Project# 0094.110 HABS Documentation of NRC Miami (Tigertail), FL, 1994

Under contract to the Department of Navy, HHM prepared HABS Level I documentation of the Old Naval Reserve Center (NRC) Miami at 2610Tigertail Avenue. The NRC was originally the Barracks & Mess Building at the U.S. Coast Guard Air Station, Dinner Key. Constructed in1938, the Barracks & Mess Building supported the operations of the nation's first “contemporary" air aviation unit in the Coast Guard. Along with a nearby seaplane hangar that the City of Miami currently uses as a gymnasium, it formed the nucleus of what became the nation's business air-rescue station during the middle of the twentieth century. The Barracks & Mess Building provided living quarters for Coast Guard personnel stationed at the facility. The building is distinctive for its craftsmanship and Spanish Colonial Revival design. The Barracks & Mess Building continued to be used by the Coast Guard until1965 when it was transferred to the Navy in1966 for use as a training center for Naval Reservists. In 1991, the Navy transferred the reserve center to new facilities in suburban Dade County. To mitigate the center's closure and incompliance with SHPO consultations, the Navy tasked HHM to complete HABS Level I documentation of the NRHP-eligible Barracks &Mess Building. HHM's comprehensive, report, included a detailed written narrative that examined the building's history and physical and architectural character, measured drawings(elevations, floor plans, and details) of the building in its current condition, and large-format, black-and-white photographs of the building and its surroundings. The HABS documentation package was prepared to National Park Service standards and is filed at the Library of Congress (HABS No. FLA-383-A)under its historic name, U.S. Coast Guard Air Station Dinner Key, Barracks & Mess Building.