Brown's Hotel: A Living Chapter in Miami Beach History

Looking like a stage piece of an old Western movie, it’s the oldest hotel in Miami Beach, as old as the city itself. Retains its original appearance in colonial style, and predates the Art Deco era. It represents the narrow moment in Miami Beach history when buildings were built of locally sourced Florida Pine wood, almost in the wilderness, a moment when Miami Beach pivoted from a settlement of bungalows into a resort. Astoundingly, one of the few wooden buildings that survived the fury of the 1926 hurricane. 

Brown's Hotel in 1926

William Brown, a Scottish immigrant and plumber by trade, beat the great developers Carl Fisher, John Collins, Thomas Pancoast and the Lummus Brothers to the starting line for Miami Beach’s very first hotel in 1915.

Such multi-unit (36) apartments with a shared kitchen downstairs for the whole building provided modest hotel amenities for middle class tourists, often in the informal lifestyle of an apartment. SoFi was middle class area while Carl Fisher was building the upper-class resort north of 5th Street, making 5th street a subconscious border that further divided middle class Jewish community south of fifth from wealthy white-non-Jewish (WASP) neighbors to the north. There was one problem, though – Brown made an oversight that no-one could have anticipated. As Ocean Drive went from the sandy footpath to a full street, the hotel’s front porch had to be lopped off to make space for the sidewalk.

After Hurricane Andrew (1992)

The building had a new owner who in 2000 made plans to restore it as a luxury boutique hotel. In 2002, the general contractor gathered up 50 tons of steel beams and 15 14-ton hydraulic jacks, lifted the building 2 feet off the sand, and moved it 15 feet west. The building was reconstructed, and its pine exterior restored under the direction of the architect Allan Shulman (https://www.shulman-design.com/allan-shulman). The height of the first floor was increased from 7 to 10 feet. Prime One Twelve revolutionized the industry from the moment restaurateur Myles Chefetz opened its doors on January 2, 2004. Serving over 500 meals an evening, Prime 112 has breathed a new life into one of the oldest surviving buildings in Miami Beach. To make a reservation go to: https://mylesrestaurantgroup.com/prime-112/

Restoration of Brown's Hotel