Seaplanes and city managers
In the early days of Miami, Dinner Key, a small island in Biscayne Bay, was accessible only by boat. In 1914, the Army Corps of Engineers connected it to the mainland by filling in the surrounding waters to create a training field for the US Navy during World War I. In the 1930s and ’40s, Pan American World Airways turned Dinner Key into its primary base of operations. The booming airline connected North and South America by way of its luxurious “Flying Clipper Ships,” tremendous metallic propeller planes that would put today’s international first class accommodations to shame.
Outfitted with full kitchens, “deluxe compartments,” sleeping cabins, and dining rooms, the heavy round-bottomed aircrafts could take off from and land on the smooth waters of Biscayne Bay. The seaplanes’ popularity was due in part to a lack of sufficient runways in South America and across the globe. During this time, aboard Pan Am’s Dixie Clipper, Franklin D. Roosevelt stopped in Dinner Key en route to Morocco to meet with Winston Churchill at the Casablanca Conference in 1943.
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Address 3500 Pan American Drive, Miami, FL 33133, +1 305.250.5400. | Tip If all that aviation history gets you hungry, head over to LuLu (3105 Commodore Plaza), a tapas bar in the heart of Coconut Grove, just a few blocks away. Try a little bit of everything, because that’s what tapas are for.
As runways became more popular, it spelled the end of the flying boat. With Pan Am’s last flight departing from Dinner Key in 1945, the city of Miami bought much of the land on Dinner Key and what had been the hub for the majority of the country’s international flights.
Less than ten years after the purchase, the city also made a move to preserve the Art Deco Pan Am terminal by turning it into City Hall. The old seaplane hangars now house boats for the massive Dinner Key Marina complex. Boats are tied to slips where the old clippers used to taxi and take off. At the foot of a large cul-de-sac, the pearlescent City Hall can be blinding in the sunlight. In a classic Art Deco font, “Miami City Hall” broadcasts itself above the concrete awning. A nautical shade of blue accents the building, echoing the color of the Pan Am logo.
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