Dennis Apartments, 433-447 North Miami Avenue, Miami, Miami-Dade County, FL

Significance: The Chaille Block and Dennis Apartments is one of the few commercial buildings remaining in Miami from the period before the development boom of the 1920s. Built in the masonry vernacular style, the stuccoed concrete construction and arcade across the facade are architectural adaptations to climate and available building materials characteristic of early Miami architecture. This building is particularly significant in association with the neighboring buildings along North Miami Avenue between NE 4th and 5th Streets. The five buildings, collectively known as the Chaille Block, were built in the masonry vernacular style between 1913 and 1920. Individual examples of pre-1920 masonry vernacular commercial architecture are extant elsewhere in Miami, but the streetscape composed of five such buildings found on this block is a unique, intact remnant of the history of Miami's commercial development.
Survey number: HABS FL-524
Building/structure dates: ca. 1912 Initial Construction