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Don Boyd | all galleries >> Memories of Old Hialeah, Old Miami and Old South Florida Photo Galleries - largest non-Facebook collection on the internet >> Miami Area HOTELS and MOTELS Historical Photos Gallery - All Years - click on image to view > 1950's - aerial view of the Whitman Hotel or the Sea Isle Hotel at 30th Street and Collins Avenue, Miami Beach
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1950's Courtesy of Stan Meade

1950's - aerial view of the Whitman Hotel or the Sea Isle Hotel at 30th Street and Collins Avenue, Miami Beach

Miami Beach, Florida


Thank you to Stan Meade for contributing this great old image and Jeff Levine for identifying the photographer as Ernie W. Skog. Unfortunately the hotel's name is still up for debate.


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WILLIAM BROWN 01-Jul-2021 14:20
Hi, My name is Bill Brown and I worked for the Trailways Bus Company out of the port of authority NYC. I worked a Trailways 14 day circle line tour of Florida. One of the tour stops was 4 days in Miami Beach at the Sea Isle Hotel I would park the bus across the street at a parking lot which I am sure now is well built up. The food was spectacular especially the motza ball soup to start off your meal. We never had a complaint about the dining I can still picture the ma trade sitting our folks for diner. At night there was a tiki bar at the bottom of the Sea Isle Hotel with a very funny and personable bartender named Melvin and a piano player when he finished his show in the main dining room he would play down in the tiki bar his name was Ronnie and he also had a large following. I spent many a four-day stay at the Sea Isle which is a memory not to be ever forgotten
Suzanne Dauwalter 14-May-2020 01:17
Hello! My parents who were both from New York met and fell in love at the Sea Isle Hotel. This was in the late 50’s. They dated for a year or so and were married in 1960. When I ended up in Miami in 2002, my father asked me to see if the Sea Isle Hotel was still there. It wasn’t. I feel I’ve come full circle! I’d love to see actual photos if someone has any. I think Kathy who commented back in October might have some. Thank you! Suzanne
Kathy 05-Oct-2019 21:08
This is not the Sea Isle. I stayed at the Sea Isle and have pictures of it. The Sea Isle is now the Palms Hotel.
Joan 03-Oct-2019 21:57
My father stayed at the Sea Isle in the Fall of 1943 while training for the Army Air Corps. He notes in one letter while located there 'he went to visit the Chaplain who was on the 12th floor'. Hotel in this photo has 7 floors plus lobby, "penthouse" and tower, so yes this is not the Sea Isle. His next hotel was the Rendale which he was moved to because the Sea Isle was being returned to it's owners. He stayed at six different hotels on Miami Beach as he did not make it as a pilot and the Army kept moving him. Learned details about his military service a few years ago when I read letters, about a hundred of them, that he sent to his parents.
Jeff 24-Nov-2016 02:15
This is DEFINITELY the Whitman/Robert Richter Hotel. I even did a Google search for an image of the Sea Isle to compare and found one looking West from the ocean [as this one does]. Not only is the building's top different, but the architecture is totally different.

By the way, note the construction scaffolding at the right of the image...

Sorry to dissapoint those who believed otherwise, but images don't lie [unless you Photoshop them...LOL!)
Bobmcnamee 05-Aug-2016 19:26

ps. That's definitely neither Juniors Restaurant or the Seville Hotel to the South of the Whitman or the Richter Hotels on the S.E. corner of 30th & Collins Ave and surely the Saxony Hotel. Too many votes against & other factors for it to be the Sea Isle Hotel. Bob McNamara/Swimming Instructor & Cabana Mgr./Montmartre Hotel 1970-1980
Bob Mcnamara/Swimming Instructor 29-Jun-2015 02:28
Depending on the year The Whitman became the Robert Richter is the name of the Hotel you're looking for. In the early 50's I spent a lot of time dancing in the Richter & the Shoremede, the latter just North of the Versailles & the Richter just to the south with the Saxony just sticking out south of that. Both the Shoremede & the Richter became parking lots. It's definitely not the Sea Isle Hotel. At 1st glance it does look as if it could be the Sea Isle but my knowledge of the area confirmed it wasn't. I also lived at the Sea Isle West which is not in the photo and that is not 30th & Collins Av. Thank You, Bob Mac
Don Boyd24-Nov-2014 02:26
Thank you to all the posters who say it is the Sea Isle, and all the posters who have identified it as the Whitman. Since y'all seem to be evenly divided I am changing the title yet again to reflect both names until some really authoritative source tells us what it is. I never knew of any hotel on Miami Beach that couldn't gain a resounding vote of confidence in the correct name of it until now. : )

