A variety of vintage postcards of Miami Beach, found in the Flickr collections of two avid postcard collectors Phillip Pessar and More_Than_Sunshine, show a side of Miami Beach as seen from the sidewalk, the street, or even the curb.
Miami Beach, a city of hotels, is often known for its most famous establishments of yesterday and today: places like the Fontainebleau, the Eden Roc, and the Delano. But there are scores of lesser-known hotels that have come and gone and often show different, more surprising sides to the beach. A catalog of hotel postcards from the University of Miami Libraries shows some of the big famous hotels, but even more smaller establishments that have been almost forgotten over the years. Check them out, this way.
In the first half of the twentieth century, when most postcards were incredible little drawings in vibrant colors of a building, or a city, or a boat, or a scene, or whatever, it seems like there were postcards of everything. Hotels, even small ones that nobody would ever think to make a custom postcard for today, had custom postcards. Downtown Miami, which was vividly documented, is a great example. There were postcards of apartment buildings, offices buildings, restaurants, and department stores. Looking at these postcards, as documented and preserved by Miami street photographer Phillip Pessar, one can take a polychromatic tour of Downtown's streets.
