William Brickell
The Arc
William Brickell was a trader and adventurer who had knocked around the world — including the California Gold Rush and Australia — before settling, with his wife Mary, at the mouth of the Miami River in 1871, on the south bank opposite the future site of Julia Tuttle's holdings. There the Brickells established a homestead, a trading post, and a post office, and built a business trading with the Seminole and Miccosukee who came down the river out of the Everglades to exchange pelts, hides, and plumes for goods.
Over the following decades the family accumulated an enormous landholding — more than a thousand acres along the south bank and the bay — that would prove more valuable than any trade. When Flagler's railroad arrived and Miami incorporated in 1896, the Brickells were positioned as one of the two great founding landowning families, the south-bank counterpart to Tuttle's north bank. William died in 1908, leaving the family's vast holdings and businesses to Mary, who would run and develop them with formidable skill.
Why They Matter
The Brickells represent the frontier layer of Miami's founding — the traders who were there before the railroad, dealing with the region's Native peoples, when the place was still an edge of the map rather than a city. Their trading post is a direct link between the frontier era and the modern metropolis, and their landholdings shaped the geography of the city that followed.
And the name endured beyond all proportion to the man. The south-bank land the Brickells held became, a century later, Brickell — the high-rise financial district that serves as the banking center of Latin America. Few American neighborhoods carry a pioneer family's name into a global financial brand the way Brickell does.
Where You See Them Today
Brickell — the name, the avenue, the entire financial district — is the Brickell family's monument, even if almost no one walking its towers knows the family existed. Brickell Point, at the mouth of the river where the trading post stood, is also where the Miami Circle was later uncovered, layering the city's deepest history and its newest skyline on the same few acres. Mary Brickell's later development work carried the family's influence well into the 20th century.
Further Reading
- Arva Moore Parks, Miami: The Magic City
- HistoryMiami Museum — pioneer-era collections
- Histories of the Miami River and early settlement
Neighborhoods: Brickell · Downtown Miami Eras: The Flagler–Tuttle Era · Tequesta & the Frontier Related people: Mary Brickell · Julia Tuttle · Henry Flagler