Allapattah is an inland neighborhood northwest of downtown Miami, bounded by the Airport Expressway (SR 112) on the north, the Miami River and the Dolphin Expressway (SR 836) on the south, I-95 on the east and NW 27th Avenue on the west. The name comes from a Seminole word for alligator. The City of Miami’s Allapattah Community Redevelopment Agency, created to direct public investment here, covers a smaller area than the neighborhood’s commonly used boundaries.
Development
William Wagner homesteaded a hammock here in 1856, on the site now occupied by Miami Jackson Senior High School, and the area was annexed by the City of Miami in 1925. The Railroad Shops Colored Addition, a Black neighborhood on the western side, was condemned by eminent domain in the late 1940s. Expressway construction in the 1950s and 1960s pushed displaced residents north and west into Allapattah, Cuban arrivals followed after 1959, and Dominican, Nicaraguan, Honduran and Haitian families settled later; a stretch of NW 17th Avenue was designated Little Santo Domingo in 2003. The Rubell Museum opened in 2019 in six converted industrial buildings, and warehouse conversions and new apartment construction have followed along the NW 12th Avenue Metrorail corridor.
Parks & Recreation
Juan Pablo Duarte Park, on NW 28th Street, has baseball and soccer fields, basketball courts, a splash pad and an outdoor gym; Allapattah Mini Park and Allapattah-Comstock Park serve smaller sections of the neighborhood. The Rubell Museum and Superblue Miami are the cultural anchors. The Miami River forms the southern edge, where working boatyards and terminals sit alongside the Miami River Greenway.
Transit
Metrorail’s Orange and Green lines run together up NW 12th Avenue, stopping at UHealth-Jackson (opened in 1984 as Civic Center and renamed in 2024), Santa Clara and Allapattah at NW 36th Street. There is no Metromover service. The City of Miami Trolley runs Allapattah and Health District routes, and the main bus corridors are NW 12th Avenue, NW 36th Street and NW 20th Street. Brightline and Tri-Rail use MiamiCentral in downtown Miami.