This 1930s postcard shows residences and a hotel on The Herald property
It’s a nostalgic time on the west end of the Venetian Causeway.
The Miami Herald printed its last newspapers two weeks ago at 1 Herald Plaza, on the mainland between the Venetian and MacArthur causeways.
1939 view of downtown looking west.
Since then, office and news gathering operations have been moving to the news organization’s new home in Doral.
The final newsroom employees — and few from other departments — are scheduled to finish packing this week and all will be working in Doral by Friday afternoon.
Some time after that — it’s not clear when — property owner Genting plans to tear down The Herald building to make way for its planned resort (no, it won’t be a casino — at least not yet).
The Miami Herald in 2006.
The Herald’s been on the property for 50 some years. BelleIsleBlog has been trolling eBay again, finding old postcards that provide a view at the bayside property between the Venetian and MacArthur Causeways before The Herald built its offices and printing plant in the early 1960s. The Herald moved to One Herald Plaza from a location on South Miami Avenue in April 1963.
Another view of the Causeways, circa 1939.
The postcards show another Miami — when the port was off an undeveloped Watson Island, and the shoreline south of the MacArthur Causeway (then the County Causeway) featured huge oil tanks. Biscayne Island, the first on the way east on the Venetian Causeway, was barren, used as a landing strip.
The postcard above shows the Boulevard Shops (originally the Shrine Building when buit in 1930) on Biscayne Boulevard — and the Trinity Cathedral to the west of the Venetian Causeway entrance. Both remain, dwarfed by the city that grew up in the next 80-plus years.
Circus elephants cross the Venetian Causeway drawbridge, in 1960, with Herald building property in background.
Construction on The Herald building began in 1961, and finished with the building opening on April 5, 1963.
Belle Isle Blog 
Thanks for this wonderful piece of history and all that the Belle Isle Blog does for our community. Herb
Wow! The first postcard also shows the Goodyear blimp moored at the MacArthur Causeway bend. Chalk’s Flying Service later built a ramp nearby for its seaplanes.