Talk of the Town: A Century at the Biltmore, A Farewell to Mary Snow, and More

A Time Capsule for 2125

“One hundred years ago today, on this very spot, it was actually the founder of this city, George Merrick, who dreamed of this very ambitious project…”

Tom Prescott, The Biltmore Hotel

Left: Tom Prescott With the City Honor Guard.
Right: The Event Was Attended by Politicians and Civic Leaders (Former Mayor Dorothy Thomson Standing)

On March 13, 100 years to the day when George Merrick’s team broke ground for the Biltmore Hotel, a star-studded array of local officials assembled to commemorate the event by witnessing the placement of a time capsule in front of the iconic building that, for many, symbolizes the city.

Among the guests that morning were Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava, County Commissioners Raquel Regalado, Rene Garcia, and Kevin Cabrera (recently appointed as the U.S. ambassador to Panama), Miami-Dade School Board member Mari Tere Rojas, Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, U.S. Congressional representatives Carlos Gimenez and Maria Salazar, Sweetwater Mayor Jose Pepe Diaz, former Coral Gables mayors Dorothy Thomson and Don Slesnick, head of the U.S. Southern Command Admiral Alvin Holsey, Secretary of the Miami Consular Corps Nabil Achkar, and, of course, Coral Gables Mayor Vince Lago and the entire City Commission, Police Chief Ed Hudak, and Fire Chief Marcos De La Rosa.

The MC for the event was Tom Prescott, who is now running the hotel for his family’s Seaway corporation and has assumed the leadership role of his father Gene Prescott. It was Gene who took the plunge in 1992 to invest in bringing the Biltmore back to life and running it as the city’s premier hotel.

“One hundred years ago today, on this very spot, it was actually the founder of this city, George Merrick, who dreamed of this very ambitious project, a $10 million project, which, even in today’s dollars adjusted for inflation, is a lot of money,” said Tom Prescott. “He announced that vision… in November of 1924 and then, on March 13, 1925, stood here and proclaimed it would be done.” Prescott then went through a history of the Biltmore, from its brief Jazz Age heyday to its role as a military hospital to its years of abandonment – until saved, more than three decades ago, with a 3-2 vote led by then-city mayor Dorothy Thomson, who was repeatedly recognized by speakers.

Sharing the stage with Tom was the full Coral Gables City Commission, each of whom spoke briefly after he introduced them as the “illustrious Commissioner Melissa Castro,” the “unrelenting Commissioner Ariel Fernandez,” the “perennial Kirk Menendez,” the “tenacious Vice Mayor Rhonda Anderson,” and “our indomitable Mayor” (Vince Lago).

After the commissioners spoke, the time capsule – filled with memorabilia ranging from golf balls from the Biltmore Golf Course to a cup from the hotel’s Posto Dolce shop, a cell phone locked onto the date with a photo of the hotel pool, and copies of Coral Gables Magazine – was lowered into a hole in front of the hotel and then covered with shovelfuls of dirt. The first shovel of dirt was placed by Gene Prescott. –JP Faber

How to Save a Tree

Vice Mayor Rhonda Anderson Saves a 70-Year-Old Sausage Tree by Transplanting It to a Small Park on Salzedo Street.

Sometimes, I wonder why developers even take my calls,” says Rhonda Anderson who, as vice mayor, has been a one-woman juggernaut to save trophy trees in Coral Gables before they are lost to new residential projects. “I just try to talk them into doing the right thing.” The “right thing” for Anderson, a long-time member of the Coral Gables Garden Club, is to pay for the removal and replanting of mature trees that otherwise would be cut down. Anderson has a long history of green advocacy, spearheading projects ranging from eradicating invasive potato vines from the Gables to saving hundreds of mangroves “pups” from Matheson Hammock (the re-planting effort even attracted the attention of National Geographic). She has never been afraid to get her hands dirty, from volunteering to clear non-native species from the Girl Scouts camp on Old Cutler Road to helping dig holes for saplings at Coral Gables High School. For a city that is mad for its canopy, Anderson has been a green angel.

Her latest accomplishment was the saving of a 70-year-old sausage tree in February, which was going to be lost at The Village of Coral Gables site. Instead, it was transplanted to a small park by a new apartment building on Salzedo Street at Catalonia Avenue. The transplanting was done by David Bryan, an arborist who previously moved all the trees to then-new Parrot Jungle on Watson Island. “This is the largest sausage tree I’ve ever seen,” said Bryan. “There was a woman on Malaga Street [where the tree was] who has been there for 70 years, and she saw the tree when it was little, when she was a child.” Bryan said residents who wanted to save it “made a little noise, and then Vice Mayor Anderson got involved.” Thomas Kurian, the project manager for the Trammel Crow apartment complex where the tree landed, says, “Rhonda called me personally and said, ‘Hey, we have a great tree here and we can’t put it city parks right now. Do you guys think you could fit it into your park?’” 

The sausage tree joins another mature oak in the pocket park, relocated from the building site itself. Anderson says the effort to save the tree began two years ago, when she went to the site of The Village of Coral Gables during the demolition phase of existing housing. “I went out there with Alirio [Torrealba, the developer]. I said to him, ‘You know, you told me that you were going to save certain trees and you’ve already taken down one. What am I supposed to tell residents?’” Anderson says Torrealba “put up his hand and told his demo crew to stop, that I was going to red tag the project.” Anderson says she actually didn’t have the authority to stop the project, but the bluster worked. And, to his credit, Torrealba not only saved the sausage tree, but another large gumbo limbo that was moved to Douglas and Alhambra Circle, paying for the expenses.

