This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (February 2009)

The Cocoanut Grove was Boston's premier nightclub during the post-Prohibition 1930s and 1940s. On November 28, 1942, this club was the scene of the deadliest nightclub fire in US history, killing 492 people (which in itself was 32 more than the building's authorized capacity) and injuring hundreds more. It was also the second-worst single-building fire in American history; only the 1903 Iroquois Theatre fire in Chicago had a higher death toll, of 602.

The enormity of the tragedy shocked the nation and briefly replaced the events of World War II in newspaper headlines. In both fires, most of those who lost their lives would have survived had the existing safety codes been fully enforced. The tragedy led to a reform of safety standards and codes across the country, and major changes in the treatment and rehabilitation of burn victims.

The club[link]

The club, a former speakeasy, was located at 17 Piedmont Street, which today is a parking lot in Boston's Bay Village neighborhood. Originally a garage and warehouse complex, the building had been converted to a one-and-a-half-story meandering complex of dining rooms, bars, and lounges. The club offered its patrons dining and dancing in a South Seas-like "tropical paradise" created by artificial palm trees, rattan and bamboo, heavy draperies, and swanky satin canopies suspended from the ceilings, and a roof that could be rolled back in summer for dancing under the stars.^[1] The building had acquired a reputation as being a criminal hangout, and this image was enhanced by the murder of its former owner, gangland boss and bootlegger Charles "King" Solomon, also known as "Boston Charlie". He had been gunned down in the men's room of Roxbury's Cotton Club nightclub nearly a decade before, just after the end of Prohibition.^[2]

The owner[link]

The then current owner, Barnet "Barney" Welansky, boasted of his ties to the Mafia and to Boston Mayor Maurice J. Tobin. He was known to be a tough boss who ran a tight ship: hiring teenagers to work as busboys for low wages, and street thugs who doubled as waiters and bouncers. He locked exits, concealed others with draperies, and even bricked up one emergency exit to prevent customers from leaving without paying.^[3] Coincidentally, on the night of the fire he was still recovering from a heart attack in a private room at Massachusetts General Hospital, where most of the victims would be sent.

November 28, 1942[link]

Thirteen days earlier, six firemen had been killed and 43 injured in the collapse of a building.^[1]

Earlier that day, Boston College football fans had seen their Sugar Bowl-bound team, undefeated and ranked number one in the nation, lose its place to their unranked rival, Holy Cross, in a crushing defeat of 55-12. Humiliated, the college canceled its victory party reservations at the nightclub; had the celebration taken place, it surely would have resulted in the deaths of even more people.

It is estimated that on that Saturday more than a thousand - the exact count will never be known - Thanksgiving weekend revelers, wartime servicemen and their sweethearts, football fans, and others were crammed into a space rated for a maximum of 460 people. Exterior Christmas lights were banned due to blackout regulations, but the club made up for this in its interior decor. The club had recently been expanded with the new Broadway Lounge, which opened onto the adjacent Broadway. Decorated in a South Seas tropical style, the restaurant, bars, and lounges inside were outfitted with palm trees made of flammable paper, cloth draperies covering the ceiling, flammable furniture, and other flimsy decorations, some of which obscured exit signs.

The fire[link]

Official reports state that the fire started at about 10:15 p.m. in the dark, intimate Melody Lounge downstairs. A young pianist and singer, Goody Goodelle, was performing on a revolving stage, surrounded by artificial palm trees. It was believed that a young man, possibly a soldier, had removed a light bulb in order to give himself privacy while kissing his date.^[1] Stanley Tomaszewski—a 16-year-old busboy—was instructed to put the light back on by retightening the bulb. As he attempted to tighten the light bulb in its socket, the bulb fell from his hand. In the dimly-lit lounge, Tomaszewski, unable to see the socket, lit a match to illuminate the area, found the socket, extinguished the match, and replaced the bulb. Almost immediately, patrons saw something ignite in the canopy of artificial palm fronds draped above the tables (although the official report doubts the connection between the match and the subsequent fire).^[4]

Despite waiters' efforts to douse the fire with water, it quickly spread along the fronds of the palm tree, igniting decorations on the walls and ceiling. Flames raced up the stairway to the main level, burning the hair of patrons stumbling up the stairs. A fireball burst across the central dance floor as the orchestra was beginning its evening show. Flames raced through the adjacent Caricature Bar, then down a corridor to the Broadway Lounge. Within five minutes, flames had spread to the main clubroom and the entire nightclub was ablaze.

