STATE BOARD PROPS UP CLAIM OF STILTSVILLE'S HISTORIC STATUS

Saturday, August 29, 1998
By TINA CUMMINGS Herald Staff Writer

Tallahassee - Stiltsville lives.
On Friday, the state historic preservation board voted unanimously to recommend the Stiltsville site to the National Register of Historic Places.

''We're ecstatic,'' said Jim Cooney, a Miami native who coordinated the presentation. ``The state historic board recognized Stiltsville's significance.''

Paul George, a history professor at Miami-Dade Community College who has researched Stiltsville, gave passionate pleas to the state historic board to save the``one-of-a-kind Miami maritime community.''

Cooney and George were joined by Gail Baldwin, a Stiltsville resident for 25 years; Tom Caldwell, a Miami attorney who grew up in Stiltsville; and Arva Moore Parks, author, historian and former owner of a Stiltsville home.

With only one letter of opposition submitted to the Division of Historical Resources on adding Stiltsville to the National Record of Historic Places, Stiltsvillians are taking pride in persuading the board to nominate what Parks calls a ``very fragile piece of history'' for salvage.

The current seven Stiltsville homes are the descendants of an ever-evolving community that began in the early 1930s. Over the years, other shelters were added, sometimes on grounded barges and sometimes on pilings. At its height, about 25 such dwellings populated the bay's outer reaches.

Letters of support came from Becky Roper Matkov, executive director of Dade Heritage Trust, and Margot Ammidown, former director of Dade's historic preservation department. Both urged the nomination as a way to preserve ``a site of unique cultural significance.''

The sole opponent: Don Chinquina, executive director of the Tropical Audubon Society. ``The real issue is whether we, as a nation, should allow private interests to lease lands within national parks,'' Chinquina wrote. ``The goal of preserving Stiltsville as a piece of `old' Florida is worthy only if the public is granted access to the sites.''

According to Parks, historian and author of Miami: Magic City: ``Stiltsville is already used by a lot of civic groups. It's used to make people love Miami.'' According to Stiltsville supporters, the original Biscayne National Park did not even include the Stiltsville area, only later encompassed by the National Park Service.

When supporters were asked by the board whether the nomination was a way to get the National Park Service to extend bay-bottom leases to Stiltsvillians, they answered honestly, ``Yes.''

Barbara Mattick, state historic board staff coordinator, also noted the National Park Service's desire to have the Stiltsville situation evaluated by the State Historical Resources Division. Ellen Uguccioni, the state historic board member who moved the nomination, said: ``Stiltsville is a great anomaly that has become a cherished part of Miami and quite a significant property for a long time.''

Even though most sites nominated for the National Register of Historic Places are a minimum of 50 years old, the board says the fact that the site has been ``continually occupied'' speaks to its historical significance.

The final decision on the nomination will come from the National Register for Historic Places, but the state decision makes it ``almost a slam dunk,'' Parks said.