Way Back When: Bal Harbour turns 80, and it almost stayed Bay Harbour

Bal Harbour is marking 80 years this fall, with a residents’ celebration scheduled for Sunday night at Waterfront Park and a Founders Circle re-dedication set for Nov. 5 at 9650 Collins Ave. The village it’s celebrating nearly had a different name.

The story starts in 1929, when a Detroit real estate company headed by industrialist Robert C. Graham bought raw land at the north end of the island, according to a 2018 Florida Senate resolution. The resolution says the village was incorporated on Aug. 14, 1946, as Bay Harbour, then renamed to better reflect its spot on both Biscayne Bay and the Atlantic. Wikipedia’s account, drawn from an older village history, says planners dropped the original name as unsuitable for a beachfront village, and that “Bal” was a made-up word.

World War II came between the land deal and the village. That same account says Graham rented the land to the Air Corps, which used it for training and a prisoner-of-war camp. It also says he moved 25 families into converted apartments so the new village would have enough voters to incorporate. Red Sidewalks could not open the original village history behind those details.

The postcard above, from around 1951, shows the Brownstone Apartments in the young village.

The Bal Harbour most people know came later. Bal Harbour Shops says it opened in November 1965 on the site of a World War II Army barracks. The Senate resolution says developer Stanley Whitman built it despite early resistance from locals.