Live in Seminola
The old city's corner between W 29th Street, W 4th Avenue and Okeechobee Road on the Miami Canal, with a Metrorail station inside the line and a train every 15 minutes at midday, where 9,077 of the 9,731 residents counted in 2020 live in FEMA's shallow-ponding zone AH and 36% of the parcel acres are designated industrial.
Seminola takes its name from the plats recorded as Seminola City, which hold only 772 of the 9,731 residents this guide counts for 2020; Wikipedia, citing a 2013 Miami Herald story, describes Seminola City as a historically African-American neighborhood developed in 1924 for the laborers who built the Hialeah Park track. The line here is wider than those plats: two whole districts of the City's Hialeah 2050 Master Plan, 602 acres that also take in Trojan Park (1,457 residents), the old Florida Fruit Lands Co. subdivision (3,460), two mobile home parks near Okeechobee Road, the warehouses south of W 21st Street and the Okeechobee Metrorail station. Most of its dated parcels were built on in the 1950s and 1960s, every resident is in the County's hurricane evacuation Zone D, and 93% are in a FEMA flood zone. No source read here says where residents think Seminola ends.
An old plat gave it a name; the line takes in a station, the warehouses and a flood map over nearly everyone
Districts 5 and 6 of the North of Okeechobee area in the City of Hialeah's 2050 Master Plan (District Master Plan Recommendations, Plusurbia for the City, May 2025), redrawn here as the area between the street centerlines the plan's maps name, on the City's Streets layer, and clipped to the City Boundary layer: 602 acres. The plan draws and numbers its districts and does not name them; the name is this site's, after the historic plats inside. Bounded by W 29th Street (José Martí Boulevard) on the north, W 4th Avenue (Red Road) on the east, and on the southwest Okeechobee Road with the Miami Canal beside it, where the City line runs and Medley and Miami Springs lie across the water. W 21st Street, the line of the Hialeah Expressway, divides the two districts. Westland, Mango Hill and Hialeah Estates are across W 29th Street, and Hialeah Park and Downtown Hialeah across W 4th Avenue, where 126 more residents of the Seminola City plats live. All of it is in Miami-Dade County, in Miami-Dade County Public Schools, in ZIP codes 33010 and 33012, and on the City's Tuesday and Friday garbage route.
Seminola is a name borrowed from the Seminola City plats. The two plats of that name hold 772 of the 9,731 residents the 2020 census counted inside this line, with 126 more across W 4th Avenue. Wikipedia, citing a 2013 Miami Herald story, calls Seminola City historically African-American: developed in 1924 for the Black laborers who built the Hialeah Park track, almost entirely Black at first and about half Black by the 1970s, as residents left and Cuban exiles arrived. It says Cotson Park is named for a local African-American activist. Its Seminola is small, W 25th Street to the Hialeah Expressway and W 8th Avenue to Red Road, with 1,085 residents in 2010. The Herald refused this site's request, so those claims are Wikipedia's, unchecked.
The line is the City's; the name is ours. The City's Hialeah 2050 Master Plan numbers its districts and names none. This guide is its North of Okeechobee Districts 5 and 6, 602 acres between W 29th Street, W 4th Avenue and Okeechobee Road, which stretches the old name over Trojan Park (1,457 residents), the Florida Fruit Lands Co. subdivision (3,460), two mobile home parks near Okeechobee Road and the blocks around the Okeechobee Metrorail station. Nothing read here says where residents think Seminola ends.
It was built in one burst, and it works. On the City's zoning layer 865 of the 1,129 dated parcels went up in the 1950s and 1960s; 13 have been built since 2020. Houses share the streets with small apartment buildings, and 36% of the parcel acres are designated industrial, more than half of them south of W 21st Street, the Hialeah Expressway's line. That is land by designation, not jobs.
The water here is rain. On the City's flood layer, which matched FEMA's map where checked, 9,077 residents (93%) live in zone AH, FEMA's designation for shallow ponding. The base flood elevation at the reference point is 7 feet on the 2009 maps' NGVD29 datum, not comparable with newer maps elsewhere. The City says its groundwater sits just below the surface and names Hurricane Irene (1999) and the No-Name Storm (2000) as floods that left many areas under water for extended periods; nothing read here says how any street in Seminola fared. Every resident is also in the County's surge evacuation Zone D, on a 2019 layer.