For Anderson, the sausage tree is only the latest of many mature trophy trees that she has saved in the city. “Florida statutes make it very hard to save trees,” she says. “We get the arborist report [from the development site] and we start talking to people. What I use is a combination of guilt and persuasion.” –JP Faber

Mary Snow Resigns from CGCF

After 11 years as CEO of the Coral Gables Community Foundation (CGCF), Mary Snow is moving on. Over her tenure, the CGCF increased its annual community impact from less than $100,000 to over $5 million and instituted numerous community programs, including a highly successful scholarship fund for local high schoolers. Her best remembered project, however, will probably be the umbrellas over Giralda Plaza, which gained national recognition and drew thousands of visitors to the street. 

Snow will now serve as executive director of the Stamps Family Charitable Foundation, which focuses on higher education both locally and nationally. In her absence, Rolando Rodriguez of CFRE will serve as interim CEO while the Foundation conducts a search for its new leader. Rodriguez has over 30 years of experience devel- oping fundraising foundations and helping nonprofits expand their revenue, and has worked with the CGCF for the last three years. Foundation Chairman Michael Walsh will lead the search committee for Snow’s replacement, supported by her and fellow board members Michael McCarthy and Matthew Meehan. Snow will continue to serve the CGCF as a board member as well.

“It’s been a great 11 years,” Snow told Coral Gables Magazine. “Our team, our board, our organization is better and stronger. The next leader will do great, big things that I’m excited to see. It’s very gratifying to see the growth that we’ve had. It’s been incredible.” – Kylie Wang

A Love Story for the City

At the end of this month, the Miracle Theatre will host the performance of a special play celebrating the day that Coral Gables was officially incorporated: April 29, 100 years ago. The play is the story of the grandparents of June Morris – and therefore the parents of her mother, former mayor Dorothy Thomson – and the romance that led to their wedding that year of 1925. “I heard the story right from my grandmother’s lips,” says Morris, who wrote the play. “It was a story I’ve always had in my heart, and when the world closed down during COVID I finally had the time to write it down.” The story is how Morris’ grandmother, then a 19-year-old living in Indiana, met a lawyer from Miami. The two met at a dance party, only once, but after he returned to Florida they kept up a correspondence with letters and postcards. “That’s where the title came from, ‘Post Cards from Paradise,’” says Morris. “The postcards are almost a character in the play.” And with those love letters (and postcards) in hand, the young woman from Indianapolis, Lucy Mae Thomson, took Flagler’s East Coast Railway by herself to Miami, where the two lovers were wed.

Lucy Mae’s daughter and Morris’ mother, Dorothy Thom- son, became the first and only female mayor of Coral Gables, and both served as role models for the playwright. “I grew up under the influence of a strong woman who is well-known in the Coral Gables community,” says Morris, who spent 20 years as a television news reporter. “I learned from her how to be bold, and how walking that extra mile for a good cause can bring about great value for a community. As a young girl, I was also influenced by another strong woman, my grandmother.”

Morris says she meticulously researched those early days, writing down quotes she came across from city pioneers like Doc Dammers. “There are many books about the people and the times, but this is the first time that something like this has been attempted, to bring these people to life.” Morris says the hardest part to cast was that of George Merrick, since his image is so well-known to residents. Among those who auditioned for the play was Mark Trowbridge, the stentorian CEO of the Coral Gables Chamber of Commerce who recently passed away. “Mark auditioned for the Doc Dammers part. We didn’t give it to him, but in the scene at the end I wrote a line for Mark to say, as one of the investors toasting George Merrick. It was going to be a surprise….” – JP Faber

Corporate Kudos

Two Coral Gables-based companies were recently recognized for success in their respective industries. Catalyst Pharmaceuticals, Inc., which ranked fourth in Forbes’ list of America’s Most Successful Small-Cap Companies last year, placed fifth in America’s Most Successful Mid- Cap Companies for 2025. Forbes utilized data from FactSet to evaluate 700-plus companies with a $2 billion to $10 billion market value to formulate its Top 100 list. Catalyst Pharmaceuticals is a biopharmaceutical company in the business of developing and licensing innovative therapies for rare illnesses. “Our employees are dedicated to helping patients live healthier lives, and we look forward to continuing our efforts to create value for our employees, patients, and shareholders,” said Rich Daly, the president and CEO of Catalyst.

Fresh Del Monte Produce, Inc., which is one of the top fresh-cut fruit and vegetable distributors in the world, took home a SEAL Business Sustainability Award in the Environmental Initiative category for the fourth time in five years. This award celebrates companies that display leadership, innovation, and commitment to sustainable business practices. It comes as Fresh Del Monte achieved its goal of a 27.5 percent reduction in greenhouse gases before 2030. “We remain committed to science-driven solutions that push the boundaries of sustainable agriculture and further minimize our environmental impact,” said Hans Sauter, Fresh Del Monte’s chief sustainability officer and senior vice president of corporate R&D and agriculture. – Luke Chaney