, followed by fabrication through May. Barnes required the students to execute the installation themselves. Working with concrete, Rhoden and Badran installed the structure in a single day.
Preserving history
For Colyer, the project's urgency stems from how quickly traditional preservation routes move compared to modern development. Government approvals for official historical markers can take years, while neighborhood landscapes change overnight.
“The Black community was so resilient that it actually figured out a way to claim a space and make it special,” Colyer said. “I know that we have to move quickly because our neighborhoods are changing so quickly in front of us.”
Seeing the first marker installed moved Colyer.
“When you read the lettering on the marker, it’s absolutely beautiful,” she said. “The next generation needs to know that there was a resilient, strong and powerful community of people that lived here.”
The experience left a lasting imprint on the students. Rhoden has since led community walking tours sharing the history of the Lindsey House, while Badran guided her visiting parents through Liberty City to explain its heritage.
While custom markers cannot legally shield properties from demolition, Rhoden believes making history visible is an essential first step.
“Over time, it will let the city and people in the area understand how important this history is to preserve,” she said.
Future markers along the corridor will depend on property owner participation. Two local churches have already expressed interest, and Colyer is partnering with Roots Bookstore and Market to develop historical tours of the corridor.
For Barnes, the project provides validation without overstepping.
“We're not really here trying to force someone to view the neighborhood in the way that we view it, and I think that comes to the nuance of why the marker is so important because for those that do hold it in such reverence, it's credibility that this was an amazing place and it still is an amazing place,” he said.
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This story was produced by The Miami Times, one of the oldest Black-owned newspapers in the country, as part of a content sharing partnership with the WLRN newsroom. Read more at miamitimesonline.com.
