George Edgar Merrick (June 3, 1886 – March 26, 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 major planned communities in the United States.

After graduating, Merrick moved to New York to study law until 1911 when his father's death prompted him to return to Miami.

These improvements allowed the population of Greater Miami to quadruple from 1915 to 1921, transforming a pioneer territory into a burgeoning metropolis.

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.

[3] In an interview with The New York Times in March 1925, Merrick said, "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.

In 1935, the monstrous Labor Day Hurricane, called the "Storm of the Century", destroyed almost everything on the Middle Keys, including Merrick's Caribee Club, which was never rebuilt.

[8] The petition alleged George Merrick "boldly held, and acted upon, racist segregationist beliefs throughout his life.

In the early to mid-twentieth century, government sought to improve living conditions and public health and safety by clearing slums, with the Housing Act of 1937 defining a slum as "any area where dwellings predominate which by reason of dilapidation, over-crowding, faulty arrangement or design, lack of ventilation, light or sanitation facilities, or any combination of these factors, are detrimental to safety, health, or morals.

"[11] This was relevant to Merrick, who experienced a yellow fever epidemic and forced quarantine when he was moving to South Florida as a boy.

[14] When beachfront land was being bought up, Merrick argued that everyone should have the right to beach access, including middle to lower income whites and the Black community.

[15] In his 1937 speech to the Miami Realty Board, Merrick lamented the unfair living conditions of the Black community, recalling peddling vegetables when he was young and stating "[i]f I had anything in the wagon left over, I would go over into Negro town and get rid of it.

[3] Merrick wrote a series of stories he titled “Men of the Magical Isles”, honoring the Bahamian laborers he worked with.

In 2023, a play called “The Placemaker Poet”, starring Charles Sothers, explored the life and legacy of Coral Gables’ visionary developer, George E. Merrick.