Amelia District

Walk on the streets of Amelia District, and you might hear rhumba or salsa playing from backyard patios or Spanish spoken by the people you pass. The handsome homes here come in all shapes and sizes, painted a rainbow of colors, making you wonder if you’ve stepped out of South Florida and onto the streets of South Havana. “If you move here from Cuba, you’ll feel right at home,” says Ram Carrabeo, a Realtor with Partnership Realty Inc. Cuban restaurants, businesses and stores cater to the community, and Spanish is widely spoken.

The homes in Amelia District, too, have their own charm. They’re a mixture of single-family houses, town houses and condos built in the ’60s and ’70s, some with decorative wrought iron doors, geometric screens, or Mediterranean-style tile roofs and stucco siding. Three- to five-bedroom ranch-style homes, some with beautifully paved drives, sell for between $400,000 and $825,000, depending on their size. One- and two-bedroom town houses list in the $300,000 to $500,000 range, many built around the lakes that dot the neighborhood, and most have no HOAs. Condominium communities, while fewer, offer added security and amenities, such as gated parking lots and community pools, some with as many as three bedrooms and screened-in balconies. These units price between $170,000 and $350,000.

Covering a little over 2 square miles, Amelia District has several schools that serve it, including North Twin Lakes Elementary, Palm Lakes Elementary and Twin Lakes Elementary, all of which received above-average grades from Niche. Students at Palm Springs Middle can earn college credit through the school’s dual enrollment program with Miami-Dade College. Miami Lakes Middle offers the internationally recognized Cambridge Program Secondary 1 Curriculum, which equips middle schoolers with the skills needed to complete their Advanced International Certificate of Education (AICE) diploma at the high school level. Speaking of such, Hialeah-Miami Lakes Senior High has been winning Florida state sports championships since their victories in boys and girls water polo more than 50 years ago.

Both the district and its largest recreational area, Amelia Earhart Park, were named after the famous aviator who became the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean. This 515-acre green space features five freshwater lakes where visitors can paddleboat and fish or enjoy cable wakeboarding, waterskiing, kneeboarding and more at its water sports complex. The park also offers 8 miles of mountain bike trails, multiple soccer fields, a dog park and a disc golf course. With many areas to picnic, a farm village where children can interact with animals, and a treehouse-like playground where kids can swing, climb and play musical instruments make this park a favorite of families. At the center of the district lies the 17-acre McDonald Water and Recreational Park, which offers more of what you’d expect from an urban park, such as tennis, basketball and sand volleyball courts. An aquatic center occupies one side of the park’s central lake, and a sun-shielded playground the other. The Hialeah Fire Station No. 5 and the North Hialeah e-Library are at two corners. If you have a baseball player in the family, you’ll also want to know about Ernest Graham Park. It features a regulation-sized, lighted baseball field and sits right next to Twin Lakes Elementary.

For everyday needs, residents frequent the Fresco y Más grocery store at the North Hialeah Shopping Center just south of Ernest Graham Park, where you’ll also find several stores and retailers. A Publix is only a few blocks away at Hialeah Plaza, and across the street, you’ll see an AutoZone and a Dollar General. While the neighborhood has dozens of restaurants, such as Casa Maiz, a Cuban eatery specializing in corn delicacies and grilled Argentinian cuts, if you really want Cuban, the place to go is Maruchi’s. This unadorned, over-the-counter restaurant and deli features traditional Cuban dishes, such as sandwich cubano, lomo ahumado and vaca frita. While the restaurant is a little more than 5 miles away, the drive is worth it, Carrabeo says. Another enjoyable outing — with little to no driving — is a walk through the Garden of the Arts, a free botanical garden next to Palm Lakes Park. This paved, half-mile walking park features 11 murals by local and world-renowned Latin artists.

If the food and culture of Cuba feel like home to you or lift you to a happier place, you may want to add Amelia District to your home search. This neighborhood has all the charm of the island nation with all the conveniences of a North Miami address.

Written By

Christopher Kopczynski

Photography Contributed By

Eduardo Ford

Video By

Austin Lewis