What the Deauville, Americana and other hotels used to look like before big changes

The Deauville is facing demolition. The Miami Beach hotel is best known for hosting the Beatles in 1964. Jerry Lewis, Milton Berle and other headliners played the theater. It is across the street from a former deli where radio host Larry King did a show from a booth.

The hotel opened in the mid-1950s and is an example of MiMo, Miami Modern, architecture, a post-World War II style that captures the spirit of futurism, the cult of the automobile and all things kitsch. Through the years, it also hosted lots of conventions and exhibitions.

Now, the neglected hotel has been deemed unsafe, and Miami Beach’s building official has given the clearance for the wrecking ball.

The Deauville isn’t the only MiMo-style hotel in the area. Others include the neighboring Carillon and the former Americana.

The neglected Carillon was redeveloped, but many of the MiMo flourishes, like the driveway and the shopping arcade, are gone to make way for more modern additions.

The Americana, which in later years became the Sheraton Bal Harbour, was demolished, erasing a grand lobby with a three-story terrarium at the center. A St. Regis hotel is now on the site, across the street from the Bal Harbour Shops.

MiMo survivors include the thriving Eden Roc and Fontainebleau hotels, to the south on Collins Avenue in Miami Beach.

So, let’s look back at some Miami Herald archive photos of the Deauville and the other MiMo gems in the Miami Beach area.

The Deauville

The Americana

The Carillon

Eden Roc