Photograph of the McAllister Hotel in 1926 courtesy of the Florida Photographic Collection. Once the tallest building in Miami, it was eventually demolished.
De Garmo studied under John Russell Pope, and worked as an architect in New York before moving to Miami.[5] He was the first registered architect in the Miami area.[6] He held a degree in architecture from Cornell University.[2]Marion Manley, Florida's first female architect, interned with De Garmo.[7] He has been referred to as the "Dean of Miami architects."
The 1907 Miami City Hall designed by De Garmo was in use until 1928, when city functions were relocated to the newly built Dade County Courthouse, and the De Garmo building demolished.[8] As of 1996, only two buildings by De Garmo remained in Miami Beach.[9]
A 1926 home in Coral Gables, Florida, described as De Garmo's "masterpiece," was up for sale in 2013 for US$12.5 million.[11] A 1925 luxury residence by De Garmo, Casa Di Paolo, in Star Island, Miami Beach, was described in 2011 as having 12 bedrooms and 13.5 baths, with a "courtyard, arches, Moorish influences and columns," a "separate two-story guesthouse and 100 feet of deep-water dockage."[12]
Lozano, Jose M. "The Last Eclectics: Walter De Garmo and Richard Kiehnel in South Florida". Southeastern College Art Conference Review (1990): 363–371.
"Helen Muir Papers, 1934–1995". University of Miami Special Collections. Retrieved 2014-02-08. Contains De Garmo's correspondence with Miami journalist Helen Muir.
