About

ABOUT OVERTOWN MIAMI

Overtown is one of Miami’s earliest historically black communities. The area’s first settlers were black workmen who followed the FEC railroad south as it was extended from Palm Beach to Miami. The area we now know as Overtown was originally called Colored Town and was designated by Henry Flagler and Julia Tuttle as the location for black laborers and their families to live. Black men provided the primary labor force for building Miami and as a result the history of Overtown is inextricably and permanently linked to the story of Miami, “The Magic City”.

Colored Miami began to flourish as a community. By 1905 Colored Town’s Avenue G now known as NW 2nd Avenue and immediate areas had many first class stores and shops. The area grew to include restaurants, grocery stores, barber, beauty, tailor and dressmaker shops, doctor and law offices, a milliner, local insurance company, and a soda water bottling company called Cola Nip. It became a tourist and entertainment destination, not only for local blacks, but people of African descent from around the country. White tourist and white residents frequented this neighborhood to enjoy the entertainment, to partake of the exotic foods, and to listen to popular and gospel music.

Overtown was both nationally and international recognized. It was commonly referred to as “Miami’s Little Broadway” and rivaled the Harlem night scene of New York. Famous artists’ of the day, such as Ella Fitzgerald, Duke Ellington, Billie Holiday, Count Basie, Sarah Vaughn, Aretha Franklin, Etta James, The Impressions, Brook Benton, Red Foxx and a host of others performed and stayed in Knight Beat Lounge and Hotel, The Carver Hotel, The Rockland Palace, The Dorsey, The Marsha Ann and The Lord Calvert. (Courtesy of The Black Archives History and Research Foundation of South Florida, Inc.)