Postcards from Coral Gables’ Past
The Best Way to Get Your Iconic Images in the ’20s and ’30s? Postcards.
TikTok, Snapchat and Instagram? These were unknown when George Merrick was designing and promoting Coral Gables. Postcards were the social media of his day. Today, these anachronisms (who sends postcards anymore?) provide a vivid visual glimpse into the past.
Merrick’s newly minted city of Coral Gables and postcards were a perfect marriage. Card use took off when the tourism industry began to boom in the first half of the 20th century, and today many types of postcards from Coral Gables survive to document and memorialize local history. Early cards showed off handsome new homes in the City Beautiful, along with some unabashed tourism promotion images for properties like the Biltmore Hotel and sites like the Venetian Pool. Early Gables’ street scenes, churches, schools, fountains, plazas and recreation were all documented through postcards.

Easy to transport and now generally available for only a few dollars each, collecting postcards can be an entertaining and engaging hobby at any age. Just ask collector-extraordinaire, Linda Zahler. A former French teacher at Coral Gables High School, Zahler grew up in Miami Beach, the daughter of rare book dealers. As a stamp collector while still in elementary school, she became curious about the colorful cards to which many of the stamps were affixed. A new interest was ignited. “I get a lot of pleasure from collecting and looking at what I have collected,” says Zahler. “It is definitely in my blood, it’s my passion.”
Bright colors printed on a linen texture were typical of the era and have held up well through the years. It was commonplace to colorize black and white photos in the ’30s and ’40s; you can find cards today with the same images but with clothing, lettering or other elements shown in differing colors.

Zahler finds postcards in antique shops and at antique shows, but explains it’s often more efficient to pursue some of the millions of surviving postcards online through sites like eBay, where you can find more than 145,000 Florida-themed postcards and over 1,000 specific to Coral Gables. Since they were introduced in 1893 at the Columbian Exposition in Chicago, postcards have been used to share quick notes and information, celebrate causes, and promote business. Postcard themes are widely varied. If you can imagine it, there is probably a category. Varieties include factories, dolls, bicycles, elves, advertising, comics, chess, city halls, patriotic themes, flamingos, hotels, politics, music, animals, jokes, holidays and, of course, every region, city and state, and their tourist attractions.
Among Coral Gables’ earliest cards from the early 1920s are some featuring an uncommon overall “gold” tone. Most, however, use the bright, saturated colors we typically associate with these glimpses into the past.
While postcards of the Gables were published by a number of local printers – Curt Teich & Co., Thomas R. West, etc. – Merrick, always the promoter, had his postcards imprinted: “CORAL GABLES, MIAMI, FLA, America’s Finest Suburb.”
If you are interested in finding out more about collecting postcards, the Tropical Postcard Club serves South Florida fans. To find out about upcoming shows and information about collecting visit tropicalpostcardclub.com.
Greetings From Coral Gables Circa 1940s
Set against a background of the Venetian Pool, various printings of these cards featured different visuals within the letters. C-Biltmore Hotel O-Coral Gables Country Club R-Home A-Home L-Granada Entrance G-Congregational Church A-UMB- Ponce de Leon High School (Middle School since 1950) L-Douglas Entrance E-Venetian Pool S-Ponce de Leon Plaza.

Downtown Circa 1940s
Looking up Ponce de Leon north from Miracle Mile (then just Coral Way) you can see the Colonnade Building on the right; Morton’s is in that location now. Buildings down the street have been replaced and expanded; the empty lot on the right with the for sale sign is now Luminaire.

The Biltmore Circa 1930s
Horse riding, polo and even fox hunting were typical activities at the Biltmore Hotel in the 1920s, along with golf, tennis and taking a gondola ride along the Gables Waterway to Tahiti Beach (now in Cocoplum). Foxes imported from Europe for the hunts are now permanent residents of the Gables.

Biltmore Pool 1935
Synchronized swimmers, bathing beauties, alligator wrestling and swimming exhibitions enchanted resort guests in the 1920s and ’30s. Before he swung through the trees as Tarzan, Johnny Weissmuller was a swimming instructor in the 600,000-gallon pool, long the world’s largest. He set his first world swimming record here.

Granada Entrance Circa 1920s
A rare gold-tone card showing one of several images featuring Merrick’s Gables entrances. These are thought to be among the earliest promotional cards from the early 1920s, for his then new development. Of the eight planned entrances, only four were built: Douglas, Granada, Alhambra and Country Club Prado.

Reflecting Pool Country Club Prado Circa 1940s
Reflecting an elegant lifestyle and typical of the many attractive features found throughout Coral Gables, cards often featured renderings of fountains, plazas and flowering. This reflecting pool is still part of the Country Club Prado entrance at Coral Way, with the fountain in the background still flowing.

Mayor Edward E. “Doc” Dammer’s Home Circa 1920s
George Merrick built this house for his colorful, entertaining and highly successful salesman in 1924. Designed by H. George Fink, the home is at 1141 Coral Way. Hired to sell lots beginning in 1921, he was the ultimate promoter, known for standing on a wagon to address crowds of up to 5,000.

Cute Gables Cottage Circa 1940s
This cute Gables cottage is in peril of the next storm with a palm tree leaning close to the home. Gables cards of the era were used to promote sales and featured a wide variety of home styles, from affordable one-story houses to elaborate mansions, described as “fine residences.”

Merrick Park & City Hall, 1947
The Mediterranean Revival-style City Hall, built mostly of native oolitic limestone, opened in 1928. It was designed by architect Phineas Paist and artistic advisor Denman Fink. A new resident of the area in 1947 sent the card to her Exeter, New Hampshire friends about how city homes were going up in “clusters.”

Greetings From Coral Gables | Venetian Pool Circa 1930s
Originally a limestone quarry, Merrick’s lead salesman Doc Dammer was having difficulty unloading lots in the area when an idea was born. Designed by artist Denman Fink and architect Phineas Paist, the Venetian Casino (as pools were called back then) opened in 1924 and was fed from a spring in the aquifer.

Venetian Pool | Women Lounging 1936
“This is a beautiful place,” was all the sender needed to say to her Stamford, Connecticut recipient on this 1936 postcard. The postage? 1¢. The Venetian is the only pool on the National Register of Historic Places and with 60,000-square feet, it features waterfalls, grottos, observation towers, lush landscaping and a Venetian bridge.

University Of Miami Circa 1930s
Known as the Cardboard Campus, the University of Miami used the Anastasia Building for classes and offices beginning in 1926. Meant to be temporary while the main campus could be developed, construction at the new university was delayed by 20 years, and these facilities were used until the late ’60s.

I loved it, especially the history lesson on postcards and their evolution. After reading this I’m wondering if I have any old postcards. I’ll have to check that box!