Did you know that the High Pines neighborhood near South Miami was settled by one of Miami’s oldest families?
In 1895, Dade County pioneers Adam and Rose Wagner Richards received a federal land patent to a 160-acre homestead for the land generally bounded by today’s Sunset Drive (SW 72nd Street) to the north, Davis Road (SW 80th Street) to the south, SW 52nd Avenue to the west, and SW 47th Avenue to the east.
They raised 10 children on their homestead where they worked as farmers, raising crops for shipment to northern markets. They were part of the tight-knit community of Larkins, the precursor to the City of South Miami. They donated approximately 10 acres of their homestead for the Larkins Public School, which still stands today as Sunset Elementary. They donated another four acres for a public cemetery, today owned by the City of Coral Gables as the Pinewood Cemetery on Erwin Road…