Lemon City Port

Predating the City of Miami, Lemon City had the first port on Biscayne Bay because of its natural deep-water channel in a bay that was otherwise largely shallow before dredging. Shipping was the community’s primary link to the outside world, and its commercial district grew around the port as ships carried animals, people, produce, merchandise, and most of the mail distributed to nearby settlements. In the fall of 1891, between four and six vessels arrived and departed each week. Because large sailing vessels could not anchor close to the dock, they remained in the deeper channel while smaller boats such as schooners and sloops transferred goods to the mainland. The largest vessel reportedly to come to Lemon City was the Emily B., a three-masted, thirty-ton schooner that traveled between Jacksonville and Key West, and in November 1891 Julia Tuttle arrived there with her family aboard it. By 1895, the Lemon City commercial district contained multiple businesses, including hotels, general stores, a barbershop, a real estate office, a bakery, a sponge warehouse, saloons, a restaurant, a blacksmith, a livery stable, a post office, a sawmill, a music shop, and a photo studio. Its wood-frame buildings were usually simple and unpainted, though some were more elaborate, and owners built without restriction. The booming port drew farmers who created a small village, made Lemon City the trading center of Biscayne Bay, and later attracted railroads that linked port and rail shipping. The opening of the Lemon City train station on the Florida East Coast Railway in 1896 ended the port’s popularity by shifting commercial activity away from shipping to rail transport and from Lemon City to Miami. Around the turn of the twentieth century, businesses began moving farther inland to be nearer the railroad depot, where new general stores, Dr. DuPuis’ medical office and drugstore, and other buildings were constructed. By 1910, only pleasure ships were moored at the Lemon City docks.

Miami, Florida · United States