The practical case is the train. Okeechobee station, opened in 1985, is inside the line, and the Green Line leaves it every 15 minutes at midday for downtown Miami and Dadeland South. ZIP code 33010 had a Zillow value of $532,048 in August 2026, a figure for 43,902 people, not a Seminola price. A City of Hialeah address pays 18.6468 mills for 2025, with no County fire or library levy, so a homestead at that value owes about $9,151 a year and a landlord about $9,921. Save Our Homes caps a homestead's assessed value at 3% a year and ends with a sale, so the seller's bill understates yours; garbage is $36.50 a month on the City utility account. The arithmetic is on the Hialeah page.
- Read FEMA's zone and base flood elevation for the exact lot before the offer
- Get a separate flood quote; the City's CRS class 7 takes 15% off NFIP premiums inside the flood zone
- Ask the City what counts toward its 50% rule: work worth half the building's value in five years brings new-construction flood rules
- Check the land use on the parcels around you: 36% of the acres here are designated industrial
- Check the zoned schools with the district: two were redrawn for 2026-27
How Seminola got here
- 1921Glenn Curtiss and James H. Bright take up the prairie that becomes Hialeah; the first plat is drawn and the town is named.
- 1924Wikipedia, citing a 2013 Miami Herald story, dates Seminola City to 1924, developed for the African-American laborers who built the Hialeah Park track, east of today's W 4th Avenue line.
- 1925Hialeah incorporates on 10 September.
- 1950sBuilding fills the line: of the 1,129 parcels with a year built on the City's zoning layer, 333 date from the 1950s, and single-family houses have a median year of 1959.
- 1960sAnother 532 parcels go up, among them the duplexes and small apartment buildings of Trojan Park and the light manufacturing plats south of W 21st Street.
- 1970sBy Wikipedia's account, Seminola, almost entirely Black at first, is about half Black by the 1970s, as residents move elsewhere and Cuban exiles arrive in Hialeah.
- 1985Okeechobee Metrorail station opens on 19 May at W 20th Street and Okeechobee Road, the northwestern end of the line until Palmetto station opens in 2003.
- 1999Hurricane Irene, and in October 2000 the No-Name Storm, leave many areas of the city flooded for extended periods, as the City records them; no record read here names a street in Seminola.
- 2009FEMA's flood maps for Miami-Dade take effect on 11 September; still in force, they put 93% of the guide's 2020 residents in zone AH.
- 2010The census counts 1,085 residents in the smaller Seminola Wikipedia draws, from W 25th and 26th Streets to the Hialeah Expressway and from W 8th Avenue to Red Road: 25.3% Black and 73.2% Hispanic, by that article.
- 2020The census counts 9,731 residents and 3,799 housing units inside this guide's line, 772 of the residents in the Seminola City plats.
- 2025The City's Hialeah 2050 Master Plan, dated May 2025 and adopted in June, draws North of Okeechobee Districts 5 and 6, the line this guide uses.
- 2026Miami-Dade County Public Schools redraws Henry H. Filer Middle and Westland Hialeah Senior High, both zoning residents here, and merges Miami Springs Middle and Senior High into a 6-12 academy, effective 1 July.
Two City parks inside the line, each with a recreation center
Walker Park, 8.33 acres on W 29th Street, has a recreation center, lighted courts, a baseball field, a walking path, a summer pool and the Walker e-Library. Johnny L. Cotson Park, 4.28 acres on W 23rd Street, has a second center and lighted fields. The County's 515-acre Amelia Earhart Park, outside the city, is about 7.5 km by road.


What the map does not show: Walker and Reid pools were closed on 2 October 2026, the e-library opens only Monday to Thursday afternoons, and the City's José Martí Parade runs along W 29th Street, the north line, on a date its page does not give.
Elsewhere in Hialeah, not Seminola



24 places, with real drive times
Road-adjusted distance and drive time from the centre of the community to each destination, nearest first. Filter by category.
Showing 1–12 of 24 places, nearest first.
Method: straight lines from the population-weighted center of the guide's 2020 census blocks, near W 23rd Street between W 8th and W 10th Avenues, times a road factor, with a tiered speed model for the drive: honest ranges, not routed times.
