Duke Ellington and Ella Fitzgerald once walked across the stage of the Lyric, a major stop on the ‘Chitlin’ Circuit’ – the black live-entertainment trail of preintegration USA. As years passed both the theater and the neighborhood it served, Overtown, fell into disuse. Then the Black Archives History & Research Foundation of South Florida took over the building. Today the theater hosts occasional shows, while the Archives hosts excellent exhibitions exploring African American heritage both in Miami and beyond.
Black Archives Historic Lyric Theater
Lonely Planet's must-see attractions
8.72 MILES
If you need to escape Miami’s constant motion, consider a green day in one of the country’s largest tropical botanical gardens. A butterfly grove,…
Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park
7.46 MILES
If you don’t make it to the Florida Keys, come to this park for a taste of their unique island ecosystems. The 494-acre space is a tangled clot of…
5.75 MILES
In the most opulent neighborhood of one of the showiest cities in the world, the Biltmore is the greatest of the grand hotels of the American Jazz Age. If…
0.84 MILES
Few American parks can claim to front such a lovely stretch of turquoise as Biscayne Bay, but Miamians are lucky like that. Noted artist and landscape…
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Just five minutes from Memorial Boulevard Park, which honors a number of Cuban heroes, Máximo Gómez is the big beating heart of Miami's Little Havana…
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If you want to see something that is 'very Miami', this is it – lush, big, over the top, a patchwork of all that a rich US businessman might want to show…
0.53 MILES
South Florida – a land of escaped slaves, guerrilla Native Americans, gangsters, land grabbers, pirates, tourists, drug dealers and alligators – has a…
0.75 MILES
One of Miami's most impressive spaces, designed by Swiss architects Herzog & De Meuron, integrates tropical foliage, glass, concrete and wood – a melding…
Nearby attractions
0.52 MILES
To learn more about Florida (especially South Florida), take a browse through the extensive Florida Collection, or ask about the Romer Photograph…
2. Museum of Art and Design at MDC
0.53 MILES
Miami-Dade College operates a small but well-curated art museum in Downtown; the permanent collection includes works by Matisse, Picasso and Chagall and…
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South Florida – a land of escaped slaves, guerrilla Native Americans, gangsters, land grabbers, pirates, tourists, drug dealers and alligators – has a…
0.54 MILES
For a taste of old Florida, take a stroll along the Miami River. A shoreline promenade leads past a mix of glittering high-rise condos and battered…
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An iconic slice of Miami's old skyline, the richly ornamented Freedom Tower is one of two surviving towers modeled after the Giralda bell tower in Spain’s…
6. Miami-Dade County Courthouse
0.55 MILES
If you end up on trial here, at least you’ll get a free tour of one of the most imposing courthouses in the USA. Built between 1925 and 1929, this a very…
7. Miami Center for Architecture & Design
0.58 MILES
It makes sense that the Miami branch of the American Institute of Architects would pick the Old US Post Office as headquarters of their Center for…
8. Patricia & Phillip Frost Museum of Science
0.65 MILES
This sprawling new Downtown museum spreads across 250,000 sq ft that includes a three-level aquarium, a 250-seat, state-of-the-art planetarium and two…