Mausoleum or House Museum?
Battle Brewing over Merrick House’s Future

“What are we supposed to do, put away the china, the chandeliers?”

Merrick House is a very, very, very old house. Photo by Cynthia Archbold.

By Cynthia Archbold

If you drive along 907 Coral Way looking for Merrick House, you may go right past it.

The family home of Coral Gable’s founder George Merrick is so sedate, set back among the stately trees with its columns and coral rock, and blends in so naturally in its historic neighborhood that you’d hardly know it’s there.

There’s not much going on at Merrick House and there hasn’t been for a long time.

Most of the time it is shuttered, except for a few hours two afternoons a week when it opens for tours. Once a year the city, which funds and runs Merrick House, holds a Christmas open house celebration.

Visitors to the open house aren’t allowed inside, only on the porch and the lawn.

“Now it’s a mausoleum,” says Mayor Don Slesnick. He told city commissioners on Dec. 12 that it’s time to bring the future of Merrick House to a head.

Slesnick wants Merrick House “to be like it used to be — a vibrant, living place” where receptions and meetings are held, as it was as recently as 10 years ago. He wants students in Miami-Dade public schools to learn as much as possible about their history through formal, organized tours to the home designed by George Merrick’s mother, Althea Fink Merrick, and completed in 1910.

Currently, the only tours take place from 1 to 3 p.m. on Wednesdays and Sundays; just a few people show up, if any; and there are only six volunteer docents available in the whole program.

Group tours must be arranged through the curator of the Coral Gables Department of Historic Resources.

There is no marketing or advertising program to speak of.

Yet “it’s the house where George Merrick dreamed his dreams,” says Marie Vacca, chair of the Merrick House Governing Board, an advisory board to the City Commission.

Vacca told the commission during its Dec. 12 meeting that she wants to bring the house back to life, to open it up more to the public and allow certain Coral Gables organizations to hold meetings, receptions and public gatherings there. The governing board would like to hold groups of up to 35 people inside Merrick House.

But right now holding public gatherings at Merrick House is illegal, and that’s fine with some Coral Gables officials and residents who believe the interior of Merrick House should be closed off completely for good, except for tours. Among them is Vice Mayor Maria Anderson, who feels very strongly that Merrick House should be preserved as a museum and protected from public meetings of any kind.

“These are the Merrick family’s personal furnishings,” Anderson says. “What are we supposed to do, put away the china, the chandeliers? Accidents will happen, so where are we going to have these meetings?” she asks.

Vice Mayor Maria Anderson, a Merrick House docent, with fellow docent Liliana Andreu in the living room of Merrick House. Photo by Cynthia Archbold.

The city of Coral Gables has spent $200,000 in the last few years restoring Merrick House, and yet there is much more work to be done. The governing board is debating what to do first: Restore the kitchen or the upstairs?

The argument for the kitchen: It’s needed for public functions.

However, the merit of redoing the second floor, now moldy and crammed with Merrick family belongings, is that some feel it is more historically important.

Regardless of what should be restored first, Merrick House “belongs to the people,” says Arva Moore Parks, the historian who originally spearheaded the effort to restore Merrick House back in the mid-1970s.

Parks agrees with Maria Anderson that it should be a house museum, but she also believes Merrick House should be open for receptions and public functions.

On Jan. 23 the Coral Gables City Commission will discuss the governing board’s proposals and decide what kind of balance to strike between preserving the Merrick family’s past and keeping it relevant to Miami’s present and future.

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