Every gym within reach
The City's recreation centers in Walker Park and Cotson Park are inside the line. Both nearby pools are seasonal, so out of summer it is the Milander Aquatic Center, whose membership also covers lap swimming at Bucky Dent Water Park, closed until further notice. No private gym was researched.
- Walker Park Recreation Center: about 0.7 km, weekdays 1 to 9:30 p.m., Saturdays 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.
- Johnny L. Cotson Park Recreation Center: about 1.2 km, the same hours
- Milander Aquatic Center: about 4 km, $3 a day or $25 a month for residents
| Facility | What it is | Drive |
|---|---|---|
| Walker Park Recreation Center open | The City's center in Walker Park, 880 W 29th Street, inside the line: open weekdays 1 to 9:30 p.m. and Saturdays 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. on the City's layer, with three lighted basketball courts, two lighted tennis courts, two racquetball courts and a walking path. | 3–4 min |
| Johnny L. Cotson Park Recreation Center open | The City's center at 574 W 23rd Street, inside the line, on the same weekday and Saturday hours, with a lighted multipurpose field and two lighted basketball courts. | 3–5 min |
| Milander Aquatic Center open | The City's year-round pool at 4820 Palm Avenue, next to Milander Park: Monday and Wednesday 5:30 a.m. to 9 p.m., Tuesday, Thursday and Friday 7:30 a.m. to 9 p.m., Saturday 7:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.; $3 a day or $25 a month for residents. The membership also covers lap swimming at Bucky Dent Water Park, which the City says is closed until further notice. Open with posted hours on 2 October 2026. | 6–10 min |
| Walker Pool closed | The City's seasonal pool in Walker Park, with a splash pad: summer only, and closed on 2 October 2026 with no reopening date posted. | 3–4 min |
| Reid Pool closed | A small seasonal City pool at 2245 W 7th Court, inside the line: summer only, and closed on 2 October 2026 with no reopening date posted. | 3–4 min |
The free option is Walker Park's walking path and the fields at both parks.
Bright Elementary inside the line, two middle school zones, and boundaries redrawn this year
Miami-Dade County Public Schools assigns by address. The reference point is zoned for James H. Bright/J.W. Johnson Elementary, inside the line, graded B for three years; Henry H. Filer Middle, C for 2026 after two Bs; and Westland Hialeah Senior High, B for 2026. On the County's layer 2,211 residents are zoned for Miami Springs Middle instead. The iMater charter schools inside the line admit by application.
| School | Board | Note |
|---|---|---|
| James H. Bright Elementary / J.W. Johnson Elementary | Miami-Dade County Public Schools | PK-5 on two campuses inside the line, 2530 W 10th Avenue and 735 W 23rd Street: the elementary zone the County's attendance layer gives at the reference point, and for 9,403 of the 9,731 residents. Graded B for 2026, 2025 and 2024. The other 328 residents are zoned for Mae M. Walters Elementary, 650 W 33rd Street, graded A for all three years. |
| Henry H. Filer Middle School | Miami-Dade County Public Schools | 531 W 29th Street, just north of the line: the middle school zone at the reference point and for 7,520 residents. Graded C for 2026 after B in 2025 and 2024. Its boundary was redrawn for 2026-27 under Policy 5120, effective 1 July 2026; the County's layer was edited after that, on 21 September, but nothing read says it carries the change. |
| Miami Springs Middle School | Miami-Dade County Public Schools | The middle school zone for the other 2,211 residents on the County's layer, graded C for 2026, 2025 and 2024. The School Board combined Miami Springs Middle and Miami Springs Senior High into a 6-12 academy from 1 July 2026, which the layer still draws as two zones, so these addresses need the district's own answer. |
| Westland Hialeah Senior High School | Miami-Dade County Public Schools | 4000 W 18th Avenue, about 2.4 km from the reference point in a straight line: the high school zone for every resident on the County's layer. Graded B for 2026, A for 2025 and B for 2024. Also redrawn for 2026-27. |
| iMater Academy (charter) | Miami-Dade County Public Schools (charter) | Three charter schools inside the line, K-5 at 600 W 20th Street and middle and high school at 651 W 20th Street, graded B, A and B for 2026. Charters admit by their own application, not by zone. Magnet applications for 2027-28 run from 1 October 2026 to 15 January 2027, up to five schools. |
Check your address with the district. Filer and Westland Hialeah were redrawn from 1 July 2026 and Miami Springs Middle and Senior High merged into a 6-12 academy; the County's layer may predate both. Magnet applications for 2027-28 run 1 October 2026 to 15 January 2027.
