Mary Brickell Park & Mausoleum

Amongst all the Miami craziness and next to a condo building and hotel hot spot is a resting spot for the Brickell family, Miami pioneers. Yes, dead bodies used to be here, in that fancy, white, marble monument on the lawn of the Icon Brickell condo, near their valet parking area. Cue the Poltergeist music.

Luckily, for those who cannot face their own mortality and flee from anything related to death, in 1946, the bodies that were inside the mausoleum were moved to Woodlawn Park Cemetery (now Caballero Rivero Woodlawn North Park Cemetery and Mausoleum) by their daughter, Maud Brickell.

A lot of people think this is simply some monument in tribute to the Brickell family, but as you can see, it has a bit of a darker history to it. It cannot be removed so any construction must be built around it, as it was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1989.

The park was donated by the Brickell family to Miami in 1921 as a preserve for the family mausoleum. If that's not enough history for you, maybe this is: From 500 B.C. to 1000 A.D., the Tequesta culture had villages from Brickell Point up both sides of the Miami River as far west as Miami Avenue. Pre-Columbian mounds and cemeteries were part of the landscape until the mid-1880s, when pioneers began clearing and building there. You can visit the nearby Brickell Circle for more Tequesta history.