You may have gone to a funeral here. Soon, you may live or shop in this Grove location

Howard Cohen

The West Grove, forged on the sweat, brawn and brains of early Bahamian settlers in the late 1800s, has lost much of its Black heritage.

Many of the homes, businesses and landmarks that lined Grand Avenue have fallen to gentrification, development and shifting demographics.

READ MORE: Piece of original Miami endangered: West Coconut Grove’s Black history slipping away

Now, another landmark is missing.

Building is demolished

The Bain-Range Funeral Service, one-story colonial revival building that was at 3384 Grand Ave., was demolished in early August after sitting empty and deteriorating for about five years, Coconut Grove Spotlight originally reported.

Bain’s Funeral Home, the Range Funeral Home brand in Miami that was established more than 70 years ago in Liberty City, had partnered with the Bain family in the late 1980s to operate the Grove funeral home under both names.

“They were in some financial straits and we agreed to come in and partnered with them to help them out. We eventually wound up just buying them out but we kept the name so it was Bain Range Funeral Home in Coconut Grove. So that’s how we came into that location,” said Range operator manager Norman Patrick Range II.

Range Funeral Home history

In this file photo from June 12, 2012, N. Patrick Range, (right) and his son, N. Patrick Range II, (left) are at their family Range Funeral Home at 5727 NW 17th Ave. in Miami’s Liberty City neighborhood. Patrick Range II, worked for a law firm before he went to work with his dad at Range where, in 2024, he serves as operator and manager.
In this file photo from June 12, 2012, N. Patrick Range, (right) and his son, N. Patrick Range II, (left) are at their family Range Funeral Home at 5727 NW 17th Ave. in Miami’s Liberty City neighborhood. Patrick Range II, worked for a law firm before he went to work with his dad at Range where, in 2024, he serves as operator and manager.

Range, an environmental and land use attorney in Miami, is the grandson of Oscar L. Range Sr. and M. Athalie Range, who founded the original Range Funeral Home in Liberty City 71 years ago, in 1953. Athalie Range also became the first Black Miami city commissioner.

M. Athalie Range.
M. Athalie Range.

Range’s main family-owned funeral home remains in Liberty City in the location it moved into seven years later in 1960 at 5727 NW 17th Ave.

Range also operates a Homestead branch but, as with the old Grove building, the family doesn’t own the Homestead building at 641 SW Eighth St.

Range Funeral Homes still provides services for people who live in the Grove. There just isn’t a building in the neighborhood anymore, Range said.

“There were talks with the owners at that time to look to purchase the property, when they were ready to sell,” Range said.

It never happened.

The Rev. Theodore Gibson, a Miami civil rights leader, plants a U.S. flag on one of the “four corners” at Douglas Road and Grand Avenue in the historically Black section of Coconut Grove during a Memorial Day ceremony in an undated photo. Gibson died at age 67 in 1982.
The Rev. Theodore Gibson, a Miami civil rights leader, plants a U.S. flag on one of the “four corners” at Douglas Road and Grand Avenue in the historically Black section of Coconut Grove during a Memorial Day ceremony in an undated photo. Gibson died at age 67 in 1982.

Developing the Grove site

Meanwhile, changes continued to happen in Coconut Grove..

“ In the past, 20 years or so, everybody’s had their eye on development and doing something or other, in terms of looking to add height on Grand Avenue,” Range said. “We’ve been battling developers for the last 20 years to kind of stay in place. Eventually we just lost that battle. A funeral home is clearly not the highest and best use on Grand Avenue currently.”

So, what is?

Silver Bluff Development, Abbhi Capital and Peter Gardner, the development team, plan to put up 27 rental apartments with 3,500 square feet of new retail space as part of the Elemi Phase 2 project on the southwest corner of Grand Avenue and Elizabeth Street in the space where the funeral home once stood, Coconut Grove Spotlight reported.

A construction date has not been determined. Silver Bluff did not respond to a Miami Herald inquiry.

N. Patrick Range II, left, manager of Range Funeral Service, escorts the casket of Carrie P. Meek along with his staff while her family follows prior to being placed inside the burial vault at Caballero Rivero Dade North in Opa-locka, Florida on Dec. 7, 2021.
N. Patrick Range II, left, manager of Range Funeral Service, escorts the casket of Carrie P. Meek along with his staff while her family follows prior to being placed inside the burial vault at Caballero Rivero Dade North in Opa-locka, Florida on Dec. 7, 2021.

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