Of all the cases of preservation efforts gone wrong in Miami \u2013 and there are plenty \u2014 the Mariah Brown House in the West Grove might be the worst example.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The house at 3298 Charles Ave. \u2013 a half-block from the Coconut Grove Playhouse \u2013 is one of the oldest in Miami-Dade, built in 1890 for a Bahamian woman who worked at the Peacock Inn.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Today it\u2019s a dilapidated wreck of rotting wood. So are quite a few historic houses. What makes this house unique is that the wreck is itself a complete restoration of the original house.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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The back of the Mariah Brown House on Charles Avenue.<\/p>\n
(John Dorschner for the Spotlight)<\/p>\n
The redo was done a quarter-century ago with much volunteer labor and more than $100,000 spent mostly on materials. A bureaucratic entanglement about windows held up completion, and for the past two decades the expensive redo has been decaying.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cA Miami disgrace,\u201d says Andy Parrish, a longtime West Grove developer closely connected with those who did the renovation.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The owner of the property, the Coconut Grove Cemetery Association, continues to search for funds to restore the house \u2013 again.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Weathered siding on the exterior of the Mariah Brown House.<\/p>\n
(John Dorschner for the Spotlight)<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been a challenge,\u201d said Leon \u201cBo\u201d Leonard, the association\u2019s president.<\/p>\n
This saga began in 1889 when Mariah Brown and her family moved to Coconut Grove. Born in Eleuthera, she was close to 40. She lived at the Peacock Inn for a while, then bought a 50-by-100-foot lot for $50 on what was then called Evangelist Street.\u00a0<\/p>\n
She built a small, 800-square-foot structure with a broad front porch and windows placed to allow flow-through breezes. There, she lived with her husband and four children until she died in 1910.<\/p>\n
The house passed through several owners, who made alterations and additions. Eventually, the building began deteriorating.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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An undated photograph of Mariah Brown (standing left, holding a baby) with others, taken in front of Commodore Ralph Munroe\u2019s boathouse.\/<\/p>\n
(Courtesy of Andy Parrish)<\/p>\n
For decades, Esther Armbrister, a West Grove activist, battled to have the house preserved. Finally, in 1995, the county offered a grant, and the house was purchased for $60,000 by the nonprofit cemetery association. It was designated an historic site.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are finally seeing some light at the end of the tunnel,\u201d Armbrister told the Miami Herald.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
A lot needed to be done. \u201cIt was in very bad shape,\u201d recalled Tucker Gibbs, the association\u2019s pro bono attorney. \u201cIt was a Dade County pine house \u2013 which is just like rock, it can last forever \u2013 if it\u2019s properly maintained.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Clyde Judson, a local Black architect, charged nothing to come up with plans to restore the house to its original condition, with some modern-day out-of-sight updates, including interior plumbing for a bathroom. The plan was for the structure to serve as a museum about Grove Bahamian culture.<\/p>\n
Gibbs: \u201cCity Commissioner J. L. Plummer said, \u2018Let\u2019s see what we can do.\u2019\u201d His staff found state, local and federal grants to restore historic housing.<\/p>\n
Mario Benitez, a general contractor who had worked frequently in the West Grove, agreed to oversee the work for free. He found the house in such bad shape that \u201cit was not really safe to walk in there.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The roof had collapsed, and the wooden boards on the exterior were in such bad shape they had to be replaced. Exact replicas were designed and made at a local lumber yard.<\/p>\n
Starting in 1999, the house was completely rebuilt. Much of the labor was provided by University of Miami architecture students, who did the work as a classroom project. Air conditioning ducts and plumbing were roughed out inside. A new roof was put on.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt came down to the windows,\u201d Benitez said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The original windows had been double-hung sash. Post-Andrew county code required hurricane-strength windows. That meant finding old-fashioned windows that fit the modern code.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe did find a company that produced the windows, but they were not hurricane-rated windows,\u201d Gibbs said. The out-of-state company had no interest in developing and getting certified windows that would pass the code. Parrish recalled that the manufacturing and rating process would cost $50,000.<\/p>\n
At one point, Benitez said, there was a suggestion of getting a \u201cone-time exception\u201d to historic preservation standards and attaching shutters for hurricane protection, but that came to nothing.<\/p>\n
All this happened two decades ago. Gibbs, Benitez and Parrish have slightly different recollections about which government entity was the primary holdup, but the end result was that the nonprofit association \u201cdidn\u2019t have the money to meet the code,\u201d Benitez said.<\/p>\n
There were other problems, recalled Gibbs. The handicap ramp, necessary for regulations, was in the back of the house but stuck out a bit and could be seen from the street. \u201cThat would affect its historic quality.\u201d It would have to be cut back.<\/p>\n
More complicated was the parking situation. Charles Avenue is narrow and historically designated with no on-street parking. \u201cThe city of Miami wanted five parking spaces, and a handicapped space next to the house,\u201d Gibbs said.<\/p>\n
