Miami City Hall Was Originally Pan Am's Stylish Seaplane Base

How many cities have city halls that were formerly seaplane airports? Probably just Miami, where in 1954 the former Pan American Airways Seaplane Base at Dinner Key was preserved and turned in to a very fashionable city hall. Before that, seaplanes would land and take off on the glittering waters of Biscayne Bay, taxiing (if in fact that's what they call it) to docks behind the terminal where fleets of fishing boats now tie up at the Dinner Key Marina. Inside this art deco temple to flight was a huge world globe now located at the Miami Science Museum. These photos from the Library of Congress' Historic American Buildings Survey show the building in all its original grandeur.

· The Pan Am Globe [Facebook]
· Pan American Airways System Terminal Building [LOC]