DANA A. DORSEY HOUSE
Miami’s first black millionaire, Dana Albert Dorsey, built this white frame vernacular home for his wife in 1913. Dorsey amassed a real estate empire and helped shape Overtown resources and community. Dorsey helped to organize South Florida’s first Black bank and Miami’s first Black high school (Booker T. Washington High School), and donated the land for a city park and the first Black library in Miami.
SAINT JOHN BAPTIST CHURCH
The Saint John Baptist Church was first organized in 1906, making it the second-oldest Black congregation in Miami. The building was designed by the first Black-owned architecture firm in the United States, Mckissack and McKissack, and since its construction in 1939, it remains one of only a handful of Art Deco style religious buildings in Miami-Dade County.
DR. SAMUEL H. JOHNSON X-RAY CLINIC
Dr. Samuel H. Johnson constructed the X-Ray Clinic in 1939. Johnson arrived in Miami as a child in 1903 and eventually became the first black radiologist in South Florida. Black residents were denied access to X-ray facilities at Miami’s City Hospital, and Johnson created his clinic to serve the area’s black population.
EBENEZER METHODIST CHURCH
The Ebenezer Methodist Church, originally called the Ebenezer Methodist Episcopal Church, was founded in August 1898 and by 1907 was one of six active religious organizations in the Overtown community. Construction on the current church, the third site for the congregation, began in 1947.
DR. WILLIAM A. CHAPMAN HOUSE
Dr. William A. Chapman, Sr., was one of Miami’s first Black physicians. When he wasn’t traveling the state of Florida, meeting with groups in schools, churches, and homes to share information about the causes and treatment of disease, Dr. Chapman lived in this two-and-a-half-story masonry vernacular house, built in 1923.
WARD ROOMING HOUSE
Built in 1925, the Ward Rooming House opened its doors to both Black visitors and Native Americans, who were typically unable to find welcoming accommodations in Downtown Miami during the first half of the 20th century. Now a historic landmark, the Ward Rooming House stands as a symbol of the long-held values of the Overtown Community
MOUNT ZION HISTORIC BAPTIST CHURCH
Construction of the present church building began in 1928 and took thirteen years to complete. Reverend J.R. Evans, one of the most prominent religious leaders of Overtown, oversaw construction. The Church was one of the first meeting places for the Boys and Girls Scouts as well as civil rights movement leaders like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
HISTORIC BLACK POLICE PRECINCT
In the 1920’s, Black leadership fought back against routine violence by the police force, as well as the openly espoused racist views of the Miami Dade Police Chief and Sheriff, through the formation of the Colored Board of Trade and the Greater Miami Negro Civic League. After an intense, decade-long lobbying effort, Ralph White, Moody Hall, Clyde Lee, Edward Kimball, and John Milledge were sworn in as the City of Miami’s first Black Patrolmen in 1944. This building is the first municipal court where Blacks administered justice for Blacks, and patrolmen banded together to change the inequities of a segregated institution.
NEW PROVIDENCE LODGE
In 1901, a group of masons living in Overtown banded together to create a charter of the Grand Lodge of the State of Florida, named New Providence Lodge #365. The new charter allowed the group to avoid traveling to Coconut Grove for meetings, which was dangerous and tedious, because at the time, Black people were not permitted to travel in white areas of Miami without a special pass or work permit. The Lodge was built in 1947 by its members, who met in the evenings to complete construction.
INTERNATIONAL LONGSHOREMAN ASSOCIATION
Miami-Dade County dock workers were the lowest-paid longshoremen in the country, until 1936, when a longshoreman who had relocated to Miami from Georgia named Judge Henderson, encouraged 10 men to contribute $1.75 to apply for the inaugural charter in the International Longshoreman’s Association. The ILA became an effective collective bargaining group, raising rates, advancing workers’ rights, as well as leading civic and social enlightenment within the community. Henderson went on to serve ILA for 29 years and also held a national office.
BOOKER T WASHINGTON SENIOR HIGH
Booker T. Washington Elementary-Junior-Senior High School opened its doors in February 1927, as the first public high school to provide a 12th-grade education for Black students in Miami. The original opening was delayed by both a bombing during construction as well as a devastating hurricane. In spite of a tumultuous start, the school served students from West Palm Beach to Key West and became a symbol of high achievement, success, community, and civic service.