This category covers two adjacent places that Miami renters search together. Coral Gables is a separately incorporated city southwest of downtown Miami, laid out in the 1920s and still governed by its own commission. Coral Way is a City of Miami neighborhood running east from about SW 37th Avenue toward Brickell, and includes Shenandoah, Silver Bluff, Vizcaya-Roads and Coral Gate. The two are linked by Coral Way itself, the road laid out by Coral Gables founder George E. Merrick.
Development
Merrick developed Coral Gables during the Florida land boom and the city incorporated on April 29, 1925; the name comes from his family’s coral-rock house with its gabled roof. Its landmarks are concentrated in a few boom years: the Merrick House (1910), the Venetian Pool and Alhambra Water Tower (1924), the Biltmore Hotel (1926), City Hall and the Douglas Entrance (1927-28). The University of Miami was chartered in 1925 on land Merrick donated, and Bahamian stonemasons built much of the early infrastructure. The city adopted its first historic preservation ordinance in 1973 and still enforces a Mediterranean architectural standard. On the Miami side, the Coral Way roadway dates to 1922, its median banyans were planted in 1929, and the Miracle Mile shopping street was named in 1955 and rebuilt in a streetscape project begun in 2016.
Parks & Recreation
The Venetian Pool, carved from a coral rock quarry and on the National Register of Historic Places, is the best known public facility, alongside the Biltmore golf course and the Coral Gables Museum. The Lowe Art Museum sits on the University of Miami campus, and the Miracle Theatre, built in the late 1940s, is home to Actors’ Playhouse. Coral Gate Park serves the western end of Coral Way, whose banyan-lined median is itself a designated landscape.
Transit
Douglas Road and University stations serve Coral Gables on both Metrorail lines, and Vizcaya station sits at the eastern end of Coral Way. Coral Gables has run a free trolley since 2003, with a Ponce de Leon route from Douglas Road station to Flagler Street, a Grand Avenue route toward Coconut Grove and a southern loop added in 2025; the City of Miami Trolley runs a Coral Way route. Buses serve SW 8th Street and Coral Way, Douglas Road and Bird Road. There is no Metromover, Brightline or Tri-Rail station in either area; the nearest Tri-Rail stop is at Miami International Airport.