What has become of the old Seaboard Air Line Miami, Florida, depot, which was located on Northwest Seventh Avenue?

-- Paul Seidenman (avwriter@pacbell.net), January 23, 2001

Answers

If this was the station next to the old miami baseball stadium it was torn down but the archway at the east entrance was preserved.The last time I went by it was still there. That was about a year ago. The Seaboard logo is inscribed on the archway.

The Amtrak station in north Miami is a new moderm looking station and was built at south end of the CSX (SCL) freight yard. It is located at N.W. 37th Avenue and N.W. 83rd Street

-- bob levasseur (w4ppa1@bellsouth.net), October 15, 2002.

Dear Michael:

Many thanks for your kind reply to my question about the old Seaboard depot in Miami.

I wasn't surprised to learn that it was torn down. I recall using it during the 1960s when I rode the Seaboard, ACL and later SCL streamliners to and from Washington, DC, where I lived until I moved to San Francisco 14 years ago. I will tell you that even when I used the station, it had a rundown appearance and looked like something from a Third World country. Hopefully, it was replaced by something decent. I understand that Amtrak uses a facility in North Miami. If you can tell me anything about it, I'd find that interesting, too. Again, thank you for taking the time to write.

Sincerely, paul

-- Paul Seidenman (Avwriter@Pacbell.net), January 31, 2001.

Demolished. As a lot of Florida items from the 1920's, the building appeared to be more than it was. It was a wooden building, covered with stucco. Years of water leaks, uncertain maintenance resulted in the building being ready to collapse. The location also resulted in high operating costs-trains had to be backed out of the station and taken several miles away to be serviced, long trains would block city streets, resulting in a need to double trains on the platform tracks, all of which requiring the services of switchers and their crews- meaning that a lot of money was spent. AMTRAK certainly was not about to pay a lot of money to fix the building, nor was it willing to live with the added operational costs.

I remember the station from the 1960's-it was dingy then, and appeared to need a good stiff cleaning. The wood wasnt equal to that used in the FEC station-old growth Dade County pine, and it slowly succombed to a humid climate.

-- Michael W. Savchak (Savchak @MNR.org), January 29, 2001.