The Doc Thomas House, designed and built in 1931-32, has become an authentic relic of Old Florida and a recognized architectural gem, both locally and nationally. It was first designated an historic site by Dade County on its 50th birthday in 1982; it was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 2014 and earned Florida Heritage Site status in 2016.

Perched just east of the bustling South Miami business district and dwarfed by newly built McMansions and office buildings, the unassumingly rustic house presides over 2.2 acres of green space comprised of pine rockland and tropical hardwood hammock. Any visitor — be it a migrating warbler seeking sustenance or a curious passerby craving tranquility — will discover a natural oasis in stark contrast to the concrete that hems it.

Visitors then and now enter the house from the classic front porch and are taken into the embrace of (and wowed by) the vaulted tidewater red cypress-paneled living room. Pegged oak, walnut and mahogany flooring and a towering limestone fireplace anchor the expansive room. Built-in features include a window seat with hideaway storage. A dining alcove is tucked between the fireplace and the kitchen. Ornamental sawtooth and scalloped woodwork designs indicative of the period are repeated indoors and out.

Indeed, the quaint abode was designed in harmony with the woodsy Larkins area (now South Miami) which enchanted Arden Hayes “Doc” Thomas after moving to Miami from Fortville, Indiana in 1925. He opened the O. K. Drug Store in 1926 on the north side of Sunset Drive (Coral Gables), soon followed by O. K. Feed Store in an adjacent space. (Thomas had a B.A. degree from Indiana University with a major in English; he became a pharmacist through an apprenticeship and state licensing process. Called “Hayes” by his family and close friends, he soon earned the nickname “Doc” within his adopted community, a sign of both respect and affection.)

Thomas and his widowed mother, Margaret, lived above the stores for nearly 6 years. While he was growing his businesses, he also purchased 16 lots across the street in the then-new unincorporated High Pines subdivision. In 1931, eager for larger quarters, Thomas commissioned Robert Fitch Smith, newly graduated from the University of Miami architecture program, to design a home that would fit organically into the property’s wooded setting.

The modest house Smith conceived was constructed primarily of native woods, local oolitic limestone and coral rock quarried from the Upper Keys. The result was a more polished version of a Florida Wood-Frame Vernacular cottage influenced by the Arts & Crafts Movement (1880-1920). One of the most unusual features is the horizontal board-and-batten cypress siding rabbeted together in a pleasing design to form both the exterior and interior walls.

True to Hayes and Margaret Thomas’s vision, Smith’s 1,551-square-foot, 3-bedroom, 2-bath residence departed radically from the Mediterranean Revival and Art Deco styles then in vogue in Coral Gables and Miami Beach. After completion of the Thomas home, Smith went on to a prolific, successful architectural career, designing approximately 200 commercial and civic buildings as well as 600 houses.

After his mother’s death in 1940, Thomas lived alone in the house until his own death in 1975. He never married or had children, but stabled a number of horses on the property most of his life, was deeply rooted in the business community, was engaged in society and was frequently out on the town with lady-friend Loretta Jarro (32 years his junior). By the mid-1950s, Thomas had begun his extensive world travels, which are charted on a Pan American Airways map that still hangs in the cozy dining alcove.

As his businesses grew, he eventually moved them to South Dixie Highway where the O.K. Feed Store flourished for decades in the space now occupied by Crown Wine & Spirits. Thomas retired from pharmacy operations at age 68, phased out the drug store, expanded the feed store and spent more time gardening, socializing and traveling.

Longtime locals fondly remember the dapper Thomas. Though he possessed no medical degree, residents looked to him as the town’s well-respected quasi “doctor.” Many were also fond of his horse “Goldie,” whom children spoiled with apples and carrots.

Because Thomas was an Audubon Society life member and had no direct heirs, he chose to deed his house and most of the property to TAS as a life estate — a gift that assured the wooded parcel would not be developed, the house would stand and the community would benefit.

After Thomas’s death on December 31, 1975, TAS received the house and 14 of the original 16 lots. The two remaining lots were deeded to Jarro, with whom he had maintained a decades-long relationship.

Tropical Audubon Society took formal possession of the property in April, 1976. Ever since, the Doc Thomas House has functioned as TAS headquarters and as a meeting space for other environmental groups, while the grounds (named “Steinberg Nature Center” in 2012 for TAS board member and benefactor Alan Steinberg) serve as educational and recreational open space for school students, scouts and area residents, thereby fulfilling Thomas’s last wishes.

Observes longtime TAS president Dr. Jose Barros: “Thanks to our visionary benefactor, Doc Thomas, we have been able to welcome the community into his home, and expand on our mission to conserve South Florida’s ecosystems for birds, other wildlife and people.” 

As its steward, Tropical Audubon Society endeavors to maintain the Doc Thomas House in its original condition, restoring aspects of it as needed, and honoring the visionary and generous Doc Thomas. It was his desire that the property be used for the education and enjoyment of area residents and visitors.

A long overdue structural restoration of the house commenced in 2020. The multiple effects of time, heat, humidity, hurricanes and daily use take a natural toll on wood structures, so a head-to-toe makeover was much needed. The distinguished firms of R. J. Heisenbottle Architects, Douglas Wood & Associates and Red Door Construction were engaged to restore the 1,551-SF structure.

To help maintain this historic site, please send your donation marked “Doc Thomas House Fund” c/o Tropical Audubon Society, 5530 Sunset Drive, Miami FL 33143.