The City Beautiful, still verdant 99 years later. Happy Arbor Day!

The City Beautiful Movement was a reform philosophy of North American architecture and urban planning that flourished during the 1890s and 1900s with the intent of introducing beautification and monumental grandeur in cities.  

The movement, originally associated mainly with a few northern cities such as Chicago and Washington, D.C., promoted beauty not only for its own sake, but also to create moral and civic virtue among urban populations.

Beginning in 1922, George Edgar Merrick brought the City Beautiful Movement south as he began to craft a community based on the urban reform philosophy.  Merrick designed his new city to include tree-lined boulevards and other aesthetics.  Merrick wanted to focus on the finest details and hired a top team of architects and designers including well-known landscape artist, Frank Button.

“Color my world” dressed in finest blooms. Photo credit: KM Carbonell

Officially incorporated in April 1925, this year the City of Coral Gables celebrates 99 years as a “City Beautiful” with verdant tree-lined streets of majestic palms, landscaped lawns, and canopied boulevards.  Several varieties of palms such as Medjool, Bismark, and Alexander create an elegant oasis throughout the city’s residential and commercial areas. Continuing to enhance Merrick’s “City Beautiful” tenant, the goal of planting 250,000 orchids continues. These blooms act as decorative motifs on trees in and around neighborhoods. In 2016, the city allocated $30,000 a year for the reintroduction of orchids.   

Coral Gables has been acknowledged as a “Tree City USA” by the Arbor Day Foundation for more than three decades.

With five arborists on staff, the City manages the overall health and protection of about 39,000 trees planted on City property and rights-of-way.  A permit must be obtained for the removal or relocation of trees as per the city’s tree ordinance.

For an almost 100-year old city, it has never looked more beautiful–dressed in its finest blooms and its vibrant greens.

“Canopied” dressed in vibrant greens. Photo credit: KM Carbonell

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Did you know?

It wasn’t until 1970 that Arbor Day became recognized nationwide thanks to the efforts of President Richard Nixon. National Arbor Day is celebrated on the last Friday of April. 

By the President of the United States Of America

A Proclamation

Our land has been blessed with a plentiful number and variety of trees. They have beautified our landscape, added a touch of nature to our towns and cities, provided the locale where people could find wholesome recreation, and served as one of the major building blocks in the development of this Nation.

At a time when we as a people are becoming more concerned with the quality of our environment, it is fitting that we give more attention to the planting of trees in rural and urban communities. In crowded city streets or suburban shopping centers they stand as things of beauty and as reminders of man’s inseparable link with nature.

The Congress, in order to emphasize the importance of this natural resource to our well being, has by House Joint Resolution 251 requested the President to issue a proclamation designating the last Friday of April 1970 as National Arbor Day, and calling upon the people of the United States to observe such day with appropriate ceremonies and activities.

Now, Therefore, I, Richard Nixon, President of the United States of America, do hereby designate Friday, April 24, 1970, as National Arbor Day, and I call upon the people of the United States to observe that day with ceremonies and activities designed to direct public attention and involvement in the planting of trees for the enjoyment of all.

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this twenty-fourth day of April, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and seventy, and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred and ninety-fourth.

RICHARD NIXON