Our Life as a House

8/8/2019 Our Life as a House

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Or, Our Life as a House:

An Unlikely Dream Called the MissionTakes Root.

Paul Hampton Crockett From: http://welcometothemission.net/?p=12

With grateful acknowledgment to the University of Miami Digital Initiative, an amazing historic

and visual resource.http://merrick.library.miami.edu/

MIAMI is my hometown, as it was my father's before me, and I am

interested in its history. Yet history is an extremely fleeting thing in thiscity, incorporated only in 1896. The dreamers, schemers, and buildersrelentlessly driving the city forward have been primarily obsessed withvisions of "progress" and the shimmering horizon of the always-greatfuture, and rarely paused to look back even for a moment. Consequently,much of its rich, various, and abundant architectural heritage has beencarelessly discarded and often ground to dust.

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http://welcometothemission.net/?p=12http://merrick.library.miami.edu/http://merrick.library.miami.edu/http://welcometothemission.net/?p=12http://merrick.library.miami.edu/


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The demolition of this particular building proved a flash point, as the cutting-edgehistoric preservation effort was then well underway, and the owner apparently nervous.

The movement suddenly burst into flame, and the die was cast. History seems to be

judging the results kindly: as it turns out, honoring and protecting those old buildings wasvisionary wisdom, and an absolute triumph.

THE house we have come to call "the Mission" is old by Miami standards,built in 1927. The city was then only thirty years old. That time and place isnow long gone and nearly forgotten, even hard to imagine.

Mouth of Miami River, ca. 1906. Below, today.

(Courtesy of Google maps.)

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It was a time when people had time to visit, as those from the South say,and kept always on hand some iced tea, soda pop, or what have you, forneighbors just passing by.

Royal Oak Arch Tree, Miami

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"Ocean Drive, South of Lincoln Road." 1912

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With thanks to the UM Digital Initiative, cited above. Photograph by Kirk Munroe, Cocoanut

Grove pioneer, turn of the century.

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Even well into the late '20's, the Eastern edge of the "Great River of Grass" known as the

Everglades lay just along where 27th Avenue now runs North and South. Ten blocksaway.

SO I love to listen for clues. The Mission is just a house, a simple one, really,

and offers no pretension of being anything else. But it has been well-loved, and

much lived in. The fact that it still remains, even retaining its stubborn dignity,

in a place where history is so very disposable, means something.

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And old houses talk. Always, to those who take the time to listen and arewilling to pay attention. They tell stories, louder than words and often

more honestly. Like people, they are conceived with great hope, andembody a portion of some greater dream. They too have their seasons,endure the wear and tear of experience, and witness their days of glory anddecline. The idea of home could not be more integral to the greatAmerican dream, nor any of our notions of society or community. Andthe ends of their stories, as ours, are as of yet still unwritten.

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There is something about vintage homes, to me, that is special. The worldis ever changing, and I suppose always has been. Yet I cannot imagine thatthe felt velocity of those changes has ever seemed greater, and nowheremight their impact be felt more intensely or keenly than in this sprawling,multicultural, chaotic, "happening" of a place that is Metropolitan Miami.So I find myself grounded in the architecture of the past.

The American homestead of great-grandparents Johann & Mathilde Petersen & their twodaughters, Kathe and Annelise, ca. 1920, following the family's immigration from their

ancestral home of Flensburg, Germany. Within fairly short order my Great-Grandfatherhad applied the fullness of his Teutonic intention to carving out of the true wilderness of

the Redlands, some 30 miles south of Miami, a producing citrus grove/ working

horticultural science laboratory / expansive garden of exotic tropical fruit /touristattraction called Bonita Groves. Being at his heart a huge ham, Johann couldnt resist

including before pictures to mark his progress (below).

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Mathilde & Johann. Annelise, my paternal grandmother taught fifth grade at Coral WayElementary for decades. Older sister Kathe was also a lifetime schoolteacher and much-beloved, teaching German to generations at Coral Gables High School.

A wonderful riff on the Great Florida Dream, helping "sell" the Dream of Bonita Groves.

Witness my great-grandfather sipping a pina colada while his wife toils away the creationof one of the many citrus-based products churned out by the Grove.

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Annelise now lays at rest with her "one and only," my grandfather, Howard Bruce

Crockett, under the oak-shaded lawn of the historic Miami City Cemetery. They are both

loved, and well earned their rest. May they share an unending dream of joy, together.

Newlyweds, 1925

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WE cannot do other than move forward, but as the days seem to fly by evermore quickly I find in older homes an excellent starting point for livingmy life, one that helps soothe me and enriches my experience. Something

about them quietly whispers Breathe, Paul. There is always time. Justbreathe. And they would know. So something within me responds, simplyand gratefully, Yes!

