Community Background Report

Lindgren Acres

County

Miami-Dade

Boundaries

North: S.W. 120th Street
South: S.W. 184th Street
West: S.W. 157th Avenue
East: SR 821 Expressway

Community Type

Neighborhood

History

The Lindgren Acres neighborhood was named after John Lindgren, a pioneer who came to South Florida in 1895 after his Central Florida citrus grove was wiped out in a bad freeze (Hirsch 1982). That was the winter that brought five-inch snowfall to Brownsville Texas and a devastating double-freeze to Florida’s citrus belt. The first freeze of that season came in December. The orange trees suffered considerable damage but began to recover during a warm January.

John Lindgren’s son, Alvin, worked on the Key West extension of Henry Flagler's railroad. Alvin Lindgren is credited with inventing a tractor-like vehicle that cleared land. The ‘scarifier’, a large machine that revolutionized the region's farming through the utilization of a blade that broke up the oolitic limestone resting just beneath the surface of the land. It was used to clear dense foliage from many South Dade roads (Hirsch 1982). It is very likely that this technology was used to clear the original Lindgren Road.

The neighborhood of Lindgren Acres is interested in preserving its historical landmarks. Here arises a point of contention between the need to maintain community character and the community’s historic features. Lindgren Acres is mostly rural in its land uses, with one dwelling unit per five acres. Developers have sought to increase this level of density in order to develop large numbers of residential homes. This would be at odds with the community’s character. The Lindgren House, a historic property, is currently in need of maintenance. Recurring fees and zoning restrictions have made it hard on the current owners seeking to sell this property to developers.

The bank foreclosed on the historical Lindgren House, six months after the Zoning Appeals Board refused to let the owner divide the property in order to sell it (Miami Herald 1990). Alinda Lindgren Goodwin, whose father built the house at 19300 Lindgren Road in 1911, wanted to sell the home and two and three quarters surrounding acres, keeping the remainder as a mango grove. Board members denied her request, maintaining the zoning rule that houses in agricultural areas must be on at least five acres of land (Miami Herald 1990). The home, on 11 acres at 19300 SW 137th Avenue, is a rustic, white, two story farmhouse with a large front porch. "It's a very simple Southern house, and a very beautiful one," said Ivan Rodriguez, director of Metro's Historic Preservation Division. The home is believed to be the only one of this particular style in South Florida, though the style is considered common in North Florida and South Georgia (Hirsch 1982). Metro planners and members of the Redland Citizens Association, who feared that making one exception would lead to the disintegration of farmland into suburban homesites (Redland.com: Historic Homes of South Dade). Gary Dufek, a member of the County Historic Preservation Board, said the Lindgren home was difficult to sell because of the uncommonly large parcel of land it is on (Miami Herald 1990)

Board members denied her request, maintaining the zoning rule that houses in agricultural areas must be on at least five acres of land (Miami Herald 1990). The home, on 11 acres at 19300 SW 137th Avenue, is a rustic, white, two story farmhouse with a large front porch. "It's a very simple Southern house, and a very beautiful one," said Ivan Rodriguez, director of Metro's Historic Preservation Division. The home is believed to be the only one of this particular style in South Florida, though the style is considered common in North Florida and South Georgia (Hirsch 1982). Metro planners and members of the Redland Citizens Association, who feared that making one exception would lead to the disintegration of farmland into suburban homesites (Redland.com: Historic Homes of South Dade). Gary Dufek, a member of the County Historic Preservation Board, said the Lindgren home was difficult to sell because of the uncommonly large parcel of land it is on (Miami Herald 1990)

Community Dynamics

According to 2010 Census figures, there are 61,678 people, 16,546 households in Lindgren Acres. With a large percentage of White Population (84.62%), 8.44% African American, and 7.74% of other race. The Hispanic is 70.75% and non-Hispanic is 29.25%. 47.22% of the population having education below high school. Lindgren Acre’s population is considered a commuter community with 85.17% of its population drive alone, rather than other form of transportation to work and more than half of the working population drives 30 minutes or more (American Community Survey, 2015).

The average per capita income in Lindgren Acres is $27,727, lover than the County average of $28,823, 8.86% of the population are below the poverty line.

Business Landscape

Zoo Miami, Miami Executive Airport located in Lindgren Acres. As Country Walks, Richmond West and South Miami Height neighborhoods grows as residential communities, a wide range of wholesale, retail and service businesses thrives in the defined area of Lindgren Acres.

Transportation

Lindgren Road, also known as Southwest 137th Avenue, is also named after the Lindgren homesteading family, according to South Florida historian Paul George. Southwest 137th Avenue and Lindgren Road but officially name Florida State Road 825., the four-lane divided highway is mainly used for commuting between South Miami Heights, Country Walk, and West Kendall. Florida State Road 825 is an approximately three-mile-long north-south street connecting SR 94 (Kendall Drive/Southwest 88th Street) and Kendall-Tamiami Executive Airport in western Miami-Dade County, Florida (Wikipedia: SR 825). With the continuing population growth of western Miami-Dade County and the current construction of the western extension of the Dolphin Expressway, the importance of SR 825 as a commercial and commuter highway for the Lindgren neighborhood is expected to continue to increase in the coming years.