Seminole Theater
55 S. Flagler Avenue,
Homestead,
FL
33030
55 S. Flagler Avenue,
Homestead,
FL
33030
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I have uploaded photos of the Seminole Theater/Landmark Hotel building (which seems to be for sale), as well as one of its historical marker.
Check out this article by Bob Jensen in the South-Dade News Leader from December 11th, 2015:
“Homestead’s Early Movie Theaters”
It says the Air Dome that was relocated from Miami that became this Seminole was the one next to Burdine’s.
Wow, Mr. Jensen says “The last time I was in the lobby [of the Landmark Hotel] the ticket booth could still be seen.”
There’s also some more details about James W. English.
New to me, the article says the first films exhibited in Homestead were shown at Sistrunk Hall in 1913 (the article includes what is believed to be a photo of the building), a wooden structure that had existed on Mowery Drive where Showbiz Cinemas is now building Homestead Station down the street from the Seminole Cultural Arts Theater.
An article on the Historic Homestead Town Hall Museum website from May 2, 2017 says:
“Sistrunk Hall was where various fraternal orders and community groups met and it also had a movie theater which pre-dated the Seminole Theater. Sistrunk Hall, like so many other wooden buildings of that era, burned down in the early morning hours of August 31, 1916.”
City of Homestead history brochure “Homestead Then & Now” including photo of Seminole Hotel street scene.
“17 Must-Visit Historic Treasures in Homestead and Florida City” by Larry Wiggins.
The Miami Herald article “Homestead’s Historic Seminole Theatre: Restored and Once Again a Community Treasure” about the Seminole on Krome Avenue, including some history of Homestead’s theaters, such as the first Seminole and the Ritz.
Cinema Treasures page for the Seminole Cultural Arts Theatre.
Cinema Treasures page for the Air Dome next to Burdine’s that Paul George says was moved to Homestead.
Cinema Treasures page for the Airdomes that were at 174 East Flagler Street where the Olympia Theatre is now, the first of which may have moved to Homestead. I vaguely remember one or two other people over the years beyond the Miami Herald article assume that this was the one that was moved.
I’m supposing the Seminole Theatre would be Homestead’s first cinema, since I have not heard of any previous.
I’m not completely sure what the Landmark Hotel building is really used for now. I do not see a way to reserve a hotel room there online, and did not when I once looked for hotels in Homestead a few years ago. Larry Wiggings’ article says “it operates as a rooming house” at the time he wrote it. I’ve found a recent real estate webpage listing the property for sale as a hotel, with a note not to disturb the residents. Meanwhile someone has created a Facebook fan page calling it the Seminole Cafe and Hotel Landmark & Historical Place.
If you are driving south down US-1 from Miami to Homestead, you are parallel to the route of the former Florida East Coast railroad right-of-way, now the Metrorail and Busway, once used by the train that transported the disassembled Air Dome/Colonial to its new home.
As I post this, I am gazing out the window of a Starbucks across US-1 at the space under the elevated Metrorail tracks that used to be the railroad, where, for a moment, the theater passed by 101 years ago.