As is common in panic situations, many patrons attempted to exit through the main entrance, the same way they had entered. The building's main entrance was a single revolving door, rendered useless as the panicked crowd scrambled for safety. Bodies piled up behind both sides of the revolving door, jamming it to the extent that firefighters had to dismantle it to enter. Later, after fire laws had tightened, it would become illegal to have only one revolving door as a main entrance without being flanked by outward opening doors with panic bar openers attached.

Other avenues of escape were similarly useless: side doors had been bolted shut to prevent people from leaving without paying. A plate glass window, which could have been smashed for escape, was boarded up and unusable as an emergency exit. Other unlocked doors, like the ones in the Broadway Lounge, opened inwards, rendering them useless against the crush of people trying to escape. Fire officials later testified that, had the doors swung outwards, at least 300 lives could have been spared. Many young soldiers perished in the disaster, as well as a newly-married couple.

As night deepened, the temperature dropped. Water on cobblestones froze. Hoses froze to the ground. Newspaper trucks were appropriated as ambulances. From nearby bars, soldiers and sailors raced to assist. On the street, firefighters lugged out bodies and were treated for burned hands. Smoldering bodies, living and dead, were hosed in icy water. Some victims had ingested fumes so hot that when they inhaled cold air, as one firefighter put it, they dropped like stones.

Later, during the cleanup of the building, firefighters found several dead guests sitting in their seats, with drinks in their hands. They had been overcome so quickly by fire and toxic smoke that they didn't have time to move.

Victims and escapes[link]

Boston newspapers were filled with lists of the dead, and stories of narrow escapes and deaths. It was erroneously reported that Hollywood movie star Buck Jones had made it safely outside but died two days later in the hospital. In fact, Jones had fallen where he sat in the prime Terrace area directly across from the bandstand, which was behind a wrought-iron railing that acted as a trap. Stories claimed that Jones had gone back in to rescue people. In truth, he had been incapacitated at his seat, and lingered in the hospital for some hours before dying. Monogram Pictures producer Scott R. Dunlap was hosting a party at the nightclub in honor of Jones. Dunlap was seriously injured but survived.^[5]

Jack Lesberg, bass player for the Cocoanut Grove house band, was luckier; he escaped the fire and went on to play music with Louis Armstrong, Sarah Vaughan, Leonard Bernstein, and many others until shortly before his death in 2005.^[6] His escape was described by fellow bassist Charles Mingus in an unpublished section of Mingus' autobiography Beneath the Underdog. According to Mingus' telling, Lesberg used his double bass to "make a door" inside the club that aided in his escape.^{[further explanation needed]}

Bartender Daniel Weiss and entertainer Goody Goodelle both survived in the Melody Lounge by dousing a cloth napkin with a pitcher of water and breathing through it. Weiss was able to escape by crawling through the kitchen and other subfloor areas, while Goodelle and several other employees were able to escape by crawling through a barred window in the kitchen. Five people survived by taking refuge in a walk-in refrigerator.

Coast Guardsman Clifford Johnson went back in no fewer than four times in search of his date who, unbeknownst to him, had safely escaped. Johnson suffered extensive third-degree burns over 55% of his body but survived the disaster, becoming the most severely burned person ever to survive their injuries at the time. After 21 months in a hospital and several hundred operations, he married his nurse and returned to his home state of Missouri. Fourteen years later he burned to death in a fiery automobile crash.^[7]

Investigation[link]

Barney Welansky, whose connections had allowed the nightclub to operate while in violation of the loose standards of the day, was convicted on 19 counts of manslaughter (19 victims were randomly selected to represent the dead). Welansky was sentenced to 12–15 years in prison. He served nearly four years before being quietly pardoned by Massachusetts Governor Maurice Tobin, who had been mayor of Boston at the time of the fire. In December 1946, ravaged with cancer, Welansky was released from Norfolk Prison, telling reporters, "I wish I'd died with the others in the fire." Nine weeks later, he was dead.^[1]