Next door was the United Christian Church of Christ, with a grassy area that could be used for parking.\u00a0<\/p>\n
That property too is historic: It was built in the 1890s as a two-story Odd Fellows Hall and served also as home for the Colored Literary Library Association. When the church took over the site in the 1960s, the second story was decaying and was removed.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought of making a deal with the church,\u201d Gibbs said. \u201cWe could work together and have parking.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Then Commissioner Joe Carollo \u201chad a bee in his bonnet\u201d about unimproved land in the city not being used for parking, Gibbs said. He worked with Parrish to come up with a plan for a mixture of concrete and grass, with nighttime lighting. That required an electric connection and a water meter \u2013 for sprinklers on the grass. \u201cAnd then paying for the permits. We didn\u2019t have the money.\u201d<\/p>\n
The renovation was stuck. Plywood covered the windows.<\/p>\n
\u201cI kept it up over five or six years,\u201d Benitez said. \u201cI kept sending people to paint the outside. But I just gave it up. They kept saying they would find the money.\u201d<\/p>\n
The association was a small group of volunteers whose main focus was making sure the graves were kept clean. They didn\u2019t have the skills to find grants or deal with the bureaucratic complexities.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cSo it just stopped,\u201d Gibbs said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Occasionally, discussions revived. In 2007, the Coconut Grove Village Council talked with the Village West Homeowners and Tenants Association (HOATA) about how to finish the project, but that led to no money.<\/p>\n
In 2021, Dade Heritage Trust, which has a 50-year history of protecting and renovating historic houses, presented a proposal to the Cemetery Association.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cGiven our mission \u2026 and our access to funding, we thought we could make it work,\u201d said Christine Rupp, the trust\u2019s executive director.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe best way to preserve an historic building is to have someone there every day,\u201d Rupp said. \u201cWe thought it would be a home for an author in residence program,\u201d perhaps involving the area\u2019s Bahamian influences, \u201ccurating the space for community education. We thought we had a great proposal. We volunteered to operate it in on some kind of lease arrangement, and we volunteered to find funding.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
But, she added, \u201cWe were not embraced.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rupp said some cemetery association members were suspicious of the offer.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the West Grove, there\u2019s a good amount of distrust \u2013 and for good reason \u2013 of people who come from outside the neighborhood.\u201d She presented the proposal again in 2024 and was rebuffed.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Leonard, president of the cemetery association, said he preferred that the group keep control directly with the city. The staff of District 2 Commissioner Damian Pardo recently recommended that the house gain 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status to make it easier to receive grants and donations. That\u2019s been done, Leonard said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
One piece of good news: Ken Kalmis, the city\u2019s preservation officer, told the Spotlight that the window and parking problems did not need to be deal-breakers today.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He said present code does not require wooden double-sash windows for historic structures. Such windows that are hurricane proof can be made of aluminum \u201cas long as they match the pattern of the original style.\u201d Such windows are available, he said.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s more, Kalmis said the city\u2019s Historic and Environmental Preservation Board \u201chas the authority to grant a parking waiver to protect the character of an historic place.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gibbs noted that a deal might be worked out with the nearby playhouse to use its parking, when that project gets completed.<\/p>\n
So, where\u2019s the money come from?\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s still the big question,\u201d said Leonard, the association president.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The exterior has to be completely redone, and an engineer needs to be hired \u201cto go inside and see how much has to be done.\u201d<\/p>\n
For decades, the association has been paying the house\u2019s property taxes, which run about $6,000 a year (based on the value of the lot), but it\u2019s running out of funds, not just for the Brown house but also for maintaining the cemeteries with such costs as tree-trimming.<\/p>\n
Kalmis said the city has started a fund to provide historic preservation grants, but it prioritizes homesteaded residences. State grants are another option, he added.<\/p>\n
Rupp at Dade Heritage Trust said private foundations might be interested.\u00a0Several association directors said they\u2019d consider reaching out to the trust again.<\/p>\n
Or the City of Miami itself could step up.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cDistrict 2 has funds available for projects of this size or larger \u2013 normal funds,\u201d said George A. Simpson Jr., the association\u2019s treasurer.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Whether District 2 or the city would be interested in funding the project is an open question. Pardo\u2019s District 2 office did not respond when contacted by the Spotlight.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThat says a lot about how things are done in the district,\u201d Simpson lamented. \u201cWe are moving as slow as molasses.\u201d<\/p>\n