Village of El Portal
County
Miami-Dade
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Boundaries
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Community Type
Municipality
History
Nestled between Miami Shores and Miami, the Village of El Portal began on the verge of the Miami real estate bust. Miami annexed the area as part of an aggressive expansion program in 1925. The Village incorporated in 1937 with only 25 families resided in the area. The Village's name is a Spanish term meaning "the gate," referring to two huge wooden gates on Northeast Second Avenue dismantled in the 1940s.
The Village has been designated as a bird sanctuary by the State for more than 50 years. A nature trail winds its way through the Village. El Portal boasts links to prehistoric Indian life at the Little River Mound, an ancient Tequesta burial ground. The Mound was declared a historic landmark by Miami-Dade County in the 1920s.
Community Dynamics
The Village has a small population of 2,491, with a median household income of $52,216, and a median age of 43. There’s approximately 1,029 housing units and the median home value is $267,000. The east side of the Village is more affluent than the west side. The top non-English languages spoken at home are French Creole, Spanish, and Arabic.
El Portal residents are very involved in making many of the decisions that will affect their community and well-being. The Village selected a new logo by way of a countywide contest in honor of its 80th anniversary. Their annual 2-day Art Fair is in its third year.
Business Landscape
The Village is largely residential, with the exceptions of a few businesses along Biscayne Boulevard, and the southeast corner of the Village, areas which are used for business and commercial purposes. The Village also hosts the Horace Mann Middle School, a Miami-Dade County Public School, with a technology magnet program. The middle school and the Little Farm mobile home park were annexed by El Portal in 2012. Little Farm is a 15-acre site east of the FEC tracks on the southeastern municipal limits. In 2015, the Village entered an agreement with a developer to purchase and raze Little Farm for a planned mix-use development.
Transportation Characteristics
The Village has revitalized its main thoroughfare, the 87th Street corridor, by installing a sidewalk and adding landscaping along the street.