Busboy Stanley Tomaszewski, who survived the fire and later testified at the inquiry, was exonerated, as he was not responsible for the flammable decorations or the life safety code violations. He was still ostracized for much of his life because of the fire.^[8] He died in 1994.^[9]

In the year that followed the fire, Massachusetts and other states enacted laws for public establishments banning flammable decorations and inward-swinging exit doors, and requiring exit signs to be visible at all times (meaning that the exit signs had to have independent sources of electricity, and be easily readable in even the thickest smoke). The new laws also required that revolving doors used for egress must either be flanked by at least one normal, outward-swinging door, or retrofitted to permit the individual door leaves to fold flat to permit free-flowing traffic in a panic situation, and further required that no emergency exits be chained or bolted shut in such a way as to bar escape through the doors during a panic or emergency situation.

Commissions were established by several states that would levy heavy fines or even shut down establishments for infractions of any of these laws. These later became the basis for several federal fire laws and code restrictions placed on nightclubs, theaters, banks, public buildings, and restaurants across the nation. It also led to the formation of several national organizations dedicated to fire safety.^{[citation needed]}

During the 1990s, former Boston Fire Fighter and researcher Charles Kenney discovered and concluded that the presence of a highly flammable gas propellant in the refrigeration systems – methyl chloride – greatly contributed to the flashover and quick spread of the fire (there was a shortage of Freon refrigerant in 1942 due to the war effort).^[10]

Advances in burn and psychiatric care[link]

Massachusetts General Hospital and Boston City Hospital took dozens of burn and smoke inhalation victims, and the event led to new ways of caring for both. Surgeons Francis Daniels Moore and Oliver Cope at Massachusetts General Hospital pioneered fluid resuscitation techniques for the burn victims, whose wounds were treated with soft gauze covered with petroleum jelly instead of tannic acid.^[11] The event was the first major use of the Hospital's new blood bank, one of the area's first.

Survivors of the fire were also among the first humans to be treated with the new antibiotic, penicillin. In early December Merck and Company rushed a 32-liter supply of the drug, in the form of culture liquid in which the Penicillium mold had been grown, from New Jersey to Boston. The drug was crucial in combating staphylococcus bacteria which typically infect skin grafts. As a result of the success of penicillin in preventing infections, the US Government decided to support the production and distribution of penicillin to the armed forces.^[12]

Erich Lindemann, a Boston psychiatrist, studied the families and relatives of the dead and published what has become a classic paper, Symptomatology and Management of Acute Grief,^[13] read at the Centenary Meeting of The American Psychiatric Association in May 1944 and published in September of the same year. At the same time Lindemann was laying the foundation for the study of grief and dysfunctional grieving, Alexandra Adler was working with more than 500 survivors of the fire and conducting some of the earliest research on post-traumatic stress disorder.^[14]

Memorial[link]

Embedded in the brick sidewalk next to the location of the fire is a memorial to those who lost their lives. The plaque states:

The Cocoanut Grove. Erected by the Bay Village Neighborhood Association, 1993. In memory of the more than 490 people that died in the Cocoanut Grove fire on November 28, 1942. As a result of that terrible tragedy, major changes were made in the fire codes, and improvements in the treatment of burn victims, not only in Boston but across the nation. "Phoenix out of the Ashes"

A smaller inscription in the lower left corner says, "This plaque crafted by Anthony B. Marra, youngest survivor of the Cocoanut Grove fire".

References[link]

Further reading[link]

Fire portal

• White, E.J., Famous American Disasters, Creative Television Associates, Boston, MA, 1992.
• Benzaquin, Paul, Holocaust! The shocking story of the Boston Cocoanut Grove fire (1959) No ISBN available, but Library of Congress Control Number is 59014396.
• Schorow, Stephanie, The Cocoanut Grove Fire (2005) ISBN 978-1-889833-88-0.
• Keyes, Edward, Cocoanut Grove (1984) ISBN 978-0-689-11406-9.
• Esposito, John, Fire in the Grove: The Cocoanut Grove Tragedy And Its Aftermath (2005) ISBN 978-0-306-81423-5.
• Saffle JR, "The 1942 fire at Boston's Cocoanut Grove nightclub", Am J Surg, 1993 Dec;166(6):581-91.

