In 1898, John Brinzell became the first settler in southern Dade County, building the first house south of Cutler (now Palmetto Bay) near what is now Silver Palm Drive and SW 157th Avenue (Newton Road). Brinzell acted as a broker locating pioneer settlers on homestead claims in the area. The pioneer homesteaders, living in tents and lean-tos, began clearing and farming their land. Many of the roads that now crisscross Redland bear the names of these pioneers, along with numerical street/avenue designations later assigned by the county. The first harvests were a diverse group of cabbage, carrots, eggplant, beans, and tomatoes. Large-scale farming was impractical, however, because the red, iron-rich soil that gave the area its name could only be found in scattered “potholes” that, at their largest, were only an acre in size. To grow fruit trees, farmers first had to dynamite holes in the oolite rock.
In 1904, residents constructed the Silver Palm Schoolhouse at Silver Palm Drive and Newton Road. The two-story structure was the first and largest of seven rural schoolhouses built in the area in the 1900s. The 1905 arrival of Henry Flagler’s Florida East Coast (FEC) Railway several miles to the east in Princeton allowed the homesteaders to easily ship their produce elsewhere in Florida and the country. In 1906, the one-room Redland Schoolhouse was built of Dade County pine at the corner of SW 248th Street (Coconut Palm Drive) and Redland Road. Within five years, five more one-room schoolhouses were built in the area, the last being the Murray Hill Schoolhouse at the corner of Redland Road and SW 216th Street (Hainlin Mill Drive).
In 1911, William “Popp” Anderson, a surveyor from Indiana who worked for the FEC Railway, built the William Anderson General Merchandise Store, also known as Anderson’s Corner, a general store catercorner from the Silver Palm Schoolhouse. The store served the thriving community until the 1930s, when it was converted into apartments and, eventually, a restaurant.
In 1912, the Pioneer Guild, a group founded by the women of Redland in 1907 to do good for social, religious, and civic purposes, constructed the Pioneer Guild Hall at the southwest corner of Redland Road and Bauer Drive, adjacent to a newly constructed Episcopal church and a general store called the Redland Grocery Store. The building contained a stage and a dance floor and became the community’s social center for dances, dinners, and teas. It also served as a civic center where plans were discussed for better living conditions, and as a cultural center for lectures, art classes, and music classes. Famed orator William Jennings Bryant gave a lecture on the “Origin of Man” at the Guild Hall. Young people were brought in during the summer and taught etiquette as well as art, and the intersection at which the building stood became the de facto center of town.
In 1914, Alvin Lindgren, the son of an early pioneer, had a steam tractor built to his specifications that would lead to a revolution in farming in the area. Using the machining and welding experience he had gained from working for the FEC Railway, Lindgren developed the first tractor capable of scarifying rock land. After clearing the land of trees, grass, and shrubs, the “scarifier” would plow the land in four different directions, pulverizing the oolitic limestone and making it possible to roll the land flat. Although first used mainly for clearing lands and laying out roads – Lindgren is responsible for most of the roads in Redland – farmers soon discovered that they could grow crops in the scarified lands instead of just in the potholes of red soil. Farming on a larger scale had now become feasible, and the farmers of Redland soon started to grow citrus, followed by avocados, mangoes, papayas, and a variety of other tropical fruit.
In 1916, the Redland Farm Life School was constructed on land donated by William Anderson at the northeast corner of Coconut Palm Drive and SW 162nd Avenue (Farm Life School Road). Opening its doors in October 1916 to 195 students, it was the second-largest consolidated school in the country, combining the one-room schools from Redland, Goulds, Eureka, Modello, Princeton, Murray Hill, and Silver Palm into a single modern educational facility with classrooms for grades one through twelve. Area children living in outlying areas were for the first time transported by bus. The school contained indoor bathrooms, electric lighting, drinking fountains, a science laboratory, cloak rooms, a cafeteria, and a stand-alone 3200-square-foot (300 m²) auditorium that seated 300 people.
In 1923, Orchid Jungle, one of South Florida’s first roadside tourist attractions, opened on the east side of SW 157th Avenue (Newton Road), south of SW 264th Street (Bauer Drive). It would remain one of the most popular attractions in the area for another 70 years.
