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The Blackstone

Miami Beach, Italy

The Blackstone

The Blackstone is a residential building located at 800 Washington Avenue, Miami Beach, Florida, United States. It was designed as the Blackstone Hotel by architect B. Kingston Hall in 1929. Built and designed in the Mediterranean Revival style, the hotel was 13 stories high, had a mission tile roof

supported by exposed rafters, and was topped by a clock that concealed the hotel’s elevator machinery. Nathan Stone, a Jewish entrepreneur, was the developer but he died shortly before the hotel opened in 1929. Nathan's son Alfred Stone (father of future senator U.S. Senator Richard Stone) completed the construction and ran the hotel. At the time it was built, it was considered to be the tallest building in the city, and so remained for seven years. The Blackstone Hotel is reputed to be the first Miami Beach hotel to solicit Jewish clients, and also the first to give accommodations to African-Americans. In 1954, the African Methodist Church organized a convention to take place in Miami Beach and tasked local Black minister Edward Graham to find a hotel for the event. The Blackstone Hotel was the only large hotel that agreed to host the convention, however, when the news became public, the...

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