From a seat in any cafe in Coconut Grove one has a view of a diverse human procession: Ivy Leaguers, Hare Krishnas peddling flowers, preening body worshipers and more.
Nothing about this tiny East Coast village resembles its cosmopolitan and high-rise neighbor, downtown Miami, about 15 minutes` drive south.
Rush hour here constitutes a throng of pedestrians and convertibles and peddle-powered rickshaws circling the village center over and over, a parade that goes nowhere but accomplishes its goal of getting people seen.
For all its separateness, 3-square-mile Coconut Grove, the oldest village on the South Florida mainland, has reluctantly remained a part of Miami since its annexation in 1925.
Snug against the shoreline of Biscayne Bay, Coconut Grove includes some 400 trendy shops and several waterside parks. A new mall, called Cocowalk, is Mediterranean-style with fountains, terraces and outdoor cafes.
Coconut Grove`s Main Highway is a two-lane road tunneling through fat banyan trees; the small roads that splinter off it pass cottages and wooded estates. Local historic sites range from a bungalow framed in shipwreck timber to an Italian Renaissance palace.
Miami was nothing more than an Army post when Coconut Grove had a permanent population of more than 100 people, making it the largest settlement around in 1891.
Many early settlers were lured to the Grove by adventurer Ralph Middleton Munroe, a name revered here to this day.
Originally from Staten Island, Munroe, an exceptional sailor remembered as the Commodore, persuaded many of his Northeast friends to visit the Grove`s then-swampy frontier.
One prominent settler who met up with Munroe was Charles Peacock, who built one of South Florida`s first hotels, the Peacock Inn, in the Grove in 1882. In its place today is Peacock Park, a bay-side expanse for Frisbee tossing, picnics and festivals.
Munroe`s home, the Barnacle at 3845 Main Highway, was built in 1891 out of shipwreck timber and is one of the Grove`s most treasured historical sites. A central skylight, operated by ropes and pulleys, juts out like a barnacle
(hence the name).
Tours reveal many of the original furnishings and artifacts collected by Munroe and include the grounds, which extend like a tongue to Biscayne Bay, and Munroe`s boathouse. There he built his line of Presto boats, exceptionally well-suited to the bay`s shallow waters, which was a highway of sorts in the days before roads.
That Munroe`s home survives perhaps is a tribute to his transcendentalistli ke philosophy, the spirit of which thrives today, emphasized by a respect for and coexistence with nature.
What didn`t fare so well in the salty environment was a multimillion-dollar palace called Vizcaya, a 130-acre Italian Renaissance palace estate just outside Coconut Grove built in 1916 by James Deering, a farm equipment industrialist, about the time other affluent people were discovering the Grove as a verdant getaway.
Vizcaya`s 70 rooms reflect Renaissance Baroque, Rococo and neoclassic styles, with many rooms built around one component-an 18th Century plaster ceiling from the Rossi Palace in Venice, for instance, or a tapestry from Portugal.
The wealthy escapists who followed Deering had plenty of vacant land and built mansions for themselves. Their exteriors, which can best be seen by bicycle, are often shrouded by the Grove`s dense tropical foliage.
If you take the Old Town Trolley tour of Miami, which covers the Grove among other Miami area sites, most of the trolley drivers, apparently botanists in a former life, continuously rattle off the names of trees brushing your window.
Among the houses are the Anchorage, a 1908 structure in the Spanish style where William Jennings Bryan once stayed, and the Walter DeGarmo estate, built in 1921 on Douglas Road, which has large arched openings and tall casement windows.
The Bahamian builders of such grand homes built for themselves small cottages in the west Grove, along Charles Avenue, which was originally called Evangelist Street and is also known as the Black Grove.
In 1956 the Coconut Grove Playhouse opened and in 1960 came the Grove House, an artists` and craftsmen`s cooperative occupying the building vacated by the bank.
The Playhouse and the Grove House founded the Coconut Grove Arts Festival in 1963. The three-day outdoor festival in February-next year taking place on Presidents` Day weekend-features more than 300 artists from around the country.
Affluent residents and upscale tourists have made shopping trendy and expensive. A shop called Ouch, on Main Highway, which sells ”alternative”
custom-designed clothing, on a recent visit had stretchy minidresses clasped with safety pins and old denim jackets adorned with lace, wild prints and metallic-fabric collars that cost up to $299.
Cocowalk, the new Mediterranean-style mall, is one of the few spots housing middle-of-the-road chains such as The Gap.
Just east, however, Mayfair, a pricier shopping and hotel complex, is adorned with ornate wall frescoes, skylights and vine-covered trellises.
Most Grove shops are open at night, so days can be dedicated to beaching, boating and bicycling. The Grove`s bike path winds 5 miles south from the village center to the popular beach of Matheson Hammock. Nearby, Fairchild Garden is the largest botanical garden in the country, with a tropical rain forest, lakes and a rare-plant house.
Extending eastward from the Grove like a small peninsula into Biscayne Bay, Dinner Key marina is lined with boat-rental and charter-fishing operations. Miami`s City Hall is also here.
Just north of Dinner Key is the Chart House seafood restaurant, which has some of the finest views of the bay. Dining, like shopping, can be expensive. If you can afford it, the Grand Cafe in the elegant Grand Bay Hotel on South Bayshore Drive has some ambitious international fare.
The essence of the Grove, though, is people-watching. Outdoor tables at such cafes as Sharkey`s and Zanzibar on Commodore Plaza nearly block the sidewalk. The range of attire and the attitude are highly diverting, but be warned: In Coconut Grove people-watching is a reciprocal pastime.
