Coral Gables: From Bankruptcy to Beauty

A Special Florida Paradise

＂The Gables＂ is not merely a highly desirable bedroom community or a sprawling city with features of the City Beautiful movement scattered here and there. The brainchild of George Merrick, a visionary congregational minister’s son with a poetic bent, Coral Gables is a planned city, home to of some of the nation’s most valuable real estate, a world-renowned hotel in the Biltmore, headquarters to 120 multinational firms, a major research university and a top-ten botanical garden. The story of how Merrick’s intricate design took shape--while most developments born during the so-called Florida Boom crashed and burned--and the rise of the preservationist movement that maintains it is a testament to the power of a vision. Author Les Standiford details the amazing rise of an iconic place.

Les Standiford is the New York Times bestselling author of twenty-five critically acclaimed books and novels, including the nonfiction works Last Train to Paradise (in its fortieth printing); Palm Beach, Mar-A-Lago and the Rise of America’s Xanadu; Meet You in Hell; and Bringing Adam Home (a no. 1 national bestseller). He holds master’s and doctorate degrees in literature and creative writing from the University of Utah. He is the winner of the Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Award and is the recipient of fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities, and he has been named a ＂Florida Icon＂ by Florida Trend.