Lincoln Road
Miami
Lincoln Road is a Miami Beach street that runs from the ocean to the bay. Its car-free section goes from Washington Avenue to Alton Road. Most of it has been closed to cars since 1960, the last block since 2010.
From forest to street
In 1912 Carl Fisher had a strip of forest cleared from one side of the island to the other. From 1914 he turned it into the main street of Miami Beach. His sales office was here too. In the same years Fisher helped create the first road for cars across the United States.
An elegant street
For years Lincoln Road had luxury department stores, car dealerships and a theater. But in the 1950s it suffered from traffic and from the new shopping malls.
Lapidus's idea
The shop owners called in Morris Lapidus, an architect already famous in the city. He designed a promenade with fountains, pools, flower beds and canopies for shade. The city paid for the work with 600,000 dollars in municipal bonds. The street opened in 1960.
A new life
By the 1980s the flower beds and fountains were run-down. In 1997 the architect Martha Schwartz replanted native palm species, restored the fountains and designed a new pavement. In 2010 Raymond Jungles added a block to the west, like a water garden.
