George E. Merrick
George Edgar Merrick (1886-1942) was a real estate developer who is best known as the planner and builder of the city of Coral Gables, Florida in the 1920s, one of the first planned communities in the United States .
Merrick was born in Springdale, Pennsylvania. His father, Solomon G. Merrick, was a Congregationalist minister. The family moved to Miami, Florida when George was 12 years old. He attended Rollins College in Winter Park.
In October, 1915, George Merrick was appointed by the governor of Florida to replace F.A. Bryant as the county commissioner in District 1. He spent the next 15 months on the commission championing the building of roads in South Florida, including major arteries that would later serve to connect his well-planned community of Coral Gables with the fast-growing city of Miami. Along with Commissioner Edward DeVere Burr of Arch Creek, the two men ushered the vast majority of all road construction projects in Dade County, including the construction of US1, the Tamiami Trail across the Everglades, the Bay Causeway to Miami Beach, Ingraham Highway (later known as Old Culter Road) along the coast, the Miami Canal Highway and many others. These improvements allowed the population of Dade County to quadruple from 1915 to 1921, transforming a pioneer territory into a burgeoning metropolis.
Beginning in 1922, on 3,000 acres (12 km²) of citrus groves and land covered in pine trees which his father had left him, Merrick began carving out what he would call a "City Beautiful". He designed the new town in great detail, featuring wide, tree-lined boulevards, delicate bridges and sedate urban golf courses. Merrick's secret was his passionate devotion to aesthetics.
George Merrick is credited with the establishment of the University of Miami in Coral Gables in early 1926 with a donation of 600 acres and a pledge of US$5 million. Later that same year, a devastating hurricane on September 17- 18 followed by the Great Depression ended Merrick's dreams at Coral Gables. He moved to Matecumbe Key, where he opened his Caribee Club not far from the famous Long Key Fishing Camp on nearby Long Key.
The monstrous Labor Day Hurricane of 1935, called the "Storm of the Century", destroyed almost everything on the Middle Keys, including Merrick's Caribee Club. He became postmaster of Miami in 1940, and died in 1942 at the age of 55.
George Merrick's former home in Coral Gables is maintained as a living museum. The Soloman G. Merrick Building at the University of Miami at Coral Gables was built in honor of his father.
References
- "George E. Merrick and Coral Gables" by Kathryne Ashley (Cristal Bay Publishers, 1985).
- "Minutes of the Dade County Commission 1915-1917" (Clerk of the Dade County Commission).