Coral Gables: From Bankruptcy to Beauty

“The Gables” is not merely a highly desirable bedroom community or a sprawling city with features of the City Beautiful movement scattered here and there. The brainchild of George Merrick, a visionary congregational minister’s son with a poetic bent, Coral Gables is a planned city, home to of some of the nation’s most valuable real estate, a world—renowned hotel in the Biltmore, headquarters to 120 multinational firms, a major research university and a top—ten botanical garden. The story of how Merrick’s intricate design took shape—while most developments born during the so—called Florida Boom crashed and burned—and the rise of the preservationist movement that maintains it is a testament to the power of a vision. Author Les Standiford details the amazing rise of an iconic place.