North Beach's 1934 Log Cabin, in storage since 2018, back before a city committee

The North Beach Log Cabin, a 1934 building that has sat dismantled in storage for more than eight years, returns to a Miami Beach commission committee Monday, Nov. 9, with a new idea for its use: a one-stop center for family services.

Miami architect Emil Ehmann built the cabin less than two decades after the city was founded, according to a city memo for the meeting. It later served as a plant nursery and housed programs for adults with developmental disabilities. The city has never designated it historic, but the memo calls it a cherished North Beach landmark.

How it got here

A 2017 engineering assessment found the cabin too deteriorated to move whole, though about half of it could be saved, with rebuilding estimated at $750,000 to $1 million. The commission spent $274,000 to take it apart, and from December 2017 to March 2018 the salvaged pieces were cataloged and put in two 20-foot containers, the memo says.

In 2018 the commission voted to rebuild it as a café and information center near 82nd Street and Collins Avenue in North Beach Oceanside Park, and voters approved it in that year’s general obligation bond, at an estimated $1,076,000. The memo says more money will be needed because of rising costs. The Design Review Board approved the design in November 2025.

But residents at a September 2025 community meeting asked to put the cabin back on its original site on the West Lots, across Collins Avenue. Commissioners Tanya K. Bhatt and Laura Dominguez cited homelessness, sea turtle nesting and storm surge as concerns about the park site. In April 2026, the commission paused the design work to study folding the cabin into the larger West Lots plan.

What’s proposed now

The city’s housing office has been working with Bhatt’s office on a “Thrive Hive” family success center at the cabin, with parenting groups, help applying for benefits, referrals to housing, health and job programs, a food pantry and job training, the memo says. Parks staff could add art, culture and wellness classes. The administration supports exploring uses that fit the cabin’s history and the West Lots plan.

The Public Safety and Neighborhood Quality of Life Committee meets at 9 a.m. Monday at City Hall, 1700 Convention Center Drive. Two other items on its agenda, moving the cabin to the West Lots and an update on the bond project, are listed as future items.