The Scarface, Vice's Great McCarthy etc, the Specialist house gone

[miamijimf]

I posted this already but I guess you have to create a new topic for it to show up on the home page. I think the house seen in Scarface and Vice's Great McCarthy etc is gone. If you check this article, that makes no mention of the property between Nixon's time and the new huge house, I'm a little confused but think they are talking about the same property. If you check Bing maps for 485 Matheson Dr. Key Biscayne the house looks nothing like this older photo of the house below. Another major loss IMO. What do you think? I hope I am wrong but I'm afraid not. [ATTACH=CONFIG]n294384[/ATTACH] http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...97302599003992 [ATTACH=CONFIG]n294387[/ATTACH]

[Tommy Vercetti]

It's OK Jim. The house is still there. I just checked it on bing maps and this new house is located right next door to the Scarface house. The current bing maps shows the new house under construction and the familar house is still there intact. The Scarface house is safe. Phew, that was a close one.

[miamijimf]

Thanks Tommy, Don't know how I missed looking more carefully at Bing Maps. What confused me was all the stories about the Scarface,Vice etc house replacing Nixon's original house.

[Matt5]

Yes dont panic the house is still there - I went recently

[Matt5]

Looks like it has been remodelled considerably though

[miamijimf]

Yes, a few years ago airtommy visited the site and posted some photos he took during the remodeling.

[Pink Flaming0]

[sleekmiamivicefan]

That sleek white mansion is just plain smooth.

[Matt5]

Doesnt look like has changed to much

[airtommy]

I was browsing Don Boyd's fantastic collection of historical Miami photos and stumbled across something I've never seen before.   This is an aerial photo of the original Nixon estate (his "Winter White House").  A few years later, this house was demolished and replaced with the beautiful house seen in Scarface and many MV episodes:

 

http://www.pbase.com/donboyd/image/131395977

[Tommy Vercetti]

You don't have Nixon's house to kick around anymore

[airtommy]

You don't have Nixon's house to kick around anymore

 

  Good one!  I vaguely knew the reference but I had to Google it for specifics.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Nixon%27s_last_press_conference

[miamijimf]

I was browsing Don Boyd's fantastic collection of historical Miami photos and stumbled across something I've never seen before.   This is an aerial photo of the original Nixon estate (his "Winter White House").  A few years later, this house was demolished and replaced with the beautiful house seen in Scarface and many MV episodes:

 

http://www.pbase.com/donboyd/image/131395977

 

I've got 4 other photos of the Nixon house and will post them if anyone is interested.  Don't remember where they came from.  Very modest looking house that Nixon visited 50 times during his presidency.  It was given to him by his best friend and financial and real estate advisor BeBe Rebozo.  Called Nixon's "bag man" BeBe was later investigated for bank fraud.  After the Nixon house was replaced by the larger house we saw on Vice it fell into the hands of one of Pablo Escobar's cocaine-running pilots before he testified against Manuel Noriega, forfeited the home, and served jail time.  That property has some interesting history.

[airtommy]

Yes, post them!

[Matt5]

I've got 4 other photos of the Nixon house and will post them if anyone is interested.  Don't remember where they came from.  Very modest looking house that Nixon visited 50 times during his presidency.  It was given to him by his best friend and financial and real estate advisor BeBe Rebozo.  Called Nixon's "bag man" BeBe was later investigated for bank fraud.  After the Nixon house was replaced by the larger house we saw on Vice it fell into the hands of one of Pablo Escobar's cocaine-running pilots before he testified against Manuel Noriega, forfeited the home, and served jail time.  That property has some interesting history.

 

yes please do !!

[miamijimf]

OK Matt and airtommy here you go, more pix of Nixon houses before the mansion seen in The Great McCarthy, Scarface etc was built.  One caption says he used four houses in his "compound," which may explain why the shots are different.  I remember other residents on that street complaining about the difficulty getting through the Secret Service check points when trying to get home.  By the way Matt, as I posted on FB, you should post some of your travel shots on this site in the Personals thread.

 

 

 

 

Edited October 24, 2015 by miamijimf

[airtommy]

I just watched a live TV interview of Judge Alex and I'm 99% certain he was sitting in the Scarface house.  I couldn't quite get my DVR going in time to record it, but the windows looked the same and the background way off in the distance looked like Coconut Grove.  I'm pretty sure I recognized Grove Isle.

