Welcome to Hialeah!

Hialeah is located in Miami-Dade County.  The city population estimate is 226,419. As of 2004, the population recorded by the U.S. Census Bureau is 224,522 , making it the fifth largest city in Florida. The city's name is most commonly attributed to Muskogee origin. Haiyakpo" (prairie) and "hili" (pretty), Hialeah means "pretty prairie." Alternatively, the word is of Seminole origin meaning "Upland Prairie." The city is located upon a large prairie between Biscayne Bay and the Everglades.

The Seminole interpretation of its name, "High Prairie", evokes a picture of the grassy plains used by the native Indians coming from the everglades to dock their canoes and display their wares for the new comers of Miami. This "high prairie" caught the eye of pioneer aviator Glenn Curtiss and Missouri cattleman James H. Bright who saw its great potential in 1921.

In the early "Roaring 20’s", Hialeah could have been considered a party city. Entertainment was plentiful. Sporting included the Spanish sport of jai-alai and greyhound racing, and media included silent movies like D.W. Griffith’s The White Rose which was made at the Miami Movie Studios located in Hialeah. Although the great hurricane of 1926 brought to an end many things, it could not quench the spirit of those who knew what Hialeah could be.
In the years since its incorporation in 1925, many historical events and people have been linked with Hialeah. The opening of Hialeah Park in 1925 (which was nicknamed the "Grand Dame") as a horse track received more coverage in the Miami media than any other sporting event in the history of Miami up to that time and since then there have been countless horseracing histories played out at the world famous 220 acre park. It opened as one of the most grand of thoroughbred horse racing parks with its majestic Mediterranean style architecture and was considered the Jewel of Hialeah at the time.The Park’s grandeur has attracted millions, included among them are names known around the world such as; Kennedy family, Harry Truman, General Omar Bradley, Winston Churchill, and J.P. Morgan. Hialeah Park also holds the dual distinction of being an Audubon Bird Sanctuary due to its famous pink flamingoes and being listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The famous aviatrix Amelia Earhart in 1937 said her final good-byes to the continental U.S. from Hialeah as she left on her ill-fated flight around the world in 1937.

It was once envisioned as a playground for the rich, but Cuban exiles, fleeing Fidel Castro's 1959 revolution, finished the work started by World War II veterans and city planners and turned it into a working-class community. Hialeah historian Fernandez-Kelly explained "It became an affordable Eden." She further describes the city as "...a place where different groups have left their imprint while trying to create a sample of what life should be like." Several waves of Cuban exiles, beginning right after Castro's takeover in 1959 and continuing through to the Freedom Flights (1965-1973), the Mariel boatlift in 1980, and the "balseros" or boat people of the late 1990s, have created the most economically successful immigrant enclave in U.S. history as Hialeah is the only American industrial city that continues to grow.

Hialeah has grown at a rate faster than most of the ten largest cities in Florida since the 1960’s with more than 236,000 residents. The city is also one of the largest employers in Dade County. Predominantly Hispanic, Hialeah residents have assimilated their cultural heritage and traditions into a hard-working, diverse community proud of its ethnicity, as well as its family oriented neighborhoods.