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Don Boyd | all galleries >> Memories of Old Hialeah, Old Miami and Old South Florida Photo Galleries - largest non-Facebook collection on the internet >> Memories of Old HIALEAH, Florida - Historical Photo Galleries and Commentaries - click on image to view and read > 2016 - the AmerTec Building on W. 21st Street in Hialeah
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10-FEB-2016 ©2016 Don Boyd

2016 - the AmerTec Building on W. 21st Street in Hialeah

149 W. 21st Street, Hialeah, Florida


Please click on "original" below to see the image at the largest size. This factory building was constructed in the mid-1960's time frame to allegedly produce all the "Iggy" or "Troll" dolls that were very popular with teenagers back then but that story turned out to be false. It was NOT the building where the "Iggy" or "Troll" dolls were produced.

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Raul Chavez 11-May-2021 21:55
seen this building for years, my cousins brake shop(Mito Brakes) right accross the street, miss seeing it there since they tore it down and made a "Mercedes Health Clinic" thats there now.
Dick Nave Sanders 25-Dec-2017 22:27
this futuristic bldg was a prototype developed by the Walther family of Hialeah, the father, Bruce, Dale and daughter Gloria,and their wonderful mother,of Walther industries, all lived at w 2nd ave and 19st. The venture fizzled as it was too early on for most people to understand. The structure was made of metal channel iron with gunnite(pools) cement sprayed on. It was in the wrong place, wrong time.Best wishes. DN Sanders.
Don Boyd17-Aug-2017 14:16
Thank you Kathy and Troy for clarifying the whole matter of who made the Troll dolls. I had serious doubts that they were made in this building after reading who the other tenants were when the building was demolished earlier this year and that's why I had "alleged" in the description. Thank you both, again.

Don
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Troy Brugger 16-Aug-2017 03:26
kathydaly is correct, it was Royalty Designs that made the Troll dolls. And David Borges is accurate in saying that the factory was West of Red Rd and around that west 17-19 street warehouse area. South of the big FPL motorpool repair shop on corner of w 21 st and Red rd. My mom also worked there for a time in the sixties and always told me about it.
kathydaly 15-Aug-2017 21:22
Don, I found several websites that say the Hialeah iggy(troll) factory was called Royalty Designs of Florida, Inc.
kathydaly 15-Aug-2017 21:06

Don, I will look into it. My mother worked at the Iggy factory as a temp. Unfortunately she has passed in 2004, but my Dad is still with us! She could not drive, so he drove her to her temp jobs (he did shift work at Eastern, so she could work temp when he was available to drive her). He won't remember most places that she worked, she worked so many temp jobs, but if she worked at this building I don't know how he could forget seeing it (IF that is the Iggy factory). I will pick his brains!
Don Boyd07-Feb-2017 17:42
Hector, thank you for the tipoff as to the demolition of the building. We just went by there last Thursday enroute to lunch at Stephen's Deli in east Hialeah and had no idea it was going to be demolished. I have reposted your link to the demolition photos on several places on Facebook. All kinds of people are posting their moans and groans about it being destroyed.

Don
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Hector 06-Feb-2017 16:44
As of Feb 5. 2017 the Amertech building has been torn down, to make way for a shopping center. Someone from the demolition team posted photos: https://www.facebook.com/jose.mirabal.961/posts/1634005796904882?comment_id=1634308536874608&reply_comment_id=1634646453507483¬if_t=feed_comment_reply¬if_id=1486348272385344
David Borges 25-Aug-2016 21:15
I lived off Red Road and west 16st. Just north of my home there was an Industrial park and one of the factories made the Iggy Dolls. We use to go dumpster diving to get the defective dolls, my Mom was always sewing something and volunteered to make cloth for them from scraps left over from her work. Great memories, Thanks
Don Boyd02-May-2016 05:05
Don't feel like the Lone Ranger because I grew up in Hialeah also and I never knew that the "Iggy" dolls were made there until a couple of folks made comments on other pages that they were made there, their mother worked there, etc. Then I received a phone call a couple of months ago wanting a photo of the building because the "Iggy's" were made there. However, when I Googled the building the search results came up with the "AmerTec Building" and an opening date later than the "Iggy" doll craze and that the owners had a different type of business in the building. I'm waiting to get more information on the building because the stories conflict.

Don
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Guest 01-May-2016 20:41
I grew up in Hialeah and certainly remember this building. I never knew that the "Iggy" dolls were manufactured there. Collected many of those as a kid. Thanks for posting.
Tom Briggs11-Apr-2016 20:50
ALTHO THIS IS A COOL SHOT, THAT'S GOTTA BE ONE OF THE UGLIEST BUILDINGS AROUND ... OR MAYBE IT'S JUST ME ON A MONDAY