Liberty City is an inland neighborhood in northwest Miami, commonly bounded by NW 79th Street on the north, NW 27th Avenue on the west, the Airport Expressway (SR 112) on the south and I-95 on the east. The city has historically applied the name Model City to part of the same area, a label residents largely reject. Its boundaries are informal, and the adjacent unincorporated areas of Brownsville and Gladeview lie just across NW 27th Avenue.
Development
The neighborhood grew out of Liberty Square, built between 1934 and 1937 as the first public housing project for African Americans in the southern United States; its first 243 units opened in February 1937. A concrete wall was built along NW 12th Avenue to separate the development from adjoining white neighborhoods, and most of it came down beginning in the 1950s. Liberty City absorbed residents displaced by the construction of I-95 through Overtown in the 1960s. In May 1980, the acquittal of police officers charged in the killing of Arthur McDuffie set off several days of unrest centered here. Miami-Dade County’s Liberty Square Rising redevelopment of the 57-acre site is ongoing, with a further 540 family and elderly apartments breaking ground in February 2026.
Parks & Recreation
Charles Hadley Park, at 1350 NW 50th Street, has a gymnasium, tennis courts, ball fields and a nearby aquatic center; Athalie Range Park is at 525 NW 62nd Street, and Gwen Cherry Park is just north. The Marshall L. Davis, Sr. African Heritage Cultural Arts Center at 6161 NW 22nd Avenue teaches dance, theater and visual art, and the Belafonte TACOLCY Center has run youth programs here for decades. The restored Historic Hampton House, a Green Book era motel, stands just west in Brownsville.
Transit
No Metrorail station sits inside Liberty City, but the Green Line runs along NW 27th Avenue just off its western edge, with Earlington Heights, Brownsville, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Plaza and Northside stations in Brownsville and Gladeview; Earlington Heights is also served by the Orange Line. There is no Metromover or Tri-Rail service. The City of Miami Trolley runs a Liberty City route, and the main bus corridors are NW 27th, NW 22nd, NW 12th and NW 7th Avenues, with crosstown service on NW 54th and NW 79th Streets.