Restored 1925 Pueblo Revival Estate of the Aviation Pioneer
500 Deer Run, Miami Springs, FL 33166
Age
All Ages
Cost
$
Public open-house tours offered periodically; private tours and event rentals priced separately. Check the official website for current schedule.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Paved drive, grounds with landscaped gardens
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1925 · Glenn H. Curtiss Estate · Pueblo Revival Architecture · Florida Aviation History · City of Miami Springs Founding
Glenn Hammond Curtiss completed his Miami Springs residence in 1925, designed in the Pueblo Revival style then fashionable in the developer's master-planned community of Country Club Estates, later renamed Miami Springs. Curtiss had made his fortune in early aviation, holding U.S. pilot license number one and founding the Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company, which became one of the largest aircraft manufacturers of World War I. In Florida he became a real-estate developer, platting Hialeah, Opa-locka, and Miami Springs in the 1920s land boom.
Curtiss lived in the Deer Run house with his wife Lena until his death from appendicitis complications in July 1930. Lena Curtiss remained in the home and later married H. Sayre Wheeler, a business associate who served as mayor of Miami Springs from 1942 to 1944. The Wheelers lived in the residence until the late 1940s. The estate was sold in the mid-1950s and became part of the Miami Springs Villas hotel complex, later passing through Forte Hotels and Manor Care ownership.
Beginning in the late 1970s, the vacant building was subject to repeated vandalism and three separate arson fires that destroyed the roof and most interior finishes. By the late 1990s the mansion stood as a roofless masonry shell. In 1998 a public/private partnership of Curtiss Mansion, Inc., the State of Florida Division of Historical Resources, Miami-Dade County, and the City of Miami Springs began a multi-year restoration. An all-volunteer fundraising campaign raised more than $4.5 million for the work. The mansion reopened to the public in 2012 and now serves as a museum, event venue, and film-production location operated by Curtiss Mansion, Inc.
Sources
Local tradition holds that the upstairs of the Curtiss Mansion is associated with the spirit of a child, often linked to Carlotta Curtiss, the young daughter of Glenn and Lena Curtiss who died in infancy. Visitors during the open-house era and volunteers during restoration work have described hearing what sounded like a child's voice on the second floor, and lights moving inside the building were occasionally reported in the years it stood roofless and abandoned.
A more sensational Shadowlands account claimed that Curtiss died in a fire set by his wife as revenge for an abortion. Local historical records contradict this entirely. Curtiss died of an embolism following appendicitis surgery in Buffalo, New York, in July 1930. The fires that gutted the mansion occurred decades later, in the late 1970s and 1980s, and were attributed to vandalism rather than to the Curtiss family. The fabricated revenge narrative is not part of any documented Miami Springs history.
Current reports from tour participants tend to describe atmospheric effects rather than apparitions: cold pockets in upstairs rooms, doors that move slightly on their own, and a sensation of being watched in the rear gardens. Curtiss Mansion, Inc. does not market the property as a paranormal site, and the lore is incidental to the building's primary identity as an aviation-history museum and event venue.
Notable Entities
Tour the restored 1925 Pueblo Revival home of aviation pioneer Glenn H. Curtiss, including the formal rooms and the period-restored second floor. Public open houses run on select dates; private tours can be scheduled by prior arrangement.
Walk the landscaped grounds of the Curtiss estate, restored alongside the mansion after a 1990s public/private fundraising campaign. The site is operated by Curtiss Mansion, Inc. in partnership with the City of Miami Springs.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
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