17 Oct
2026
Along Biscayne Boulevard in downtown Miami stands a tall, cream-colored tower topped with a decorative cupola. Today it is surrounded by glass high-rises, but for many Miami families it is the most meaningful building in the city. The Freedom Tower began as a newspaper headquarters and became a doorway to a new life for thousands of Cuban refugees. Its story is woven into who Miami is today.
The building was completed in 1925, during South Florida's famous land boom of the 1920s, when Miami was growing at a dizzying pace. It was built as the headquarters of the Miami News, a newspaper first published in 1896, and was designed by the New York architecture firm Schultze and Weaver.
A newspaper tower was a statement. It said that Miami was no longer a small frontier town but a real city with its own voice. For years, the paper's reporters and printers worked inside its walls, recording the city's growth, storms and changes. The Miami News was one of the city's longest-running papers before it closed in 1988.
The Freedom Tower is a classic example of Mediterranean Revival architecture, a style that was popular in Florida during the boom years. Mediterranean Revival borrowed from the buildings of Spain and Italy, with stucco walls, tile roofs and decorative arches. The Freedom Tower's design was inspired by the Giralda, the famous bell tower of the cathedral in Seville, Spain. The tall central tower, arched windows and ornate details gave Miami a skyline landmark that looked back to Spain while the city looked forward.
That Spanish inspiration would later feel fitting, as the building became a symbol for Spanish-speaking newcomers.
After the Cuban Revolution of 1959, many Cubans fled to the United States, and Miami, just across the Florida Straits, became their main point of arrival. From 1962 to 1974, the U.S. government used the building as a center to receive and process Cuban refugees. Many Cubans came to call it El Refugio, the refuge.
Thousands of people passed through its doors. There, newcomers could register with the government and receive help as they began building new lives. For many families, it was one of their first stops in a new country, a place connected to both the pain of leaving home and the hope of starting over.
Many of those who arrived during these years settled in Miami and helped shape neighborhoods like Little Havana. Their children and grandchildren are part of the city's business, politics, food and culture today. For many of them, the tower is not just a building but a piece of family history.
New York's Ellis Island is remembered as the gateway where millions of immigrants entered the United States in earlier generations. Because the Freedom Tower played a similar role for Cuban exiles, it came to be called the "Ellis Island of the South." The name captures how important the building is to the Cuban American community and to Miami's identity as a city of newcomers.
Miami has welcomed people from all over the Caribbean and Latin America, including Jamaican, Haitian and many other families. The Freedom Tower stands as one of the clearest reminders that the city was shaped by people who arrived with very little and built a great deal.
After its years as a refugee center, the tower went through periods of sitting empty and changing hands. Supporters fought to preserve it. It was later donated to Miami Dade College by a Cuban American family, and in 2008 it was designated a National Historic Landmark.
If you visit Miami, here are a few ways to appreciate it:
Jonathan Anthony Burkett was born in Miami at Jackson Memorial Hospital in 1987 and came back to the city from Jamaica as a young boy, so he knows what it means to start over in a new place. The Freedom Tower honors everyone who has done the same, whether they arrived by plane, by boat or on foot, carrying little more than hope.
Next time you are downtown, stop and look up at the tower, and think about the courage of everyone who passed through it. To learn more about Jonathan's own journey between Jamaica and Miami, visit the About page.
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