Our community offers a number of movement classes for senior residents. I’ve been enjoying tai chi three mornings a week for the past five or six years. Only problem is that from June through August two of the three centers are used exclusively for summer campers. As if, we seniors are going to do something to the kids between 9:00 am – 10:00 am.

After successfully lobbying for summer tai chi classes, over the past few summers we’ve been shunted from venue to venue. First was a room in the newly updated Convention Center; fine except for the days when exterior doors were locked. Next was the penultimate level in a new 6-story parking garage; fine except when security drove by to question our validity.

For the past two summers, our classes have convened in the historic Carl Fisher Club House (aka the Rum Room) just north of the Convention Center. Mostly a great venue except when chairs have not been removed from the rental of the previous evening. As I execute the flowing moves of Chen 24 tai chi, I admire the graceful finishings of the beautifully restored building.

Carl Fisher is considered to be one of the founding fathers of Miami Beach. Before entering the world of South Florida real estate, he was in the automobile industry in Indiana. He was a partner on the Presto-O-Light Corp; was one of the founders of the Indianapolis Speedway; and helped create the Lincoln Highway. In 1914, thanks to his involvement in the north-south Dixie Highway (which ended in Miami), Fisher moved south to Miami Beach.

His role in advertising Miami Beach as a tropical “playground” for the country’s northern elite helped to kick off the real estate boom of the 1920s. By 1915, Fisher and his business partners all had mansions (so-called Southern Mansions of Northern Industrialists) on Miami Beach, where there were three bay front hotels, an aquarium, and three golf courses.

Our twice-weekly meeting place constructed in 1916 was designed by architect August “Gus” Geiger as the Miami Beach Municipal Golf Course Clubhouse on Fisher’s executive golf course. It is considered the “oldest public building in Miami Beach.” The building was purchased in 1939 by the City of Miami Beach, designated as a historic landmark in 1983, and meticulously restored around 2020.

Summer seems to draw to a close earlier and earlier. Mid-August we will return to our spaces in the city recreation centers as children return to school. Where will our tai chi classes meet next summer?