Grove Monopoly from back in the day
Harry Emilio Gottlieb came across this old Coconut Grove version of Monopoly. It brings back so many memories.
I had forgotten about a lot of these places like Cats, Regine's and Grove Nautilus.
A place I used to work for would print the Regine's posters, also Suzanne's in the Grove. They would both promote different things each week and we would do that printing. Also I see the Home Show -- that was a fixture once or twice a year at the Expo Center along with antique shows every month for Coconut Grove Cares, a local charity.
The Burdines at Mayfair brings back memories, too. Many of you may not know, but Mayfair used to be an indoor mall, very exclusive, giving Bal Harbour a run for their money, or trying anyway. They were so overpriced and out of place for the Grove that the whole thing was knocked down and made into what you see today.
That's a great lesson for those who would want to make the Grove so elitist. It won't work.
To see what the old Mayfair mall looked like, you could get an idea by going into the current Mayfair Hotel, which was part of the structure. The center courtyard was what the mall looked like only it was much larger, with many more water features.
It had sort of a hush and there was never really any foot traffic except for the clubs at night. It consisted of stores like Ferragamo and Gucci and Versace. The Burdines was so overpriced, you could actually go to Dadeland and get the same exact items for much less. But even so, it was a nice place to visit, a tourist destination -- a place you would take visitors from out of town. Maybe it could have worked today with regular stores that weren't so out of reach for regular shoppers.
posted by Tom Falco at 2:16 PM
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6 Comments:
OMG, the Coconut Grove Hotel and Biscayne Baby. What memories!
Pretty interesting, Grape. Funny part is that if you made this game today you would need to include a bunch of blank stickers so you could add in the new businesses after the old close their doors. It would be fun to design though, especially the Community Chest cards.
"Got lost looking for information at the info booth, lose a turn."
"City builds Sarnoff Circle, you lose $1000."
"Your art sells at CG Art Fest, gain $2500."
Not true - that Burdines used to have some great sales. I used to work downtown and the Grove Burdines was better than that one. We could sure use a store like that here again.
The original Mayfair worked reasonably well for a spell. At the time, the town was awash in drug money and flight capital from one or another South American nation. The very well-kept lady friends of the dealers and dictators would wander into Mayfair in the afternoons and drop huge piles of cash on the outrageously overpriced designer doodahs. No crowds were needed, nor indeed wanted. All very quiet and discrete. But by and by, times changed and the money went elsewhere.
One other thing...the whole structure was not in fact torn down although it was basically gutted and rebuilt as it is today.
Back in the day is spot on.
Those were the drug days and Mayfair thrived on it until the drug money left - actually, they moved out of the Grove where too many of them lived, and went to very west Kendall when the heat came on.
Those were different days in the Grove - the Grove had decided that it was going to be an artsy, hippie, relaxed, pot smoking community. And the Grove was quaint, pictoresque, and charming.
And that wouldn't necessarily work today, however, the problem is that the Grove hasn't decided what it really wants to be and so we linger in limbo, with no particular attraction. We're not quite hippie anymore, we're not full of high-end stores a la Worth Avenue, so we ain't that either.
The mish-mash we have now does not mesh.
I say we save the part of the Grove that's left relatively untouched.
Save Main and Grand, from Cocowalk to beyond Commodore, and make it funky again, only better. A la Beale Street, with live music and low rise buildings; where jeans and gowns can mix, drawn by a village center with personality.
However, whatever the Grove is or will be, I wouldn't live anywhere else. I love it.
They could re-release that game today, just change some store name's and squeeze some high rises
in between the properties that are already there. You chained your bike to a Pole or you were busted selling art in your front yard go directly to jail. Do not pass go!
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