Stiltsville
[1] "Crawfish" Eddie Walker built a shack on stilts above the water[2] in 1933, toward the end of the prohibition era, allegedly to facilitate gambling, which was legal at one mile offshore.
[4] The article noted that this was an "extraordinary American community dedicated solely to sunlight, salt water and the well-being of the human spirit."
The club was described as "a $100,000 play-palace equipped with bar, lounge, bridge deck, dining room and dock slips for yachts".
Hurricane Donna in 1960 damaged most of the structures in Stiltsville, including the Quarterdeck Club, then the building was completely destroyed by a fire in 1961 that burned all the way to the pilings.
[4] Stiltsville may not have looked like much, but in the 1940s and 1950s, it was a popular place where lawyers, bankers, politicians, and other moneyed, well-connected Miamians came to drink, relax and kick back.
[7] Florida Governor LeRoy Collins was a frequent visitor during the 1950s, a guest of Jimmy Ellenburg at his house in the flats.
A handwritten note from the governor to his host read: "Jimmy Ellenburg, When the time comes when I say so long to this life, I hope the great beyond seems alot [sic] like your cabin in the sea - Roy Collins"[8] From the 1950s to the 1960s, Stiltsville's style matured from ramshackle to lodge, some with architectural styles, including the "A-frame" house; the Leshaw House, with its distinctive Mansard roof; and the uniquely shaped Baldwin, Sessions & Shaw House, which was featured in a national ad campaign for Pittsburgh Paints.
Hurricane Betsy did considerable damage to the barge in 1965, so club members invested in concrete pilings, which still remain in place.
The introductory quote stated, "Off Key Biscayne is a renegade village on stilts where weekend residents live by their own laws.
It became radio station WRHC in 1985, and used the Stiltsville towers for daytime broadcasting at 10,000 watts on 1550 kHz, until the site was decommissioned in approximately 1990.
[12] Because salt water is highly conductive, it makes an excellent ground plane for signals in the mediumwave radio band, which allowed the station a greater broadcast range on the same power.
Beginning in August 1965, the state of Florida required building owners to pay $100 annually to lease their quarter-acre circular "campsites."
In the mid-1990s, the park service told leaseholders it lacked the authority to renew leases and suggested they pursue a listing on the National Register of Historic Places.
Several preservation groups took up the cause, but Stiltsville twice failed to earn National Register status, primarily because the surviving houses weren't 50 years old.
Dr. Paul George, historian for the Historical Museum of Southern Florida, explained the significance of Stiltsville thus: "It really is an only-in-Miami kind of thing.
The November 1998 issue included an article entitled, "Stiltsville: The residents of a fading Florida community make a stand to save it."
In addition to raising funds, their goal was to preserve and rehabilitate the structures to help showcase the park's marine resources with support for educational and interpretive services.
Caretakers still perform basic maintenance on their former weekend retreats,[7] but the Stiltsville buildings are owned by the National Park Service and have been secured and posted with "no trespassing" signs.