Don
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brian cooper 24-Nov-2014 00:59
Defo not the sea isle.i stayed at the sea isle may 1980 when I was ten years old.dennys diner right next door to it, I went back on my 40th brthday in 2009 wow how time goes.happy days
Guest 12-May-2014 20:54
The picture is the Whitman, later the Robert Richter, on one side is the Saxony and the other the Versallies. The Sea Isle was a little further south. The Saxony, the Sans Souci and then the Sea Isle.
Andrea MacDonald 11-Sep-2013 01:43
Actually after visiting other sites, I think this is the Whitman like other comments suggested. Sorry! The Sea Isle was next door according to a diagram i've found online.
Andrea MacDonald 11-Sep-2013 01:31
When I lived in the UK, we came to Miami and stayed at the Sea Isle. The year was 1979 or 1980. It definitely is that hotel. We also went to a restaurant called Sambos, which was down the street (north). I tasted my first waffle with maple syrup! Yum! I was 13 at the time. Now 46.....wow....how time flies.
Guest 02-Jul-2013 01:06
We stayed in the 1960's not the 1950's!
Guest 02-Jul-2013 01:05
My family stayed at the Sea Isle Hotel for many years at the end of August in the 1950's. I remember playing Volleyball on the beach, swimming in the pool and enjoying the ocean. We met the same families every year and became a family. The youth counselors came back to the hotel in the evening and we would hang together. Great memories were made at this wonderful family hotel. Miss the good old days!
Guest 23-Feb-2013 17:15
This not the Sea Isle.... The Sea Isle was on 30th street and Collins Ave, it's now called The Palms Hotel. The picture shown is of the current Versailles Hotel/Condo on 34th street and Collins Ave.
carol miller 29-Sep-2012 04:20
was the Dolphins Den in this hotel back in the early 70s ?? lolamiller77@yahoo.com
David Tanner 18-Sep-2012 16:04
That is the Whitman Later the Robt. Richter , taking up 33rd to 34th Sts.. There is no boubt adout it.
David Tanner 18-Sep-2012 15:51
That is the Whitman Later the Robt. Richter , taking up 33rd to 34th sts. There is no boubt adout it.
Guest 22-Jun-2012 01:30
That picture looks more like the WHITMAN, built 1926 & later becoming the ROBERT RICHTER in the mid 50's, somewhere around 33rd St. the top of the building is wrong for the SEA ISLE.
liz 28-Jan-2012 17:22
My 91 year old dad says the hotel was used for housing air corps guys in flight school training at the start of WWII... He had a room in 1943 on the 4th floor. They had to be able to evacuate the hotel (drills) in 1 minute. The entire hotel had been leased to the government!
Don Boyd23-Jun-2011 05:08
Thank you guest for confirming that it is the Sea Isle. I removed the word "possibly" to make it definite.

Don
Guest 22-Jun-2011 23:59
That is definitely the Sea Isle Hotel. We stayed there many year during the month of August. Loved that hotel and the beach was wide with a volleyball net.
Eugene Ritchie 02-Jan-2011 18:25
I stayed at The Robert Richter with my parents and brother Dave in 1960. My father was a union man who received 2 weeks vacation every year. It was July (yes, very hot), an exciting time in America and the world: CASTRO, Kruschev and Kennedy. For me it was a coming of age: at 12 I started to become interested in girls:). Thanks for the memories as I write this 50 years later from an apartment somewhat north of the Richter.
Betsy Peacock 12-Oct-2010 22:45
Looking for anyone who might have known a bookkeeper at a Miami Beach Hotel in 1953. I've recently learned that my biological father was a bookkeeper at a Miami Beach Hotel in 1953. Wish I had a name, but Florida is a closed adoption state! Someone out there may remember..........Contact me at Boodles1953@aol.com.
Betsy Peacock
Vin 15-Jan-2010 20:05
It is definitely the Whitman Hotel later renamed The Robert Richter Hotel on 34th Street, Miami Beach