In early 1926, The Aladdin Company, a Michigan-based manufacturer of pre-cut homes, began the development of Aladdin City, a planned community with a projected population of 10,000 residents in the northeastern section of Redland, at Hainlin Mill Drive and Farm Life School Road. The developer promised to “spread the Redlands’ fame.” The Redland District Chamber of Commerce – eager to take advantage of the thousands of dollars of promotional advertising being spent on the development – incorporated the Arabian-themed community as “the ninth community in the famous Redlands.” Although a handful of homes and a town hall were built, the development effectively collapsed with the end of the Florida land boom of the 1920s. Today, all that remains is a small portion of the development’s unique street plan and a handful of Arabian-themed street names.
The 1926 Great Miami Hurricane caused tremendous damage throughout Redland. The Pioneer Guild Hall, and the neighboring Episcopal church and general store were hard hit. A new Episcopal church was built closer to neighboring Homestead, leaving the Redland Community United Methodist Church, built in 1913 a mile north, as the only church in Redland. The Guild Hall and general store were restored, but both struggled after the Great Depression. In the early 1940s, Ludolf Andersen and his wife bought the property, and moved the Redland Grocery Store sign to the Guild Hall. The Redland Grocery still operates today in the old Guild Hall, run by the Andersens’ son and grandson.
In 1927, the Seaboard Air Line Railway came through the center of Redland, with pioneer resident George W. Kosel donating both a mile of right of way and a station site at SW 256th Street (Plummer Drive). The Seaboard also built a wooden depot at the northwestern edge of the Aladdin City development. Both depots further increased the ability to ship produce out of the area.
In 1933, another famed roadside attraction, Monkey Jungle, opened on Hainlin Mill Drive a mile and a half east of Aladdin City. Known for its tagline, “where the humans are caged and the monkeys run wild,” it remains a major attraction in the area, having survived devastation and temporary closure from hurricanes and allegedly false claims of animal abuse.
With the demise of the Guild Hall, the Redland Farm Life School became the focus of virtually all activity in Redland, acting as a de facto community center. Residents gathered at the school for holiday fairs, elections, dances, and agricultural meetings. The property also served as a playground for neighborhood children.
As land became more expensive beginning in the 1980s and the North American Free Trade Agreement began to affect the bottom line of some farmers, the ornamental nursery industry developed due to providing a better financial return on the land. Nevertheless, by 1990, the area was the country’s largest producer of tomatoes in the winter, and provided 95 percent of the limes to the whole country.
Hurricanes such as the 1926 Great Miami hurricane, the 1929 Bahamas hurricane, the 1935 Labor Day hurricane, and Hurricane Betsy in 1960 all caused severe damage to crops, ornamental nurseries, and structures. However, it was Hurricane Andrew in 1992 that proved particularly devastating. Among other things, it destroyed Orchid Jungle (now the Hattie Bauer Hammock Preserve), the 1906 Redland Schoolhouse, the 1913 Redland Community United Methodist Church, and the wooden train station in the Aladdin City section, and forced the permanent closure of the Redland Farm Life School and Anderson’s Corner and the restaurant that had been operating on the premises. Farm losses exceeded $41 billion.
In 1995, Redland became the subject of national media attention when nine-year-old Jimmy Ryce disappeared after the school bus dropped him off at the southeast corner of Silver Palm Drive and Farm Life School Road, a block from his home. Three months after the disappearance, Juan Carlos Chavez, who had been living in a trailer on a neighbor’s property, confessed to abducting, raping, and murdering Ryce, and then dismembering his body and interring the remains in planters sealed with concrete. The crime led to the passage of the Jimmy Ryce Act, which prescribes conditions for the involuntary civil commitment of sex offenders upon release from prison. Juan Carlos Chavez was executed by the state of Florida in 2014. The site where Jimmy Ryce was dropped off by the school bus remains a memorial site in Redland to this day.
The area has many historic markers that tell the history of certain spots.
Construction began in 2019 to widen a Krome Ave ,major road, that passes through the area. This construction was completed in 2020 and costed the city of Miami approximately 37 million dollars.