George E. Merrick

George Edgar Merrick (1886-1942) developer of Coral Gables, Florida photo from Florida Photographic Collection

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 .

Family background and youth

Merrick was born in the Pittsburgh suburb of Springdale, Pennsylvania. His father, Solomon G. Merrick, was a Congregationalist minister. The family moved to Miami, Florida from Duxbury, MA in 1898 ^[1] when George was 12 years old. He attended Rollins College in Winter Park.Upon graduation, Merrick moved to New York to study law until 1911 when his father's death prompted him to return to Miami.^[2]

Career

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 South Dixie Highway (US 1), the Tamiami Trail across the Everglades, the County Causeway to Miami Beach, Ingraham Highway (later known as Old Cutler Road) along the coast, the Miami Canal Highway and many others. These improvements allowed the population of Greater Miami to quadruple from 1915 to 1921, transforming a pioneer territory into a burgeoning metropolis.

Coral Gables

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 a town along the lines of the City Beautiful movement. 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. Merrick wanted to focus on the finest details of this town not just on the major ideas behind the project which is why his team included men of diverse background like Denman Fink, an artist, H. George Fink and Phineas Paist, two architects, and Frank Button, a landscape artist. Another important aspect of the planning that was very important to Merrick were the zoning divisions. Merrick wanted areas to be set aside as commercial, residential or recreational and he wanted the divisions to be clear ^[3]

In three years, Merrick spent over $20 million to build a thousand Mediterranean style house which complimented the Biltmore Hotel, the Country Clubs and the other community buildings that Merrick had also designed and overseen the construction on. ^[4]

In a 1925 interview with the New York Times, Merrick commented: "Just how I came to utilize the Spanish type of architecture in Coral Gables, I can hardly say, except that it always seemed to me to be the only way houses should be built down there in those tropical surroundings."^[5]

Once he was done building the core of Coral Gables, Merrick decided to branch out creatively. Many people that did not like the Mediterranean Revival Style rejected Coral Gables because its lack of variety. Merrick decided that he would design small communities, or villages, within Coral Gables with different international influences. ^{[6] [7]}

George Merrick is credited with the establishment of the University of Miami in Coral Gables in 1925 with a donation of 600 acres (2.4 km²) of land and a pledge of US$5 million. The following year, weeks before the start of the inaugural school 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. This put a serious halt on real estate development which meant Merrick began losing a lot of money and influence.

Merrick said in 1937 that he envisioned a Miami that had all of its Black people completely removed from the city limits.^[8]

George Merrick's former home in Coral Gables, Coral Gables House, is maintained as a historic house museum. The Soloman G. Merrick Building at the University of Miami at Coral Gables was built in honor of his father.

Personal life

On February 5, 1916, George E. Merrick married Eunice Isabella Peacock, daughter of Coconut Grove pioneers, R.A.S. Peacock and Lilian Irene Frow.^[9] Merrick built a home for his bride, called Poinciana Place.^[10] Poinciana Place is located at 937 Coral Way, in Coral Gables, Florida.^[11]

With time, Merrick fell into heavy debt and by 1928 he was asked to leave the Coral Gables Commission. At this point he left Coral Gables to Matecumbe Key to run his wife's resort. Merrick only returned to Gables when he became the postmaster for the county, two years before his death.^[12]

References

Notes

Bibliography

External links

• University of Miami History
• Short History of Coral Gables
• Coral Gables: The City Beautiful
• "When the groves begin to bear..."
• Lillian Frow Peacock & Eunice Peacock Merrick Digital Collection at University of Miami Libraries