Coral Gables is a city in Miami-Dade County, Florida, southwest of Downtown Miami, in the United States. The city is home to the University of Miami.
The population was 42,249 at the 2000 census. According to U.S Census estimates in 2005, the city had a population of 42,871.
Coral Gables is served by the Miami Metrorail at three stations: Douglas Road Station, University Station, and South Miami Station. Douglas Road Station directly serves the Village of Merrick Park and Coconut Grove, as well as Miracle Mile via the Coral Gables Trolley. University Station serves the University of Miami and the BankUnited Center, and the South Miami Station serves the Shops at Sunset Place and the surrounding South Miami neighborhood.
Coral Gables was one of the first planned communities, and prefigured the development of the gated community and the homeowners association. It is famous for its strict zoning regulations. The city was developed by George Edgar Merrick during the Florida land boom of the 1920s. The city's architecture is almost entirely Mediterranean Revival Style. By 1926, the city covered 10,000 acres (40 km2), had netted $150 million in sales with over $100 million spent on development.
Merrick designed the downtown commercial district to be only four blocks wide and more than two miles (3 km) long. The main artery bisected the business district. Merrick could boast that every business in Coral Gables was less than a two-block walk. The city used to have an old electric trolley system which was replaced by the popularity of modern automobiles, but now a new free circulator trolleysystem, initiated in November, 2003, runs down Ponce de León Boulevard.
In 1925, roughly simultaneous to the founding of Coral Gables, the city was selected as the home to the University of Miami, which was constructed that year on 240 acres (0.97 km2) of land just west of U.S. Route 1, approximately two miles south of downtown Coral Gables.
During World War II many Navy pilots and mechanics were trained and housed in Coral Gables.
University of Miami
Main article: University of Miami
Coral Gables is the location of the University of Miami, a university ranked in the top tier of national universities, with particular national status in the fields of business, engineering, law, marine science, medicine, and music.
Primary and secondary schools
Coral Gables schools are part of the Miami-Dade School District, which serves almost all of metropolitan Miami. The district has one high school in Coral Gables, Coral Gables High School, which educates students in grades nine through 12. George Washington Carver Middle School (Miami, Florida) is located in Coral Gables. An existing school was moved to the current location on Grand Avenue on land donated by George Merrick. When Carver died in 1942 the school was renamed in his honor.
The management offices of Gulliver Schools are located in Coral Gables. Gulliver Academy, a PreK-8 school that is a member of Gulliver Schools, is within Coral Gables.
Miami-Dade Public Library System operates the Coral Gables Branch.
All information obtained from Wikipedia