Last week, Miami Dade College secured the old downtown Miami federal courthouse. The building has been abandoned since 2008, but now the college plans to renovate and convert it for academic use. I spoke with historian and Miami Dade Professor Paul George about what went on at the courthouse in its heyday.
What happened at the courthouse?
A U.S. Senate Select Committee on crime that investigated organized crime around the country, including Miami, held its televised hearings in the summer of 1950 in that central courtroom. It went out all over the country and there is no air conditioning at the time. So with the strobe lights and all to illuminate things, it was said that it was about 110 degrees in the courtroom during those different hearings.
What did the courthouse mean to downtown in 1933 when it opened?
Well, it meant a lot. It really underlined the importance of downtown at that time, not only retail-wise and residentially but institutionally. The fact that we kept our courthouse in the downtown area meant something. We needed a much bigger courthouse because the population of the city during the Great Depression was growing very quickly in the 30s. And these were federal cases, but they were federal cases from this district, which of course includes Miami-Dade County. It was just, I think, renewed faith in downtown during a very hard time economically and financially.
There were a lot of residential areas around the courthouse?
There were. There was a big apartment complex that was just across from it that was still standing as late as the 1960s. There were many single-family homes north of it. There were many businesses, including two foundries that were just northwest of it; which is hard to imagine. And there were some huge churches that drew people. It just goes on and on the amount of importance there.
