Square feet or square fathoms?
Looking out to Biscayne Bay from the mainland, a peculiar sight may catch your eye: seven buildings floating in the middle of the water, each raised on stilts, collectively known as Stiltsville. These hovering houses remain as a relic of the city’s checkered past.
During prohibition, Miami was rife with speakeasies, but as quickly as they popped up, the cops found ways to close them down. A resourceful fisherman out of Key West came up with a brilliant idea. “Crawfish” Eddie Walker built a shack on stilts one mile offshore, where gambling was legal. There he served his famous chilau, crawfish chowder made from “the bottom scrapings of Biscayne Bay,” as one former customer described it. The shack was an instant hit. Two of Eddie’s friends each built their own shack, and the legend of Stiltsville was born.
Info
Address One mile south of Cape Florida on the edge of Biscayne Bay in Miami-Dade County, FL. Stittsville can be reached by boat or kayak. Make rental inquiries at www.boatbound.com. The houses are only viewable from the outside. | Tip Abandoned objects of the sea are relatively common in South Florida and the Keys. At Bahia Honda State Park in the Keys (36850 Overseas Hwy) there’s an old deserted rail bridge that’s nestled on the corner of the island near the beach.
By 1960, there were 27 stilted houses in the middle of Biscayne Bay, including some used as bars and exclusive social clubs. Plush boat services sprang up to attract Miami’s high society. It was – and still is – a gorgeous ride over shallow, calm waters to the shacks. It wasn’t long before Stiltsville became the city’s most exciting nightlife destination, offering everything from gambling to Mad Men-style ogling. While Miami Beach had the Playboy Club, Stiltsville had the Bikini Club – a grounded yacht in the middle of the bay that offered free drinks to any woman clad in a two-piece swimsuit, and provided a deck for nude sunbathing. Lacking a liquor license, the Bikini Club was shut down by the State Beverage Department in 1965.
Both the closure of the Bikini Club and the damage done by Hurricane Betsy in 1965 led to Stiltsville’s inevitable demise, amid storms both tropical and legal. Not all was lost, though. Today, the remaining houses are still functional. The only way to get to them, however, is by navigating the shallows of Biscayne Bay by boat or kayak.
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