Historic house on St. Gaudens Road is saved

Remember that old 1920-built Mediterranean house at 3525 St. Gaudens Road, here in Coconut Grove? The house designed by famous architect Richard Kiehnel for owner Albert Frantz, one of Coconut Grove's first developers, was designated as historic on Tuesday by the Miami Historic Preservation Board. It's believed tht Kiehnel defined Miami in the early years. 

This is a win for neighbors and preservationists who fought to keep the new owner, developer Eduardo Goudie, from knocking down the house and building multiple dwellings on the property, cookie cutter-style and zero lot lines, no doubt. This is good in that developers may start to back off single family owns for investments now. If they aren't planning to keep the original house they will not be able to cram as much as the can into one lot, in essence, destroying the neighborhood. 

A measure is up for final approval by the City Commission on Thursday, which would block residents from requesting designations, which they can do now. The City wants to leave it up to city officials and preservation board members and certain groups like Miami Dade Preservation League and Dade Heritage Trust. It sort of helps the cause when you think about it, because a resident would then have better representation behind them than if they stood up at a meeting and went it alone.