Stiltsville

If you look out into the water at the southern tip of Key Biscayne [1], you’re likely to see the unusual sight of seven houses situated in the middle of Biscayne Bay. Those houses are all that remains of Stiltsville, which began with the construction of a fishing shack in the 1920s and soon saw other buildings like the Calvert Club and Party Central being built as a way for moneyed Miamians to escape the hustle and bustle of city life…and many of the pesky vice laws that were less easily enforced several yards away from land.

The houses of Stiltsville have figured prominently in Miami [2]’s underground lore (Carl Hiaasen wrote of activities there in three of his books), but today most of the old social clubs are gone, and the remaining Stiltsville houses have barely escaped being demolished by the National Park Service, which, in an odd turn, now owns and maintains them.