The Miami Shores subdivision was developed by the Shoreland Company during the Florida land boom of the 1920s on a landscape of piney woods, prairies, homesteads, and a pineapple plantation. The company required homes to be built in the Mediterranean Revival style to fit the community’s theme of “America’s Mediterranean,” and its principal directors, including Hugh M. Anderson, Roy C. Wright, and Ellen S. Harris, hired prominent architects. A number of Miami Shores homes have been designated historic. The development was named after Victor Jacobi’s 1919 waltz “On Miami Shore.” The Shoreland Company also extended Biscayne Boulevard from Miami Shores to downtown Miami. After the South Florida real estate bust, the company declared bankruptcy in 1927, and in 1928 Bessemer Properties, a subsidiary of the J. S. Phipps estate, took over its holdings. Roy C. Hawkins, operations manager of Bessemer Properties, led the effort to secure approval from the Florida legislature for the charter of Miami Shores Village in 1931, and Miami Shores Village was incorporated by the State of Florida on January 2, 1932.