External links[link]

• With the Command Historical Perspective: US Naval Academy Fire Dept - Cocoanut Grove Fire
• Cocoanut Grove fire at Find a Grave
• Celebrate Boston: Disasters - Cocoanut Grove Fire
• The Cocoanut Grove Fire - Boston Fire Historical Society
• Charles "King" Solomon and The Cotton Club photos

Coordinates: 42°21′0″N 71°4′6″W / 42.35°N 71.06833°W / 42.35; -71.06833

Coconut Grove
—  Neighborhood of Miami  —
Typical street in the Grove, showing heavy vegetation typical of the hammock.
Nickname(s): The Grove
Coconut Grove neighborhood in Miami Coconut Grove neighborhood in Miami
Coordinates: 25°42′45″N -80°15′25″E / 25.7125°N 79.74306°W / 25.7125; -79.74306
Country	United States
State	Florida
County	Miami-Dade County
City	Miami
Settled	1825
Annexed into the City of Miami	1925
Subdistricts of Coconut Grove	Neighborhoods list Center Grove Northeast Coconut Grove Southwest Coconut Grove West Grove or Black Grove
Government
• City of Miami Commissioner	Marc Sarnoff
• Miami-Dade Commissioners	Carlos A. Giménez
• House of Representatives	Carlos Lopez-Cantera (R) and Luis García, Jr. (R)
• State Senate	Gwen Margolis (D) and Larcenia Bullard (D)
• U.S. House	Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R)
Area
• Total	5.607 sq mi (14.52 km2)
Elevation	13 ft (4 m)
Population (2010)
• Total	20,076
• Density	8,006/sq mi (3,091/km2)
• Demonym	Grovite
Time zone	EST (UTC-05)
ZIP Code	33133
Area code(s)	305, 786
Website	Coconut Grove neighborhood

Coconut Grove is the oldest continuously inhabited neighborhood of Miami, Florida in Miami-Dade County, United States. The neighborhood is roughly bound by North Prospect Drive to the south, LeJeune Road to the west, South Dixie Highway (US 1) and Rickenbacker Causeway to the north, and Biscayne Bay to the east.^[1] It is south of the neighborhoods of Brickell and The Roads and east of Coral Gables. The neighborhood's name has been sometimes spelled "Cocoanut Grove" but the definitive spelling "Coconut Grove" was established when the city was incorporated in 1919.^[2]

What is today referred to as Coconut Grove was formed in 1925 when the city of Miami annexed two areas of about equal size, the city of Coconut Grove and most of the town of Silver Bluff. Coconut Grove approximately corresponds to the same area as the 33133 zip code although the zip code includes parts of Coral Way and Coral Gables^[3] and a small portion of zip code 33129.^[4] The area is often referred to by locals as "The Grove."

Coconut Grove is directly served by the Miami Metrorail at Coconut Grove and Douglas Road stations.

History[link]

Skyline of Coconut Grove, as seen from its respective Metrorail station

The Woman's Club of Coconut Grove was founded in 1891, and originally met in Miami's first public school, the First Coconut Grove School, built in 1887

Several waves of immigration established Coconut Grove, the first in 1825, when the Cape Florida lighthouse went into operation and was manned by John Dubose. Dr. Horace P. Porter is credited for coming up with the name when in 1873 he rented a home from Edmond D. Beasley’s widow, who homesteaded 160 acres bay front property. He lived there for only a year but during that time he established a post office which he named Coconut Grove.^[5][6] Around the same time the area saw an influx of Americans from the Northeastern US, as well as British and white Bahamian immigrants. The first hotel on the South Florida mainland was located in Coconut Grove. Called the Bay View Inn (later known as the Peacock Inn), it was built in 1882, on the site of present-day Peacock Park, by English immigrants Isabella and Charles Peacock, who had been the owner of a wholesale meat business in London. Coconut Grove's first black settlement, in the 1880s, was established by Bahamian laborers who worked at the Peacock Inn.^[7] The Barnacle Historic State Park is the oldest house in Miami-Dade County still standing in its original location. It was built in 1891 and was home to Ralph Middleton Munroe,also known as 'The Commodore' for being the first commodore and founder of the Biscayne Bay Yacht Club, an American yacht designer and early resident of Coconut Grove.

