G. Carl Adams Memorial

G. CARL ADAMS MEMORIAL
Triangle Park along Melrose Canal at Lenape Drive and Hunting Lodge Drive

G. Carl Adams, the half-brother of City founder Glenn H. Curtiss, was born in Hammondsport, NY, in 1897. Although he was quite a bit younger than Curtiss, the brothers shared both a love of flying and diverse business interests. As Curtiss became interested in developing his real estate and aviation interests in Florida, he invited his family members and long-time colleagues to join him.

Carl and his wife Dorothy (“Dottie”) McDonald Adams moved to Florida in 1922 from Long Island, where much of the Curtiss manufacturing was located, and he immediately became integral to several of his brother’s business ventures.

A noteworthy Glenn Curtiss invention (one of many!) was the Adams Motor Bungalo, which his brother named for him. This bungalo was one of the forerunners of the modern RV trailer. It featured a single rear axle, was rectangular in shape, and included two full-length dustproof clothes closets, storage for guns and fishing poles, food lockers, a water tank and ice chest, a steel kitchenette, table seating for six, felt mattresses and an electric light.

Carl was the first President of the Opa-locka Company, Vice-President of Glenn H. Curtiss Properties, Inc. and President of the Everglades Construction Company, which built all the roads and sidewalks in Country Club Estates, Hialeah and Opa-locka.

Carl and Dottie enjoyed travel, recreational boating and high society. They owned a craft they christened the “Toy Yot” and were active members of the Biscayne and Keuka Yacht Clubs, and the Coral Gables Country Club. In the early 1940’s, when Miami Springs bought a new fire truck, Carl purchased and restored the old one, and was a familiar sight driving it around town and in parades.

Carl and Dottie had no children, but their household expanded. Upon the death of Carl’s sister-in-law, Lena Pearl Neff Curtiss Wheeler, longtime Curtiss family friend, bookkeeper and secretary Florence Illig came to live with the Adamses, and inherited their estate.

G. Carl Adams served as Mayor of Miami Springs for twelve years, from 1930 to 1942.