Carey - Dant House

CAREY-DANT HOUSE
122 Pinecrest Drive

Designated Miami Springs Historic Site (2010)

W. Carey, an investor in Hialeah Race Track, built this house as his winter home at a cost of $11,000. On a somewhat grander scale than many homes being built in Florida at the time, it was one of the first four homes in the community, which at that time was still considered a part of Hialeah. It took two years to complete (1924-26) and suffered some damage during the 1926 hurricane. The home has many custom-built features including a guest house, a 38 foot long double lap pool (the first swimming pool located in the town) and a well that provided water to the other three houses in the community. W. Carey’s daughter Betty married Paul Dant, the son of J.W. Dant, a Kentucky bourbon distillery owner, and they raised their four sons in this home. The home’s current occupants are the first owners not in the Carey-Dant family. They have restored the house, garage and entrance gate with careful attention to period detail and decoration.

To accommodate the Florida climate, this Mediterranean Revival-style house was designed with numerous screen doors, large windows and high ceilings. Rather than having flat parapet roofs like those found in other early Country Club Estates structures, this house had a tall pitched Italian blue and green barrel-tiled roof. Today, there are cobalt blue shutters on the front of the house that match the original 1920’s trim color. Also unique to this home are its larger rooms and sizable closets, which were rare for the time.

The courtyard has the original 1920's fountain, and leads to the spacious covered porch with five sets of transom- windowed French doors with restored original screen doors. The interior of the home retains the original pecky cypress ceiling in the living room, a 36” plaster relief caravel ship built in over the fireplace mantel and heavily textured plastered walls.