Mayfair in Coconut Grove

Formerly an independent city, Coconut Grove was annexed by the city of Miami in 1925.^[8] In the 1960s, bay-shore Coconut Grove served as the center of South Florida's youth countercultural movement, notably hosting several love-ins^[9] and concerts (including a now-infamous Doors concert on Dinner Key)^[10] during the latter part of the decade.^[11]

Economy[link]

Coconut Grove's small village quality presents an ideal location for outdoor festivals and events, the most prominent of which is the annual Coconut Grove Arts Festival, the county's leading outdoor arts festival, which takes place each year over President's Day weekend. Coconut Grove's other events include the King Mango Strut, which began as a parody of the Orange Bowl Parade, and which continues each year on the last Sunday in December. The Great Taste of the Grove Food & Wine Festival takes place each April. Each June, the Goombay Festival transforms Grand Avenue in Coconut Grove into a Carnaval (Caribbean Carnival), celebrating Bahamian culture, with Bahamian food and Caribbean music (Junkanoo). July 4 is an all day all America affair that includes an old-fashioned picnic on the grounds of the Barnacle Historic State Park, events throughout downtown Grove including street performers and a coconut treasure hunt, culminating with a fireworks display at Peacock Park. On Labor Day Weekend, it is time for The Great Grove Bed Race, with makeshift, themed beds rolling down the streets of downtown Coconut Grove to the delight of participants.

The Grove is known for its many and varied restaurants and open air cafes. Within a few blocks one can eat Italian, Peruvian, Indian, Mexican, Japanese, Mediterranean, French, Italian, Argentine, Pan Latin, Pan-Asian, Vegetarian, Seafood and good old fashioned American fare. One can also choose from among a number of ice cream, yogurt, smoothie and gelato shops.

Local favorites include Atchana's Kitchen, Bice, Calamari, Greenstreets cafe, Lulu's, Foccacia Rustica, Jaguar, Georges, le Bouchon, Cafe Pop, Spartico, Panorama, Charthouse and Monty's Raw Bar. There are plenty of chain franchises as well, such as The Cheesecake Factory, Chili's and Johnny Rockets. By night, the Grove becomes a center of nightlife frequented by young professionals and students from the-nearby University of Miami and Florida International University. Favorite places include Taurus, the Grove's most Legendary Bar, Mr. Moe's, The Burgundy Room, Hooter's, Fat Tuesdays, The Grove Spot, The Sandbar and Barracuda Bar.

Shopping is also abundant in the Grove, with two large open-air malls, CocoWalk, Streets of Mayfair, and many other street shops and boutiques.

Villa Vizcaya, built in 1916, is a popular Miami tourist attraction

Major corporations including Arquitectonica, Spanish Broadcasting System, and Watsco, are located in the Grove.

The eastern border of Coconut Grove is Biscayne Bay, which lends itself to a boating community. The area features a sailing club (Coconut Grove Sailing Club), a yacht club (Coral Reef Yacht Club) and a marina (Dinner Key Marina^[12]). Pan Am's seaplane operations were based in Dinner Key, and the Miami City Hall is based in the old Pan Am terminal building.

Demographics[link]

Demographically, Coconut Grove is split up into "Northeast Coconut Grove" and "Southwest Coconut Grove", and as of 2000, the total population of both of the neighborhood's sections made up between 18,953^[13] and 19,646 people.^[4] The zip codes for all of Coconut Grove include 33129 and 33133. The area covers 5.607 square miles (14.52 km²). As of 2000, there were 9,695 males and 9,951 females. The median age for males were 38.4 years old, while the median age for females were 40.3 years old. The average household size had 2.1 people, while the average family size had 2.8 members. The percentage of married-couple families (among all households) was 33.6%, while the percentage of married-couple families with children (among all households) was 11.1%, and the percentage of single-mother households (among all households) was 7.6%. The percentage of never-married males 15 years old and over was 18.3%, while the percentage of never-married females 15 years old and over was 14.3%.^[4] The percentage of people that speak English not well or not at all made up 8.1% of the population. The percentage of residents born in Florida was 31.6%, the percentage of people born in another U.S. state was 34.7%, and the percentage of native residents but born outside the U.S. was 2.3%, while the percentage of foreign born residents was 31.4%.^[4]

As of 2000,^[13] Northeast Grove had a population of 9,812 residents, with 5,113 households, and 2,221 families residing in the neighborhood. The median household income was $63,617.82. The racial makeup of the neighborhood was 35.24% Hispanic or Latino of any race, 2.25% Black or African American, 60.96% White (non-Hispanic), and 1.55% Other races (non-Hispanic).

