The mega city we know today as Miami was a backwater nothing before 1900. However, no matter how little there was, the city still has a history, and it begins here. As a modern, post European settlement, Miami really starts with this structure that was the barracks for US soldiers to deal with the Seminole Indians in the Everglades in the 1830's. The coquina stone building was originally built at the mouth of the Miami River during the Second Seminole War. When the army left, the barracks briefly served as a slave quarter for a short-lived plantation before becoming the start of the village of Miami in 1871. Eventually Julia Tuttle would own and live in the building when she worked to bring Henry Flagler's railroad to the city. In the 1920's as Miami grew its location became important for redevelopment and the barrack's, all that remained of the fort, was moved to its current location in Lummus Park on the banks of the Miami River upriver. Although now in a different location, the building you will see is the oldest building in the city and park of its original development as a US military installation.We visited the site in the afternoon after a day in Everglades NP. The park is not the easiest to find an entrance. However, once we did, we were able to get to the building and see it. It has been altered some with windows and bars, but you can still see the historic coquina structure with chimney. All in all, it was a quick stop but a neat one to see the oldest remaining building in South Florida.