Fire destroys one of the remaining homes in Stiltsville
A fire on Monday morning destroyed one of the few remaining homes in Stiltsville, a community of elevated houses built in the middle of Biscayne
Bay that dates to the 1930s.
Billowing smoke from the fire was seen from land by members of the Coral Gables Police Department, who reported it to Miami Fire Rescue around 7:15 a.m., said Lt. Pete Sanchez, a fire department spokesman. By the time a fire boat arrived minutes later, the house was consumed in flames, he said.
Firefighters extinguished the blaze within 10 minutes. But the home was destroyed. “It was made of mostly wood on concrete pilings,” Sanchez said. “The wood caused it to burn quickly and intensely, and there was a lot of wind.”
Firefighters searched the charred structure and the surrounding area and determined no one was in the house or in the water. Dani Cessna, a Biscayne National Park spokeswoman, said no boats were docked at the house.
The cause of the fire is under investigation by Miami Fire Rescue and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, Sanchez said. Cessna said the state’s Bureau of Fire, Arson and Explosives is also investigating.
Stiltsville can be seen faintly from the shore of Key Biscayne. The homes are on concrete pilings about 10 feet above the flats of Biscayne Bay.
The first house at Stiltsville was built by a fisherman named “Crawfish” Eddie Walker in 1933 to sell bait and chum. He may have also used it to sell booze during Prohibition, which ended the same year. Soon, locals started invitation-only private clubs at Stiltsville, including Commodore Edward Turner, who built the Quarterdeck Club there in 1940.
By the 1960s, the height of the community, Stiltsville had 27 structures. This was around the time a ship ran aground there and someone took the initiative to create the Bikini Club, where women in bathing suits drank for free during wild parties, according to Miami Herald archives.
In 1965, Hurricane Betsy ravaged Stiltsville, and by 1992, 14 structures remained. That year, the number was reduced to seven thanks to Hurricane Andrew. The homes survived Hurricane Irma in 2017. In 1985, the state of
Florida deeded the bay bottom, on which Stiltsville’s concrete pilings stand, to Biscayne National Park. The remaining structures are cared for by the Stiltsville Trust as part of an agreement reached between the federal government and the nonprofit. Once destroyed, though, the homes can’t be replaced.
One caretaker of the house that burned Monday is Bertram Joseph “Chico” Goldsmith Jr. The home is
known as the Leshaw house, after one of the original families who lived there, he said. Access to the homes requires a permit, processed through the trust.
People were there over the weekend, Goldsmith said. He spoke with them, and it doesn’t initially appear that anything they did while there could have caused the blaze. “We don’t know if this was an accident or someone did this intentionally. We’ll see what happens.”