I just found this old news story:

Wreckers Tear Down Ex-Nixon Fla. Home           Sunday, June 17. 1979

Wreckers demolished former President Richard Nixon's winter White House on Key Biscayne last Thursday to make room for a mansion for a retired Colombian. The one-story concrete-block home at 516 Bay Lane was the final structure to be cleared from the Nixon compound, into which the government poured $7.1 million during-the nearly six years Nixon used the facilities. The former president's office next to the home was leveled Tuesday.

Eduardo Ortega of Colombia paid $455,000 for the site last year and plans to build a three-story showplace mansion there. Most Key Biscayne residents opposed a brief and unsuccessful campaign to save the Nixon home's library as a historic landmark, arguing that it would increase auto traffic through their treasured privacy. "I'm glad that entire thing has been done away with," said one Bay Lane resident.

Government expenditures on the facilities included a $730,000 network of communications cables, which tumbled with the wrecked house, and a $450,000 concrete helipad in Biscayne Bay, which still stands, Nixon sold the winter White House office in 1976 for about $390,000 to Toronto psychiatrist Dr. Sherwood Appleton, who in turn sold it to Ortega.

Edited March 5, 2017 by airtommy

[Matt5]

10 hours ago, airtommy said:

I just watched a live TV interview of Judge Alex and I'm 99% certain he was sitting in the Scarface house.  I couldn't quite get my DVR going in time to record it, but the windows looked the same and the background way off in the distance looked like Coconut Grove.  I'm pretty sure I recognized Grove Isle.

I just found this old news story:

Wreckers Tear Down Ex-Nixon Fla. Home           Sunday, June 17. 1979

 Wreckers demolished former President Richard Nixon's winter White House on Key Biscayne last Thursday to make room for a mansion for a retired Colombian. The one-story concrete-block home at 516 Bay Lane was the final structure to be cleared from the Nixon compound, into which the government poured $7.1 million during-the nearly six years Nixon used the facilities. The former president's office next to the home was leveled Tuesday. Eduardo Ortega of Colombia paid $455,000 for the site last year and plans to build a three-story showplace mansion there. Most Key Biscayne residents oppsed a brief and unsuccessful campaign to save the Nixon home's library as a historic landmark, arguing that it would increase auto traffic through their treasured privacy. "I'm glad that entire thing has been done away with," said one Bay Lane resident. Government expenditures on the facilities included a $730,000 network of communications cables, which tumbled with the wrecked house, and a $450,000 concrete helipad in Biscayne Bay, which still stands, Nixon sold the winter White House office in 1976 for about $390,000 to Toronto psychiatrist Dr. Sherwood Appleton, who in turn sold it to Ortega.

Interesting information , thankyou  

[airtommy]

Here it is.  I can't pin down any of the background buildings.  He lives in Miami and the interview was conducted on Saturday, so I do think it was in the area.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tEeeycZ1IPs

 

Edited July 15, 2018 by airtommy

[miamijimf]

Interesting.  Don't recognize the background but you could be right.  Last I heard the house was on sale for $15 mil.  Sounds kind of expensive for a former circuit judge but this is Dade County so take that into consideration and all the questionable dealings that take place there.  I guess he could be at a friend's house?  Interesting subject, but this is not the place for political commentary.  

Edited March 5, 2017 by miamijimf

[airtommy]

1 minute ago, miamijimf said:

Interesting.  Don't recognize the background but you could be right.  Last I heard the house was on sale for $15 mil.  Kind of expensive for a former judge but this is Dade County so take that into consideration and all the questionable dealings that take place there.  I guess he could be at a friend's house? 

Yeah, I studied it tonight and I can't match up anything in the background.  If the house is for sale, it might be available for televising interviews.

[Dadrian]

There was prestine VW Bus parked in the driveway there in May of 2016. That's all I can add to this case.  

Edited March 5, 2017 by Dadrian

[Matt5]

37 minutes ago, Dadrian said:

There was prestine VW Bus parked in the driveway there in May of 2016. That's all I can add to this case.  

Ha ha !

[airtommy]

On 3/4/2017 at 10:46 PM, airtommy said:

Here it is.  I can't pin down any of the background buildings.  He lives in Miami and the interview was conducted on Saturday, so I do think it was in the area.

 

Never mind, this isn't the Scarface house.  The buildings across the bay are too close.  This is probably somewhere in the northern part of Biscayne Bay, possibly at the local Fox affiliate on the 79th St Causeway.