The Raleigh

What It Is

The Raleigh is a Collins Avenue hotel designed by L. Murray Dixon, one of the most prolific architects of Miami Beach's Art Deco district, and opened around 1940. Its calling card is the curving, fleur-de-lis-shaped swimming pool, which Esther Williams swam in and which appeared in countless mid-century photographs and films. The building's restrained Deco lines, terrazzo floors, and intimate scale make it a quintessential example of the district's pre-war hotel architecture. Like much of South Beach it fell into decline and has gone through cycles of restoration and redevelopment.

Why It Matters

The Raleigh is a touchstone of the recovery and Art Deco era, when Miami Beach rebuilt itself after the 1920s bust and the hurricanes that followed by erecting hundreds of small, optimistic hotels. That dense collection of Deco buildings is exactly what later made the district worth saving and reviving in the 1980s and 1990s. The Raleigh's pool, in particular, became a piece of shorthand for the city's mid-century glamour — proof that even Miami Beach's modest hotels were designed as stage sets, an instinct the city has never lost.

Neighborhoods: Miami Beach Eras: Recovery & Art Deco Related people: L. Murray Dixon