What Happened
The Club Miramar opened on April 15, 1928, on Avenida Balboa, opposite Parque Urracá, and quickly became one of Panama City’s most talked-about social venues. Its inauguration drew about 2,000 people and 400 cars, reflecting the scale of the event and the club’s immediate appeal among the capital’s social elite.
The club’s proximity to Bella Vista beach was a major attraction at a time when Panama City still had urban shoreline spaces used for recreation. From its terrace, members and visitors could watch the bay and the activity along the coast, including cattle being brought in from the interior and herded by cowboys after swimming to shore.
The building’s plans were entrusted to Grebien & Martinz, the original firm of builder Louis Martinz, while construction was assigned to RW Hebbard & Company. The club’s board was led by Dr. Dennis Frank Reeder, an American physician linked to Hospital Panamá and the Gorgas Hospital.
A Social Landmark in a Different City
Club Miramar rose during a period when Panama City’s social life revolved around a small number of private clubs. Club Unión, founded in 1909, had already established itself as the city’s leading gathering place, and Club Miramar became the next major name in that world.
Musicians and performers gave the club added prestige. Luis Celerier’s account of Panama’s history recalls performances by organist Lucho Azcárraga, his brother Roberto on drums, and Cuban singer Miguelito Valdés, who lived in Panama between 1933 and 1936. Valdés later married Vera Eskildsen Tejada in Havana in 1936.
The club’s early membership and leadership also reflected Panama’s close ties with the United States in the Canal Zone era. Several members of the first board were North Americans, including Reeder and vice president Q.R. Peters, alongside Panamanians such as Arturo Delvalle, Martín Sosa, Leopoldo Arosemena, J.J. Vallarino and Ernesto de la Guardia.
Decline, Sale and Transformation
The Great Depression hit Panama in 1929 and affected the finances and operations of many institutions, including Club Miramar. By 1938, its facilities and retaining wall were sold to the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools, and the La Salle School operated there until relocating to El Cangrejo in 1952.
That corner of Bella Vista changed dramatically over the decades. The beaches disappeared, the bay became polluted by wastewater discharge, and the area that once served as a seaside attraction was gradually reshaped by urban development. The construction of the Cinta Costera later reconnected the city with the waterfront and created a new recreational corridor along the coast.
The old club’s story fits into a broader pattern in Panama’s social history: a capital with few large-scale clubs and no urban beach culture comparable to what once existed. Club Unión remains the country’s best-known surviving social club, while other once-prominent institutions in Panama City and Colón eventually closed.
Panama’s Club Tradition
Other private clubs once marked social life in the capital and beyond. The Club de Extranjeros in Colón was a major gathering place in the 1920s and hosted celebrations for both Panama’s November 5 independence and U.S. July 4 events. It later closed and was demolished after years of abandonment.
In David, the Club David has endured as a regional reference point since 1917, showing that the social-club model took different forms across the country. Still, the story of Club Miramar captures a vanished Panama City: one with beach access, waterfront leisure, and a compact but influential club culture centered on private membership and public prestige.