Kendall | Dadeland

Much of what is now Kendall was purchased from the State of Florida in 1883 by the Florida Land and Mortgage Company. It was named for Henry John Broughton Kendall, a director of Florida Land and Mortgage who moved to the area in the 1900s to manage the company’s land. As the land was not open to homesteading, development was slow well into the 20th century. A post office opened in 1914, and the first school opened in 1929. After the end of the land boom in 1926, some residents left. Two Seminole camps were in the Kendall area, and Seminoles continued to live there into the 1940s.

In August 1992, Kendall and the surrounding South Dade area were severely damaged by Hurricane Andrew. Many of the homes and businesses in the area were destroyed. In the subsequent years, the area was slowly rebuilt.

Pollo Tropical has its headquarters in Dadeland, Kendall. The headquarters moved to Dadeland in 1994.

Kendall is the site of Dadeland Mall, an upscale indoor shopping mall in East Kendall with Macy’s, Nordstrom, Saks Fifth Avenue and JCPenney as anchor stores. In South Kendall, directly south of Dadeland Mall on US-1 is The Falls (mall), an open-air shopping mall with Macy’s and Bloomingdales as anchor stores as well as a Regal Cinema.

Prior to its dissolution, Air Florida was headquartered in the Dade Towers in what is now the Kendall CDP.

Kendall is served by the Miami Metrorail at Dadeland North and Dadeland South stations in its northeastern end. Both stations provide metro service from Dadeland to nearby commercial centers like the City of Coral Gables, Downtown Miami, and Miami International Airport. Dadeland South station is a major transit depot in the area, connecting the southernmost cities of Homestead and Florida City to Metrorail via limited-stop bus rapid transit along the South Miami-Dade Busway.

Development in the then-desolate area began in earnest in 1960 with the completion of Palmetto Expressway (Florida 826) and Dadeland Mall, the largest shopping mall in greater Miami at the time. As Kendall became a center for urban sprawl in south Florida post-World War II, Dade County constructed two freeways in the area, Don Shula Expressway (Florida 874) and Snapper Creek Expressway (Florida 878), between 1972 and 1980.

Rapid transit service into Downtown Miami commenced with the completion of the Miami Metrorail in 1984, providing rail service to suburban commuters in southern Dade into Miami and greater South Florida’s central business district. Residential and office complexes were constructed in the area in the 1990s and 2000s due to a unique zoning that allowed dense and high-rise development in the triangular area between US-1 and the Palmetto Expressway.

Pollo Tropical has its headquarters in Dadeland. The headquarters had moved there in 1994.

Dadeland is served by the Metrorail at Dadeland North and Dadeland South stations, directly connecting one of the largest suburban communities in southern Florida with Downtown Miami and Miami International Airport. Numerous Metrobus lines terminate at the Dadeland South station, with connections to Homestead and Florida City via the South Miami-Dade Busway.