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The University of Miami Friends of the Library (known later as the University of Miami  Friends of the Libraries) is a library support organization founded in 1960 by a group of University of Miami faculty, alumni, and community leaders. The first president was the renowned Everglades preservationist and author Marjory Stoneman Douglas. The Friends play a vital role in supporting programs, securing gifts, and funding projects for the Libraries and are instrumental in ensuring the University of Miami remains one of the foremost research institutions in the world.

Evelyn Frink, wife of former Miami Beach mayor Herbert A. Frink, was a member of the Miami Beach Woman’s Club and the Miami Beach Tropical Garden Club. Inspired by a Garden Club exhibit at a state convention, Mrs. Frink and the presidents of the four garden clubs, Tropical, Miami Beach, Palm-Hibiscus and Mt. Sinai, led a successful campaign for the construction of the Miami Beach Garden Center and Conservatory.

Time line:

1958: Formation of the Garden Center Committee, under the chairmanship of Evelyn Frink of the Tropical Garden club with representatives from the other garden clubs.

1959: Voters approve the $150,000 bond issue for the construction of the Miami Beach Garden Center and Conservatory that will occupy 6 acres of land north and west of the Miami Beach Convention Hall.

1960: Mrs. (Evelyn) Herbert Frink and The Garden Center-Conservatory Committee are awarded the “Miami News Community Service Award”.

1961: The City Council and the Garden Center Committee approve the plans for the construction of the Miami Beach Garden Center and Conservatory.

1962: Mrs. (Evelyn) Herbert Frink is awarded lifetime membership to the Florida Federation of Garden Clubs.

1962: Opening of the Miami Beach Garden Center and Conservatory at 1900 Garden Center Drive.

1963: As early as January, the Center features a number of events open to the public: classes in flower arrangement and holiday decorations, nature documentaries with “color and sound” as well as guest speakers from the National Audubon Society.

The Symphony Orchestra (now known as the Frost Symphony Orchestra), performs and records standard orchestral literature as well as new repertoire. It has had the distinction of performing with some of the most celebrated conductors and soloists of our time. The orchestra maintains an active performance schedule, on campus and beyond.

The Frows and the Peacocks were among the initial settlers of the Miami/Coconut Grove area. Simeon and his son John Frow were appointed keepers of the Cape Florida Lighthouse in 1859 and 1868 respectively. John Frow was also the first person to buy property in Coconut Grove; his brother Joseph worked as John's assistant at the lighthouse and was on the initial board to establish a school for the Coconut Grove district. In 1887, Joseph Frow traveled by foot to Lake Worth to register the required ten children which included his daughter Lillian Frow. Mrs. Joseph Frow was a charter member and first treasurer of the Coconut Grove Housekeeper's Club.

Charles and Isabella Peacock immigrated from England in 1870. They had three sons: Henry, Alfred and Charles John. Alfred Peacock married Lillian Frow (daughter of Joseph Frow); their daughter Eunice Isabella Peacock later married George Merrick, the founder of Coral Gables.

In 1882, with land purchased from John Frow, the Peacocks built the first hotel of the region, the Bay View House, later known as the Peacock Inn. The new hotel was a popular meeting place for such notable guests as Commodore Ralph Munroe, Mr. and Mrs. Kirk Munroe and Miss. Flora McFarlane, founder of the Coconut Grove's Housekeepers' Club. The First Sunday School room was built on the Peacock property as a result of Isabella Peacock's initiative and fundraising. In 1889, Mrs. Peacock's building was also being used as Coconut Grove's first school taught by Miss Flora McFarlane.