Stiltsville

About a mile south of Miami, lies Stiltsville, small houses literally built on stilts over the water. Before Hurricane Andrew(1993), there were over 20 houses. Now there are only seven left. The waters around the houses now belong to Biscayne National Park, which is located between Biscayne Bay and the Atlantic Ocean. There's also a law in place that prevents the owners of the houses to make any repairs, so they have fallen into disrepair.

Over half of each house is built in foot deep water, and the other half in waters that are between 6 and 20 feet deep. This allows you to dock a boat under the house without running aground. The waters around the houses now belong to Biscayne National Park, which is located between Biscayne Bay and the Atlantic Ocean.

The houses were very popular during prohibition, when gambling was allowed one mile off shore. During this time, a very large boat was purposefully run aground, making a perfect gambling establishment. The law was soon changed, extending the legal distance for gambling to three miles off shore.

During the 80's(Miami Vice days), the houses were used for sea plane drop offs of contraband. Speedboats would then take off with the cargo.

Here are the pictures we took of Stiltsville. If you're interested, this link has a lot of neat stories about the history of Stiltsville. http://www.stiltsville.org/pages/history.html