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In December 2020, we discussed Smith’s Casino, one of Miami Beach’s first tourist facilities.  That article was Part I of our look at that resort offering, but we delayed offering Part II till now because of several essays examining Christmastime Miami, 1896, the nascent city’s first holiday season, that appeared in this newspaper over the past couple of months. Miami Beach’s Smith’s Casino, Part II follows.

The reader may recall that Avery Smith and his eponymous bathing casino operated from near the southern tip of the beach in 1909, assisted by passenger vessels that carried guests from Henry M. Flagler’s Fair Building on the city of Miami’s waterfront to the facility.

Upon reaching the west side of Ocean Beach, today’s Miami Beach, visitors disembarked from a company vessel and walked across the long Fairy-Land (the original name of Smith’s Casino) dock and pier located at the foot of today’s Collins Avenue.  From there, they proceeded east along a 550-foot long boardwalk cut through a thick mangrove forest, which was later replaced by a row of coconut palm trees, to the pavilion, which hugged the shoreline of the Atlantic Ocean.

Along with John C. Warr, Smith’s business partner in this enterprise, the casino offered not only bathing facilities, but also a large saltwater swimming pool, a restaurant/grill, a dance floor and a string of cottages.  Additionally, the bathing casino contained twenty-four bath houses in two separate buildings, one for men, the other for women.  A windmill pumped water for fresh water shower-baths.  Visitors were greeted by a vast amount of signage announcing Smith’s Casino, but also informing the reader of the dance hall and the restaurant on the premises.  Another message on the vast signage at the entrance to the facility announced that it was “The Pride and Joy of Miami Beach.”  Or if that encomium was not enough, an additional message at the entrance insisted that Smith’s Casino was “The Joy Spot of Miami Beach.” After it was renamed Smith’s Casino, the beautiful ocean beach lying in front of it became known as Smith’s Beach.

Smith’s Casino can make many claims as a noteworthy part of the early Miami Beach scene.  One interesting aspect of its importance centers on Joe Weiss (later joined by his wife, Jennie  and son Jesse Weiss), who, upon arriving on Ocean Beach in 1913, ran its lunch counter. In 1918, the Weisses bought a bungalow near the casino on Biscayne Street.  As noted in Eat at Joe’s, the Weisses, with their young son Jesse, moved into the back of the home, “set up seven or eight tables on the front porch, cooked in the kitchen, and called it Joe’s Restaurant.” Several years later, with stone crabs now an integral part of the menu, the Weisses were calling their restaurant Joe’s Stone Crab.

Despite the appearance of other nearby bathing facilities, Smith’s Casino remained successful as the eventful decade of the 1920s dawned.  And Avery Smith continued to make costly additions to his complex.  By the mid-1920s, Smith’s Casino claimed to be the largest bathing casino on Miami Beach.  Its concrete swimming pool measured forty by 140 feet, and it contained 300,000 gallons of salt water.  Clearly, it was the largest swimming pool on the beach.

Smith sold his tourist facility in 1926.  Soon after, it was torn down to make way for the Miami Beach Kennel Club, a dog track and a popular attraction, which occupied that site till 1980. A residential complex now occupies the same footprint. Smith’s Casino is remembered by local history buffs–but few others– for the fact that it was the first in a long line of tourist offerings on Miami Beach and a harbinger of the imaginative attractions that this world-famous resort has offered visitors for a century to its sunny confines.

Paul S. George, Ph.D., serves as Resident Historian, HistoryMiami Museum.  He conducts history tours throughout the County and even beyond for HistoryMiami. Additionally, he teaches classes in Miami/S. Florida and Florida history for the Museum. Dr. George has also led, since 2002, tours of Little Havana as part of Viernes Culturales, a monthly celebration, every third Friday, of the culture and history of that quarter.

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