The Mission is two bedrooms, one bath, and one huge vision. Its thorough

renovation, from top to bottom, side to side, can be understood only as alabor of love, if indeed it is to be understood at all. Thats really the onlyway to describe it: the time, energy, and resources that have been investedin its renovation (or really, rebirth!) over the last couple of years defy logicor reason.

Master Bedroom

Its name seemed to come to us naturally, inspired by its Old Spanish/

mission style of architecture, simple and classic, and the long andwinding journey on which it has led us. Its original features have beenmaintained whenever possible; its lighting fixtures, hardwood floors,working casement windows hand-built of Florida cypress wood, numerousinset panel and French doors throughout, all gleam as if installed maybelast Tuesday.

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Original cypress wooden windows freed at last from decades-long slumber under layers

of paint. Open (ahhh!), to garden View

And the home is enhanced by the best and brand new: central air/heat,under-the-counter washer/ dryer, stainless steel kitchen appliances, andmuch much more. It is furnished in a very comfortable yet truly eclecticstyle, and ready for immediate enjoyment. Here is truly a home away fromhome, and you are the one for whom its many features and comforts havebeen prepared.

Its simple, really: Miami is my hometown, and I am at home here. Andthough the city may not turn out to be at all your cup of tea," which wouldmost certainly be understandable, I am nevertheless willing to go the extra

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mile, or maybe even further, so that once youd returned home youd beable to say, at least, that youd had a really great place to stay while youwere here, and were perhaps surprised at just how comfortable it had been!

A sitting area in your private garden, awaiting your pleasure.

In a city where real estate has been hyped to the extent of collectivenumbness, here is an experience of rare quality: a window into a simpler,

more peaceful, and less pressured time, yet situated close to center of theinspired insanity and excitement that is todays metropolis.

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From Miami: an Introduction, a tourist booklet, 1919

The home sits in the heart of the city's historic Shenandoah neighborhood,a once prominent area that was well-established years before the firstcornerstone was laid in that brash "planned development" so audaciously

envisioned by a young George Merrick on land that had been his father'scitrus plantation, now known as Coral Gables. Yet that was long, long ago.

For some years the neighborhood slipped gently into a state of generaldecline as the fascination and restless fancy of the growing public attachedto the newer and more "uniform" communities being built ever further tothe West, where for millenia untold there had before been only the savagemajesty of the wild Everglades, and to the South, down into the great pineforests of Cutler Ridge and Kendall, and always to the North.

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Only the closely bounded shoreline and the salted blue waters of BiscayneBay and boundless Ocean to the East, it may be safe to say, had preventedfurther development in that direction as well.

"Drive to Cocoanut Grove, Miami, Fla."

WITH the arrival of the first wave of Cuban exiles in the early 1960's, andthe multitudes that thereafter followed from that and a number of otherSpanish-speaking countries, the area became known generally as part of

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"Little Habana." That the neighborhood had once readily and proudly identifieditself as "Shenandoah" seemed destined to become quaint fact, a cultural oddity

now only hinted at only by names inscribed upon its branch Post Office, its

middle and elementary schools, and so forth. The word had lost all context, and

thus any meaning. Nobody cared.

The above corner store of the 1930's is still open for business, but now serving an

excellent caf con leche.

Yet the only constant is change. As the pendulum currently swings, in theShenandoah neighborhood of Miami as in other historic neighborhoods inurban areas across the Nation, there has been a resurging groundswell ofinterest in the idea of neighborhood. The collective experience ofneighborhood has taken on new life, and the idea become relevant,immediately so, in new and vital ways. Amidst the cacophonous chaos ofmodern life a deep hunger has taken hold for a sense of rootedness, or apersonal "history of place." People seek first to understand what theirneighborhood is, I suppose, in part so they might better understand where

they now find themselves, and what that might mean. Quite often the pathof that inquiry involves an exploration of what oncewas.

The unique dreams of a place often speak most directly of its heart.

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Personally, I find my rear-view mirror to be of great and practical value as Inavigate forward.

In my passion for history, particularly as it relates to my home and myhometown, I am not alone.

The Shenandoah neighborhood has not only reclaimed its identity, butsteadily improved its standing as a desirable and safe place to live. Demand

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for the homes has remained steady even in the economic free fall in whichthis city, along with the rest of the country, now finds itself. The area isincreasingly prized for its historic architecture and central location, as traffic

congestion continues (impossibly) to worsen on Miamis roadways. Odds are,

from where the Mission sits you are only minutes away from many of the

places you want to be, or to see while you are here.

All of which leads us right back to the present, and to the future potential of

your visit. Your comfort, enjoyment, and well being are our driving goals. We

have been waiting for you!

Welcome.

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Our Life as a House

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