Homestead, the second oldest city in Miami-Dade County, sits near the tip of peninsular Florida, thirty miles south of Miami. Located in a precarious natural environment, bounded on the west by Everglades National Park, and to the south and east by Biscayne Bay and the Atlantic Ocean, the city has been the victim of many hurricanes.

Opened to settlers in 1898 and accessed by the Homesteaders Trail, the area was initially known as Homestead Country. Early settlers discovered that soil and climatic conditions were excellent for fruit and vegetable cultivation, and the arrival of Henry Flagler's East Coast Railway in 1904 provided them with a means to transport their crops to market. Coinciding with the arrival of Flagler's railroad, W.D. Horne opened the town's first commercial building, the Homestead Inn. It was followed by the Bank of Homestead circa 1910 and the Seminole Theater in 1921. A product of both the Florida land boom and the growing popularity of silent films, the Seminole represented the only indoor theater between the Upper Keys and Miami, making it a center of the region's social and cultural life in the early twentieth century.

With Homestead's continued growth and development, the town attracted new residents, including large numbers of African-American agricultural workers. Segregation forced Black residents to settle the city's southwest side where they founded grocery stores, juke joints, restaurants, churches, and a movie theatre along Southwest 4th street, today Martin Luther King Boulevard.

Those historic structures, along with all else in Homestead, felt the wrath of hurricanes in the twentieth century--the most severe episodes occurring in 1926, 1945, and 1992. The 1992 storm, the infamous Hurricane Andrew, was a Category 5 event that victimized many of the city's historic sites, including the Seminole Theater.

Reconstructed, the Seminole is one of many 63 buildings that comprise the city's historic district. Another is the Bank of Homestead, now the local Police Department, and the Redland Hotel. When a 1913 fire destroyed the original inn on the site, this structure was built in its place. The historic Black section of town also has been the subject of recent preservation efforts, demonstrating the resiliency of Florida's rich cultural and historical heritage even in the most precarious of natural environments.

This podcast made possible through a grant from the Florida Humanities Council. Script written by Naomi Williams. Narrated by Jonathon Heide.