Month by month, what living here looks like
Not a highlights reel: the actual annual rhythm, including the dates residents have to remember.
- Highs near 24.6 °C and lows near 16.1 °C, with about 46 mm of rain, on the 1991 to 2020 normals at Miami International Airport, about 5 km south of the city line
- Magnet applications for 2027-28 close on 15 January 2027
- Highs near 25.7 °C and lows near 17.3 °C, with about 55 mm of rain, on the 1991 to 2020 normals at Miami International Airport, about 5 km south of the city line
- Any magnet audition or test is held before 1 March
- 1 March is the deadline to file for the homestead exemption, and for portability, with the Miami-Dade Property Appraiser
- Highs near 27.0 °C and lows near 18.7 °C, with about 62 mm of rain, on the 1991 to 2020 normals at Miami International Airport, about 5 km south of the city line
- Highs near 28.7 °C and lows near 21.0 °C, with about 85 mm of rain, on the 1991 to 2020 normals at Miami International Airport, about 5 km south of the city line
- The last month of the dry season on the normals: May's rain is nearly twice April's
- Highs near 30.4 °C and lows near 23.0 °C, with about 161 mm of rain, on the 1991 to 2020 normals at Miami International Airport, about 5 km south of the city line
- Rain roughly doubles from April; 77% of the year's rain falls from May to October
- The Atlantic hurricane season runs from 1 June to 30 November
- Highs near 31.8 °C and lows near 24.6 °C, with about 267 mm of rain, on the 1991 to 2020 normals at Miami International Airport, about 5 km south of the city line, the wettest month
- The City says its groundwater sits just below the surface and its canals and lakes reach capacity in the rainy season; zone AH is FEMA's map of where water ponds
- Highs near 32.6 °C and lows near 25.3 °C, with about 187 mm of rain, on the 1991 to 2020 normals at Miami International Airport, about 5 km south of the city line
- The City's seasonal pools, Walker and Reid among them, are open for summer only
- The property appraiser mails the TRIM notice of proposed taxes in mid-August; an assessment appeal is due within 25 days of the mailing
- Highs near 32.6 °C and lows near 25.4 °C, with about 243 mm of rain, on the 1991 to 2020 normals at Miami International Airport, about 5 km south of the city line
- The Atlantic season peaks around 10 September
- Highs near 31.7 °C and lows near 24.9 °C, with about 260 mm of rain, on the 1991 to 2020 normals at Miami International Airport, about 5 km south of the city line
- Magnet applications for 2027-28 open on 1 October 2026
- Highs near 29.9 °C and lows near 23.4 °C, with about 194 mm of rain, on the 1991 to 2020 normals at Miami International Airport, about 5 km south of the city line
- Hialeah Trunk-or-Treat is at Milander Park on Saturday 31 October 2026 from 6 p.m.
- Hurricane season ends on 30 November
- The City's Tree Lighting Ceremony is at Veterans Park, 290 Palm Avenue, on Friday 13 November 2026
- Highs near 27.4 °C and lows near 20.2 °C, with about 90 mm of rain, on the 1991 to 2020 normals at Miami International Airport, about 5 km south of the city line
- Highs near 25.7 °C and lows near 17.9 °C, with about 62 mm of rain, on the 1991 to 2020 normals at Miami International Airport, about 5 km south of the city line
- Santa's Snow Blast brings 50 tons of snow to Milander Park on Saturday 5 December 2026
- If you bought this year, the bill in hand was the seller's: Save Our Homes ends with a sale and the house is assessed at market value the next 1 January
5 more photographs of Hialeah and the region
Drawn from the site's shared, freely licensed Hialeah photo library, not photographs of Seminola itself. Filter by category.





Showing 1–5 of 5 photographs.
About these photographs. Openly licensed images from the site's shared Hialeah library, found on Wikimedia Commons and served from there with full attribution. None of them is presented as a photograph of Seminola.