As of 2000,^[13] Southwest Grove had a population of 9,141 residents, with 3,477 households, and 2,082 families residing in the neighborhood. The median household income was $63,617.82. The racial makeup of the neighborhood was 14.80% Hispanic or Latino of any race, 48.27% Black or African American, 35.27% White (non-Hispanic), and 1.66% Other races (non-Hispanic).

The "West" Grove is predominantly composed of people who are of Afro-Caribbean descent. Bahamian sailors were one of the first groups of settlers in the area.^[14] The Goombay festival is a celebration of the rich history of this historically Black neighborhood.^[15]

Transportation[link]

Mercy Hospital in the Grove.

Coconut Grove is served by Metrobus throughout the area, and by the Miami Metrorail at:

•      Vizcaya (SW 32nd Road and U.S. 1)
•      Coconut Grove (SW 27th Avenue and U.S. 1)
•      Douglas Road (SW 37th Avenue and U.S. 1)

Metrobus' Coconut Grove Connection connects at Coconut Grove and Douglas Road stations, going to many popular areas within the Grove, including CocoWalk and Peacock Park.

Education and institutions[link]

Elementary schools[link]

Miami-Dade County Public Schools operates area public schools:

• Coconut Grove Elementary School
• Frances S. Tucker Elementary School
• George W. Carver Elementary School

Middle schools[link]

• George Washington Carver Middle School

High schools[link]

• Academy of Arts and Minds Charter High School, founded in 2003

Private schools[link]

The Miami Science Museum

• Ransom Everglades School, founded in 1903
• St. Hugh Catholic School, 1956
• Immaculata-Lasalle High School, 1958
• St. Stephen's Episcopal Day School, 1958
• Carrollton School of the Sacred Heart, 1961
• Coconut Grove Montessori School

Cultural[link]

• Vizcaya Museum and Gardens
• The Barnacle Historic State Park
• Coconut Grove Playhouse
• The Kampong
• Marjory Stoneman Douglas Home
• Miami Science Museum

Libraries[link]

Miami-Dade Public Library operates area public libraries:

• Coconut Grove Library
• Virrick Park Library

The Coconut Grove Library was founded in 1895 by the Pine Needles Club, a literary group. Adjacent to the library is the grave of Eva Amelia Munroe; dated 1882, it is the oldest marked grave in Miami-Dade County.

Points of interest[link]

• CocoWalk
• Dinner Key
• First Coconut Grove School
• Mercy Hospital
• Miami City Hall
• Plymouth Congregational Church
• Trapp Homestead
• Woman's Club of Coconut Grove

Parks[link]

^[16]

• The Kampong, an 8 acre (32,000 m²) tropical garden that forms part of the National Tropical Botanical Garden.
• The Barnacle Historic State Park. Built in the late 19th century, the former home of Ralph Middleton Munroe is the oldest home in Miami-Dade County still standing in its original location and is situated on the shore of Biscayne Bay. The forest surrounding the home is tropical hardwood hammock and is the last of its kind in the area. The unique architecture includes period furniture and wide porches that afford magnificent views.

The Kampong is a botanical garden in the Grove. The Grove is well known for its wild foliage, and large tree coverage.

• Peacock Park / Kenneth Myers Bayside Park
• David Kennedy Park
• Merrie Christmas Park
• Steele Park
• Blanche Park
• Elizabeth Virrick Park
• Kirk Munroe Park
• Coconut Grove Park
• Grand Avenue Park
• Ingraham Terrace Park
• Sunrise Park
• Marjory Stoneman Douglas Mini Park
• Dinner Key Picnic Islands Park
• Alice C. Wainwright Park

In popular culture[link]

