Nestled along the southwestern edge of Biscayne Bay Aquatic Preserve, the Deering Estate is Miami’s premier landmark that showcases the best of South Florida’s historic architecture and natural environment. As a 21st Century museum destination for tourists and local residents, a variety of signature events, programs, tours and classes are offered throughout the year.

The Deering Estate encompasses over 450 acres, including eight native ecosystems including the globally endangered pine rockland habitat, tropical hardwood hammock, mangrove forests, salt marshes, Chicken Key, and submerged sea-grasses. The waters off the Deering Estate are bracketed by Biscayne Bay Aquatic Preserve and Biscayne National Park. The site is located on the high ground of the Atlantic Rock Ridge, where the fresh water of the Everglades meets Biscayne Bay. This remarkable place has hosted 10,000 years of nearly continuous human occupation including Paleo-Indian shelters, Tequesta settlements, Seminole hunting grounds, Bahamian and Florida Cracker homesteads and the town of Cutler. Cutler was established around the Perrine Land Grant Township, and included a post office, coastal road and docks. The town met its demise in 1903, when Flagler’s East Coast Railroad plans were relocated further inland. The Richmond Cottage, originally built in 1896 as a two story balloon frame vernacular home for S. H. Richmond and his family, is one of the oldest wooden structures in Miami Dade County and the last remaining structure of the former town of Cutler.

From 1913-1918, Charles Deering purchased the land and renovated the Richmond Inn, the area’s only hotel. Adding a pump station, carriage and car garage, generator house, and boat turning basin as support structures. Deering’s winter residence became a self-sustaining homestead for he and his wife, Marion. Over the next few years, Deering invited renowned botanists, David Fairchild and John Kunkel Small, to implement a restoration of the area’s natural environment. In 1922, he also contracted the notable Coral Gables’ architect Phineas Paist to build the Stone House, a 13,000 square foot Mediterranean Revival home capable of housing the massive art and furnishings collection he was relocating from his homes in Spain, New York and Chicago.

Charles Deering died in 1927, but the estate remained with his heirs until 1986 when it was purchased by the State of Florida and added to the National Registry of Historic Places. Most of Deering’s original art collection was donated to the Art Institute of Chicago and the Libraries at Northwestern University by his daughters. Today, the Deering Estate is managed by Miami-Dade County’s Parks, Recreation and Open Spaces Department and supported by the Deering Estate Foundation, Inc. Some original items can be seen in the homes today, as well as the tropical hardwood hammock and endangered pine rocklands are preserved to transport our guests to the past.