Lua Curtiss House #1

LUA CURTISS HOUSE #1
85 Deer Run

National Register of Historic Places (1985)
Designated Miami Springs Historic Site (2003)

One of the original four homes  in Country Club Estates, Curtiss built this house for his mother, Lua Andrews Curtiss Adams, who had decided that she needed to live closer to her sons. Nicknamed “The Alamo” by its onetime owners, Curtiss made sure that it had large windows with a northern exposure as Lua Curtiss liked to paint by natural light. However, shortly after she arrived from California where she had been living, she felt that the house did not meet her needs or suit her lifestyle, so the following year he built her another larger home close by at 150 Hunting Lodge Drive.

“The Alamo” is a Y-shaped two story Pueblo Revival style-building. The front of the house is curved to maximize the natural flow of air through the house. The roofs of the main two-story structure and porte-cochere are flat. The roof over the vaulted ceiling of the living room is pitched and covered with original hand-made terracotta Cuban tile. The parapets are uneven, with a bell cote motif above the front door. The surface treatment, as in many of these early homes, is of rough textured stucco to simulate hand molding and the windows are recessed. The front door and porte-cochere are defined by lateral buttresses, and the entire façade is accentuated with decorative exposed log beams, known as vigas. A low wall links the wings along the front of the home, and there is an inner courtyard behind the home as well.

The interior features a large living room with a timbered cathedral ceiling and a floor-to-ceiling stone fireplace. This room also has an original mantelpiece supported by wood brackets, and an arched entrance connecting it to the entrance hall.