A landmark 1921 East Little Havana bungalow glows anew as a new home for an environmental group, thanks to preservationists.
From Saturday’s print edition.
BY ANDRES VIGLUCCI
For 40 years, Rolando and Mercedes Alvarez lovingly tended their elegant, gabled Miami bungalow, a 1921 landmark sitting atop a slight rise roughly a long touchdown pass from the Orange Bowl -- until, aging and in declining health, they agreed to sell to a developer who planned to tear it down.
Six years later, the OB is gone. But the Alvarez abode abides, saved from certain ruin by Dade Heritage Trust, and newly and fully restored inside and out.
Saturday, the Hubbard-Alvarez bungalow at 138 N.W. 16th Ave. -- now an official historic landmark named for the two families who occupied it, and lightly converted to office use -- begins a fresh life.
Its new owners, Citizens for a Better South Florida -- a nonprofit environmental education group that focuses on underserved communities -- will establish its headquarters in the bungalow. The group's leaders hope the restored house will become a beacon of possibility for the struggling neighborhood around it.
Preservationists hope the bungalow restoration will inspire others to save the city's neglected and dwindling stock of bungalows -- of which the Hubbard-Alvarez is one of the crown jewels because of its soaring, stacked gables, which resemble a bird in flight.
Read all about it here.
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