Landscape Information
This 82.5-acre, oceanfront park is located on the southeastern portion of Virginia Key, a barrier island approximately one mile southwest of Miami Beach. The park was established in 1945 following a “wade-in” protest at Baker’s Haulover (now Haulover Beach) north of the city and is noted as the first officially recognized beach for African Americans in Dade (now Miami-Dade) County.
Originally part of a peninsula, Virginia Key formed in 1835 following a hurricane and was enlarged in the early twentieth century with excavated spoils. In the 1920s and 1930s African Americans, denied access to Miami’s beaches, traveled to the undeveloped island for religious services and recreation. During World War II, Virginia Key Beach was used by the Navy to train African American seamen.
Dedicated August 1945, the beachfront park became a popular destination, despite being accessible only by boat. In 1947 the island was connected to the mainland by the Rickenbacker Causeway and in the 1950s permanent structures and amenities were constructed near the beach, including a dance pavilion, bathhouse, carousel, and miniature train tracks. Groins were installed along the entire beachfront to stabilize the shoreline.
The park closed in 1982 and in 1999 the Virginia Key Beach Park Trust was established to rehabilitate the site. In 2003 landscape architects Wallace Roberts & Todd prepared a master plan, and the park reopened in 2008.
Accessed from the west, the park is navigated by curvilinear drives, which edge generous lawns and naturalized areas, including a fifteen-acre coastal hammock. Historic structures, clustered in the park’s southern section, are separated from the beach by a narrow dune planted with trees and shrubs, including palms and seagrapes. The beach affords panoramic views of the Atlantic Ocean and Key Biscayne to the south.
Seventy-seven acres of the park were listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 2002.
