The Fulford-By-The-Sea Fountain is a historic fountain located in a residential neighborhood in North Miami Beach, Florida. Built as part of a development project, it provided an identity for the early neighborhood that has ended up spanning eras and audiences to become an especially distinct symbol for an entire area.
Built as Part of a New North Miami Development
Built in 1925 as part of the development project by the Fulford-by-the-Sea Company, the monument marked the entrance to what was a new subdivision of homes. At 32 feet tall and designed in the Classical Revival Style, the Fulford-By-The-Sea Fountain was one of the largest fountains constructed in South Florida at the time.
The Fulford-by-the-Sea Company began selling lots to the area in 1922 and was looking to further highlight the exclusiveness of the opportunity with the creation of what would become the Fulford-By-The-Sea Fountain. It was intended to be one of five similar fountains at different access points for the development but the Great Miami Hurricane of 1926 stopped work on the other fountains.
Over the decades, the Fulford-By-The-Sea Fountain has undergone several restoration efforts, with the most complete occurring in 2019 that fully restored the monument. Doing so has enabled the water to flow across it as it originally did and has also provided audiences with a better look at the incredible features that it contains, including the distinctive unicorn figures and a tile mosaic dome.
The fountain would eventually be recognized as a Dade Historical Site and its image is part of the North Miami Beach city logo. In 2010, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places as “Fulford-by-the-Sea-Entrance,” highlighting how an effort to provide an identity to a neighborhood ended up positively impacting the present and future of the entire region.
An Irreplaceable Symbol of North Miami History
Huge monuments often provide entire cities and countries with an identity but the Fulford-by-the-Sea Fountain showcases how landmarks that are far more practical in origin and scope can have a similar impact. The fountain still is very much part of the community that it was built for and that it now defines.
This approach has created an irreplaceable symbol of North Miami history that audiences of all eras have been able to connect with and celebrate.
