House Bill 9217
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Florida House of Representatives - 1999 HR 9217
By Representatives Heyman, Cosgrove, Rayson, Rojas,
Spratt, Goodlette, Barreiro, Prieguez, C. Green, Gottlieb,
Wilson, Bush, Kyle, Gay, Logan, Villalobos, Valdes and Cantens
1 House Resolution
2 A resolution in recognition of Stiltsville in
3 Biscayne Bay.
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5 WHEREAS, Stiltsville is a collection of seven lodges
6 built on pilings located in Biscayne Bay, south of Miami, and
7 is the remains of a larger community of dwellings dating back
8 to the 1930's, and
9 WHEREAS, a beloved relic of Miami's roguish past, the
10 seven remaining Stiltsville lodges are the descendants of what
11 was once an evolving community that began when "Crawfish"
12 Eddie Walker built a one-story home and bait shack out of a
13 barge that had been grounded in the bay in the early 1930's,
14 and
15 WHEREAS, over the years, other homes and dwellings were
16 built on pilings in the clear flats of the bay where waters
17 are rarely deeper than 10 feet at high tide, and
18 WHEREAS, at its height, about 25 such dwellings,
19 including both homes and nightspots, populated the bay's outer
20 reaches, and
21 WHEREAS, over the years, Stiltsville earned a
22 reputation for a variety of notorious activities and has stood
23 as a symbol of early Miami's exotic allure, and
24 WHEREAS, since the late 1960's, Stiltsville has been
25 more well known as a collection of privately owned dwellings
26 used as weekend and vacation homes where boating, fishing, and
27 relaxation are the primary activities, and
28 WHEREAS, in the mid-1970's, the State of Florida issued
29 25-year bay-bottom leases to owners of the remaining lodges,
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Florida House of Representatives - 1999 HR 9217
551-139A-99
1 WHEREAS, in 1980, the area of Biscayne Bay on which
2 Stiltsville is located was annexed into Biscayne National
3 Park, and since that time the National Park Service has
4 controlled the site, and
5 WHEREAS, over the years, environmentalists and others
6 have questioned the propriety of leasing public park land to
7 private parties, claiming that the presence of privately owned
8 houses is generally considered contrary to the purposes of
9 designated national parks, and
10 WHEREAS, at the same time there are many who feel that
11 the private, sun-worn lodges are the perfect emblem of the
12 exotic nature of early Miami and of great historical
13 significance, and
14 WHEREAS, the leases on all remaining Stiltsville lodges
15 expire on July 1, 1999, and
16 WHEREAS, Stiltsville leaseholders had hoped that the
17 community could earn status as a historic place on the
18 National Register of Historic Places, thus saving it from
19 extinction, and
20 WHEREAS, despite considerable public support, including
21 the support of Congressional members from the Miami area, the
22 National Register of Historic Places has subsequently ruled
23 that the landmark is unworthy of a listing, and
24 WHEREAS, it is the intention of the National Park
25 Service to demolish this Miami landmark, and
26 WHEREAS, one of the many noteworthy tributes to the
27 charms of Stiltsville that echoes the sentiments of many who
28 see the community as a landmark of aesthetic and historic
29 significance for Miami came from former Florida Governor LeRoy
30 Collins, who once wrote to a friend whose house at Stiltsville
31 he frequented that "when the time comes when I say so long to
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Florida House of Representatives - 1999 HR 9217
551-139A-99
1 this life, I hope the great beyond seems a lot like your cabin
2 in the sea," NOW, THEREFORE,
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4 Be It Resolved by the House of Representatives of the State of
5 Florida:
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7 That the House of Representatives of the State of
8 Florida hereby supports the historic significance of
9 Stiltsville as a Miami landmark.
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