The Miami Metropolis Reported the Birth of Miami
The first issue of The Metropolis, Miami’s first newspaper, was published on May 15, 1896, one month after the press arrived aboard Flagler’s train. It reported the incorporation of the City of Miami.
Once Henry Flagler’s railroad, renamed the Florida East Coast Railway in 1895, reached Fort Dallas, his men dredged a canal, built streets, instituted the first water and power systems, and financed the town’s first newspaper — The Metropolis.
Walter S. Graham, lawyer and doctor, founded the newspaper. “In reality, the newspaper was run by Flagler’s people. Most people in town worked for Flagler — either on the railroad or on the hotel he was building near where the river met the bay,” observed journalist and historian Howard Kleinberg.
The first issue of the Metropolis read: “It is the first paper ever published on Beautiful Biscayne Bay. The most southern newspaper on the mainland of the United States, published at the most southern railroad point in Uncle Sam’s domain, and at the most southern telegraph terminal and express office on the mainland at Marvelous Miami, the town with over a thousand souls and the survey of the place not yet completed.”
That first issue encouraged citizens to incorporate, claiming: “There would be 1,500 persons living here by July.” Hyperbole had an early start.
Reporting the birth of Miami
The Metropolis edition of July 31, 1896, reported the events as they unfolded at the Lobby, a poolhall near the Miami River on Avenue D (current Miami Ave.):
“J. A. McDonald, Chairman of the Citizens Committee on Incorporation, called the meeting to order in the hall over the Lobby at 2 p.m. last Tuesday, July 28… The Chair announced that the law required two-thirds of all registered voters residing within the limits which were proposed to be incorporated must be present before any business could be done; to ascertain if the required number were present, he directed the secretary to call the roll of the registered voters. After some delay waiting until the hall could be filled, it was ascertained that 312 voters were present, 275 being two-thirds of all registered voters residing within the proposed limits. There were thirty-seven more voters than the required number present. It was then moved by W. S. Graham that the vote on the territory to be incorporated, the name of the city and device for a corporate seal be by acclamation. This was carried and the metes and bounds, as advertised, were adopted as the limits or boundaries of the City of Miami.”
And the Metropolis added:
“The meeting for the purpose of incorporating the City of Miami was remarkable in many respects, for a large number of votes polled, for its unruffled harmony, and for the expeditious way all business was handled. What other city in the State of Florida ever sprung into existence with a list of 400 registered voters, and at its meeting for the purpose of incorporating polled 344 votes?”
Residents clamored the name Flagler for the city. Flagler suggested the old Indian name for the river where the settlement was built around, Miami. And what Flagler wanted, Flagler got.
Julia Tuttle
The Mother of Miami was in town but could not vote. Women were not allowed to vote in 1896. She did not have a vote, but she certainly had a voice. For example, she willed into law a ban on alcohol in her city, excepting, of course, Flagler’s exclusive Royal Palm Hotel, which opened overlooking Biscayne Bay.
About the newspaper coverage, Howard Kleinberg added in an article for the Tequesta Magazine: “The Metropolis covered the birth of the city — a distinction few newspapers elsewhere ever have achieved. Not only that, but its editor, W.S. Graham, played a major role in the incorporation and, that same day, was among those elected to be the first seven aldermen of the new city.”
The Metropolis appeared each Friday, consisting of four tabloid pages. Subscription rates for the newspaper were $2 on an annual basis, or five cents per issue. The charge for a half-page advertisement for a full year was $400, while classified ads were five cents a line. The Metropolis operated from the wooden building shown above, near the Miami River.
[This article is based on DOWNTOWN MIAMI HISTORY, a book edited by Raul Guerrero. More information, click here.]
