A brand-new Miami nonprofit is about to flood the calendar with 50 events over 39 days, all built around a pioneer woman whose name sits on a downtown avenue but rarely gets the credit historians say she is owed. The Mary Brickell Foundation, a newly formed 501(c)(3), plans to release its full calendar of activities to the public on October 19, 2026, featuring six walking tours, more than 23 presentations, and a collector's edition poster measuring 27 by 39 inches.
The 39-day observance is bookended by two dates tied directly to Mary Brickell's life: it stretches from the 105th anniversary of her death to the 191st anniversary of her birth, according to Miami's Community Newspapers. Brickell was born in Bolton, England, in 1836, and events hosted by partners including FIU, Miami Dade College, the Miami-Dade County Library, The Barnacle, Vizcaya, the Pioneers Club, and a genealogical society will carry the tribute into the new year, the paper reports.
A Great-Granddaughter Picks Up the Cause
The push to launch the foundation traces back to Beatrice “Bea” Brickell, Mary Brickell's great-granddaughter, who began the effort in 2025 after retracing her great-grandparents' footsteps in Australia, per the same report. Bea Brickell has said the foundation should advocate for Mary Brickell and educate Miamians about the community's beginnings, a mission now being carried out under executive director Katia Gauchier, who is organizing six major long-term projects, including a planned musical and documentary.
The foundation also intends to deploy educators across all four South Florida counties and has scheduled a flower remembrance ceremony at Mary Brickell Park for January 13, 2027 — marking 105 years since her death. A first annual Mary Brickell look-a-like contest is set to follow on February 20, 2027, with 51 total events launching that same January date, the outlet notes.
Rewriting Miami's Founding Story
Historian Cesar A. Becerra, whose book on the debate over Mary Brickell's role is now in its second printing, has spent years building the case that she was far more than a bystander in Miami's founding. Becerra's earlier book, Orange Blossom 2.0, published on Miami's 125th incorporation anniversary in 2021, drew on more than 25 years of archival research across the United States and Australia and documented that railroad magnate Henry Flagler signed contracts with the Brickells four months before signing a similar contract with Julia Tuttle, according to FIU News.
William and Mary Brickell had settled along Biscayne Bay back in 1871 after acquiring more than 2,000 acres of land, establishing Miami's first post office, general store, and bank at Brickell Point — some 20 years before Julia Tuttle moved permanently to the Miami River area, per the Florida Women's Hall of Fame. Jane Wood Reno's mother wrote a 1958 article describing Mary Brickell as a mother of Miami alongside Julia Tuttle, and advocacy for Brickell's recognition dates back more than 60 years, Miami's Community Newspapers reports.
Julia Tuttle remains widely popularized as the “Mother of Miami” thanks to the famous orange blossom legend, but archival records confirm Flagler's earlier land deals with the Brickells, making her contribution to both Miami and Fort Lauderdale a foundational, if under-told, piece of South Florida history, according to CBS News Miami. In 1895, the Brickell family negotiated directly with Flagler to help establish the town of Fort Lauderdale, at a time when the entire population of present-day Broward County was estimated at around 20 residents, per Florida Online Journals.
From Typhoid Nursing to a Real Estate Empire
Mary Brickell's legacy includes more than land deals. During an 1873 typhoid outbreak in pioneer Miami, she converted her family residence into a makeshift hospital, using her nursing skills to care for both settlers and local Seminole residents, the Florida Women's Hall of Fame notes. She maintained commercial and personal relationships with Seminole and Black residents during a period of widespread racial segregation.
After William Brickell's death in 1908, Mary took personal control of the family real estate empire, developing major residential districts including Millionaire's Row and The Roads, becoming one of Florida's largest female landowners at a time when women lacked the right to vote. Local historians note she personally managed mortgages and gained a reputation for refusing to foreclose on borrowers facing financial hardship, as reported by CBS News.
State Recognition and a Protected Park
That long campaign reached a formal milestone in May 2025, when Florida Governor Ron DeSantis selected Mary Brickell as one of three statewide inductees into the Florida Women's Hall of Fame, according to the Florida Governor's Office. Months later, in October 2025, Miami-Dade County proclaimed October 29 as Mary Brickell Day throughout the county, following a nomination by the Miami-Dade County Commission for Women; members of the Brickell family attended.
Mary Brickell Park itself, a 2.3-acre site located between First Presbyterian Church of Miami and the W Hotel/Icon property, carries a reverter clause that would return the land to the Brickell family if the City of Miami ever commercializes it. Nearby Allen Morris Brickell Park was the subject of a 2020 Miami-Dade Circuit Court ruling.
The foundation plans to begin an annual weekend festival at Mary Brickell Park in February 2028, funded in part by ticket and reservation proceeds supporting its missions, including outreach education to South Florida public schools and the annual festival. The calendar will be released digitally on the foundation's website alongside reservations and tickets for purchase, Miami's Community Newspapers reports.
A Legacy Preserved in Few Physical Traces
Only three known photographs of Mary Brickell exist, and one of them took 30 years to surface, according to the community newspaper's report. When she died on January 13, 1922, her remains were initially entombed at a family mausoleum on Brickell Avenue before being relocated to Woodlawn Park Cemetery in 1946, per Clio; the now-empty mausoleum at Mary Brickell Park stands as the sole surviving Brickell family structure in downtown Miami.
That tension between preservation and modern development continues to play out just blocks away. Developer Ytech secured a $25 million loan in March to restore the 1920s neoclassical Nolan House on Millionaire's Row, using the restored mansion as an experiential sales center for an adjacent 70-story residential tower — a reminder that the neighborhood Mary Brickell once laid out is still being shaped by her name more than a century later.
