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Miami’s Mother

Do you know Miami has a mother? It does. In fact, Miami is widely viewed as the only major U.S. city founded by a woman.

 

Miami has celebrated its mother, Julia Tuttle, long before Mother’s Day became a U.S. holiday in 1914. Tuttle visited Miami for the first time in 1874 with her father. She returned to be with her husband and children in Ohio, but it didn’t take long for her to realize she wanted to trade in those cold Ohio winters for some warm Florida sunshine. When her father died in 1891, she moved to Miami and purchased 640 acres of land, which included Fort Dallas, on the banks of the Miami River.

 

Tuttle soon realized if Miami was ever going to become a city, it needed one thing: a railroad. At the time, Henry Flagler decided that his railroad would make its last stop in Palm Beach, so Tuttle started sending letters and even visited Flagler, urging him to bring his railroad 60 miles south to Miami; but he wouldn’t budge.

 

Thankfully, Mother Nature gave Tuttle just the help she needed. The Great Freeze of 1894 wiped out Florida’s citrus crop. HistoryMiami historian Dr. Paul George says Tuttle sent Flagler a perfectly intact orange blossom to show Miami’s mercury didn’t hit the freezing mark. Seeing the economic opportunity, Flagler decided to put Miami on his map.

 

Tuttle supplied Flagler with the land for a hotel and a railroad station for free, and they split the remainder of her land. Finally, on April 13, 1896, the first train arrived in downtown Miami. Within one month, Miami officially became a city, and Tuttle became the mother of Miami.

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Drew Limsky

Drew Limsky

Editor-in-Chief

BIOGRAPHY

Drew Limsky joined Lifestyle Media Group in August 2020 as Editor-in-Chief of South Florida Business & Wealth. His first issue of SFBW, October 2020, heralded a reimagined structure, with new content categories and a slew of fresh visual themes. “As sort of a cross between Forbes and Robb Report, with a dash of GQ and Vogue,” Limsky says, “SFBW reflects South Florida’s increasingly sophisticated and dynamic business and cultural landscape.”

Limsky, an avid traveler, swimmer and film buff who holds a law degree and Ph.D. from New York University, likes to say, “I’m a doctor, but I can’t operate—except on your brand.” He wrote his dissertation on the nonfiction work of Joan Didion. Prior to that, Limsky received his B.A. in English, summa cum laude, from Emory University and earned his M.A. in literature at American University in connection with a Masters Scholar Award fellowship.

Limsky came to SFBW at the apex of a storied career in journalism and publishing that includes six previous lead editorial roles, including for some of the world’s best-known brands. He served as global editor-in-chief of Lexus magazine, founding editor-in-chief of custom lifestyle magazines for Cadillac and Holland America Line, and was the founding editor-in-chief of Modern Luxury Interiors South Florida. He also was the executive editor for B2B magazines for Acura and Honda Financial Services, and he served as travel editor for Conde Nast. Magazines under Limsky’s editorship have garnered more than 75 industry awards.

He has also written for many of the country’s top newspapers and magazines, including The New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Miami Herald, Boston Globe, USA Today, Worth, Robb Report, Afar, Time Out New York, National Geographic Traveler, Men’s Journal, Ritz-Carlton, Elite Traveler, Florida Design, Metropolis and Architectural Digest Mexico. His other clients have included Four Seasons, Acqualina Resort & Residences, Yahoo!, American Airlines, Wynn, Douglas Elliman and Corcoran. As an adjunct assistant professor, Limsky has taught journalism, film and creative writing at the City University of New York, Pace University, American University and other colleges.