Historical Re-Construction
Overview
This 1920 wood-frame shotgun house sits in Coral Gables’ MacFarlane Homestead Historic District, one of the oldest neighborhoods in the area. After a century of Florida weather, the siding was peeling, the floors had rotted and the roof was sagging. Too little of the original structure could be saved, so instead of patching problems that ran far deeper than the surface, we rebuilt the house from the ground up: the same historic look, on a new foundation and to today’s code.
Drag to compare before & after
Rebuilding the Core
Wood-frame houses are rare in South Florida for a reason. Hurricanes are hard on timber, which is why most homes here are block and concrete. So the new house had two jobs: look and feel like the one that had stood on this lot for a hundred years, and stand up to the next big storm. Architect William Medellin designed it to meet today’s wind and weather requirements without giving up the original’s proportions and details.
Material Sourcing
Getting the materials right was one of the hardest parts of the build.
- A weather barrier made for wood. We used Tyvek DrainWrap, a specialty wrap for wood framing that almost nobody in Florida stocks. We found it at a vendor in north Florida with inventory left over from another job, so the schedule never slipped.
- Siding true to the era. To reproduce the original siding profile, we had a custom profile knife made and special-ordered the boards to match.
That is the difference between a house that looks old and one that stays true to how it was built.
In 2025 the finished home received the Dade Heritage Trust Annual Preservation Award.