1960 DEP Map of Greater Miami, Florida

South Florida's Postwar Sprawl.

This is a scarce large-format c. 1960 map of Miami and environs in South Florida. It captures the region at a time of rapid growth, when new developments and towns were cropping up in rapid succession.

A Closer Look

Coverage includes much of Miami-Dade County, namely the developed and inhabited areas near the coast, stretching from Golden Beach, North Miami Beach, and surrounding communities southwards to Florida City and Homestead. The recto includes Miami proper and encompasses land as far south as Kendall, while the verso depicts the southern portion of the county. Dotted lines mark out the borders of communities, military bases, university campuses, racetracks, and other key features. Major roads, highways, railways, airports, golf courses, stadiums, parks, tourist attractions, and other sites are labelled throughout. A grid surrounds the map corresponding to indexes on the recto and verso, with the extensive verso index (transportation chart) providing information on various means of reaching attractions. The map is unusual in several respects, including the text resembling handwriting used to indicate landmarks and attractions. An illustration at bottom-right on the verso promotes a self-guided tour of Coral Gables. The cover includes a brief, curious history of mapmaking from the oldest known map at Nuzi near Kirkuk (Iraq, not Egypt) down to the present work.

Some tracts of land had been assigned specific purposes for public use and have since been converted to other uses. A primary example of this phenomenon is the no-longer-extant 'University of Miami South Campus,' which appears on the verso adjacent to a U.S. Naval Air Station (Naval Air Station Richmond). Around the time of this map's publication, a portion of the campus was leased to the Central Intelligence Agency to conduct intelligence gathering operations on Castro's Cuba. The area is now home to the Miami-Dade Zoological Park and Gardens and the Gold Coast Railroad Museum.

Publication History and Census

This map was produced by an unknown maker and, based on the features present (and absent) as well as other evidence such as the mix of five and seven-digit phone numbers, was published in the early 1960s. The initials D.E.P. appear in small letters in the border at bottom-right, but do not provide enough information to attribute the map. The Touchton Map Library at the Tampa Bay History Center holds a map (Accession Number L2018.111.081, also held by the University of South Florida, OCLC 1119388466), which bears a stylistic resemblance to the present one; it is dated to the late 1950s and issued by the Guide Publishing Co., seemingly a short-lived map publisher based in Coral Gables. We are only aware of one example of the present map in institutional collections, held by the University of Minnesota Twin Cities.

Condition

Excellent. Some toning where originally folded against itself.

References

OCLC 317449106.