Coral Gables

A Special Florida Paradise

"The Gables" is not merely a highly desirable bedroom community or a sprawling city with features of the City Beautiful movement scattered here and there. The brainchild of George Merrick, a visionary congregational minister's son with a poetic bent, Coral Gables is a planned city, home to of some of the nation's most valuable real estate, a world-renowned hotel in the Biltmore, headquarters to 120 multinational firms, a major research university and a top-ten botanical garden. The story of how Merrick's intricate design took shape--while most developments born during the so-called Florida Boom crashed and burned--and the rise of the preservationist movement that maintains it is a testament to the power of a vision. Author Les Standiford details the amazing rise of an iconic place.