CocoWalk

• The movie Where the Pavement Ends was filmed in Coconut Grove in 1923. It was directed by Rex Ingram and starred Ramón Navarro.^[17]
• Pioneer Folk rock musician Fred Neil resided in, and wrote songs about Coconut Grove, notably on the song "Bleecker & MacDougal".
• "Coconut Grove" is a song written by John Sebastian and recorded by The Lovin' Spoonful in 1967. It later was covered by David Lee Roth. Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr has expressed a fondness for the song.
• In the film Scarface, Manny lives in an upscale home in the Grove.
• In the TV series Dexter, Dexter Morgan, lives in Coconut Grove, based on the book series by Jeff Lindsay.
• In the video for the song "Careless Whisper" George Michael can be seen looking out at sea from a hotel balcony in Coconut Grove as a seaplane flies by.
• In the 1980 song "American Dream" by the (Nitty Gritty) Dirt Band, Coconut Grove is mentioned prominently in the chorus as a vacation destination.
• In the movie Bad Boys, Martin Lawrence and Will Smith follow a suspect through Coconut Grove.
• The movie Hoot, produced by Frank Marshall, Toby Emmerich and Jimmy Buffett (who also appears in the film and sings on the soundtrack) and based on a novel by Carl Hiaasen, is set in Coconut Grove.
• In Big Trouble, by Dave Barry, the main setting is Coconut Grove.
• The set for the TV series Burn Notice is in Coconut Grove, in what was once the City of Miami's Convention Center.
• Coconut Grove is the setting for the movie, Meet The Fockers.
• Coconut Grove has been a location on the show The First 48.
• Coconut Grove is a location in the 1985 Burt Reynolds film Stick. A stunt man falls off hi-rise condo building.
• The 2008 film Marley & Me with Jennifer Aniston and Owen Wilson was filmed on location in Coconut Grove, based on John Grogan's book.
• CSI: Miami season 4 episode 10 ("Shattered") is set in Coconut Grove.
• In the first episode of The Golden Girls, "The Engagement", at the end of the episode, Rose asks Dorothy and Blanche if they'd like to go to Coconut Grove for lunch, her treat, to celebrate their friendship.

Notable residents[link]

Former and current residents include:

• Hervey Allen, author of Anthony Adverse
• Leo Baekeland, inventor of Bakelite
• William Jennings Bryan, Secretary of State
• Neal Colzie, NFL cornerback^[18]
• Marjory Stoneman Douglas, environmentalist
• Frank Gore, San Francisco 49ers running back
• Gilbert Grosvenor, president of the National Geographic Society
• LeBron James, basketball player, Miami Heat.^[19]
• Peter Lewis, businessman
• Madonna, 1992–2000
• Mia Michaels, television star
• Kirk Munroe, author of children's books
• Ralph Middleton Munroe, American yacht designer, builder of the oldest house in Miami, Florida, now The Barnacle Historic State Park; 1886–1933
• Ric O'Barry, Dolphin Activist; star of movie/documentary The Cove
• Lincoln O'Barry, Dolphin Activist; Director, Producer and star of the TV series Blood Dolphins
• Winston E. Scott, (Captain, USN, Ret.); NASA Astronaut (former)^[20]
• Sylvester Stallone 1993–1999
• Sepy Dobronyi, 1963–2010, Sculptor, Movie Producer, Jeweler

Historic Coconut Grove[link]

Established in 1825, Coconut Grove is one of Miami's oldest neighborhoods. As such, many of Miami's oldest buildings and homes are located in the Grove. Some of these include:

References[link]

External links[link]

Miami portal

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Coconut Grove, Florida

• City of Miami Neighborhoods Map
• Coconut Grove Grapevine (daily news of the Grove)
• Grand Ave. News
• Coconut Grove Gazette
• The case of Joyce Cohen

Coordinates: 25°42′45″N 80°15′25″W / 25.7125°N 80.25694°W / 25.7125; -80.25694

v t e Neighborhoods of Miami Allapattah · Bay Point · Bayside · Belle Meade · Brickell · Brickell Key · Buena Vista · Civic Center · Coconut Grove · Coral Gate · Coral Way · Design District · Dodge Island · Downtown · Edgewater · Flagami · Grapeland Heights · Jewelry District · Lemon City · Liberty City · Little Haiti · Little Havana · Little River · Lummus Park · Midtown · Morningside · Omni · Overtown · Park West · Shenandoah · Shorecrest · Silver Bluff · Spring Garden · The Roads · Upper Eastside · Venetian Islands · Virginia Key · Watson Island · West Flagler · Wynwood