Fort Lauderdale’s Victoria Park and links to Jai Alai and Armistice Day

Victoria Park, city park and community. Lake Stranahan view

 

By Jane Feehan 

Fort Lauderdale land sales heated up during the 1920s attracting buyers from around the nation and beyond its borders.

Alfred George Kuhn, an American resident of Mexico for 15 years, came to Fort Lauderdale in 1923 or 1924 with an idea about settling in the growing town with his family. 

His plans included real estate endeavors. City pioneer Frank Stranahan sold Kuhn a tract of 126 acres lying north and south of the Edwards-Maxwell Hospital near downtown. It wasn’t waterfront property but held promise; the tract included a stone quarry that could be converted into a lake and connected to canals.

Kuhn contracted clearing, design and construction services from Miami to begin work in 1924. The new community, “one of the most complete in Broward County” was designated “Victoria Park,” named after his daughter, Victoria (more on that name later).

A boulevard was built to circle the tract and its new 80-foot-wide streets. Fort Lauderdale News wrote that the boulevard was destined to become part of “the new Federal Highway No. 4.” The rock pit, Lake Stranahan, would be terraced and bordered by an English garden of lilies. Boats could access the lake and ocean via the Sospiro and Navarro canals. Landscaping was designed by Helen Brooks Smith (who bought builder M.A. Hortt’s house in Idlewyld in 1925, see: https://janeshistorynook.blogspot.com/2023/10/the-idlewyld-story-hortt-converts-swamp.html ).

A feature of Kuhn’s development was “The Home Beautiful.” It was designed by Miami firm Stewart and Bareford with the “purpose of educating the public to build their homes.” The Home Beautiful served as a model but not referred to that way. News accounts claimed the new home was the “beginning of a Better Homes movement for Fort Lauderdale” and would improve building standards. The motto of Stewart and Baresford, the Fort Lauderdale News wrote, was “not how cheap” the construction, but "how good.” 

Everything at The Home Beautiful was built of the “finest products.” The newspaper was filled with ads of companies proudly announcing they sold the materials that went into the model house: lumber, cement building blocks, roofing, cabinets, hardware and more. The model house was a win-win for stores and developer Kuhn. Models today, of course, are common sales tools.

 Advertisements targeted March 14, 1925, as the first day of sales. Waterfront lots were offered for $10,500. Other lots near the lake were sold in 1925 for $4,500. Later in 1925 some ads indicated lots going on sale for “$935 and up.” (See https://janeshistorynook.blogspot.com/2017/05/fort-lauderdales-victoria-park-then-and.html)

Kuhn built a home in Victoria Park in 1925; he obtained a $100 permit for house repairs in the 200 block of NE 15^th Ave. in 1942. I’m assuming that’s the house he built in 1925.

Victoria Park survived the 1926 hurricane and the area’s real estate ups and downs. Through the years, it established and has maintained a reputation as one of the most beautiful communities in Fort Lauderdale—with prices to match. The city of Fort Lauderdale includes a corner of the community on its roster of public parks.

More on Alfred Kuhn

One may ask why Kuhn lived in Mexico. Interestingly, he was one of the very few “non-Latin” professional Jai Alai players there. Though I could not find much on his Jai Alai career, it should be noted that the same year he came here, the first Jai Alai Fronton was built in Florida in Hialeah (see https://janeshistorynook.blogspot.com/2021/10/jai-alai-comes-to-south-florida-in-1924.html ) .

Kuhn bought a yacht or “sea skiff and cruiser” to bring sales prospects to his Victoria Park development. It was damaged by the 1926 hurricane and he sold it nearly unused. 

In 1925 an ad in the Lost and Found section of the Fort Lauderdale News read: Lost - “bag of men’s clothing lost between hospital and filling station. Return to Mr. A.G. Kuhn c/o Las Olas Realty Co. Reward."

In 1942, another ad read: Sale or exchange home and lots at reduced prices or will exchange for first class Washington, DC property. 3.6 acres on Middle River and Karen Canal - $9,000 – Alfred Kuhn, 205 Sweet Building. (Kuhn also kept a home in Washington, D.C.)

At his death, Kuhn reportedly lived on Gordon Road off Las Olas. He died at Broward General Hospital on December 18, 1951, at age 67 and was buried in Boston, MA where his sister, Alice Covel, lived. His wife Pauline had died about a year prior to his death in Washington, D.C. His son, Frederick A. Kuhn, served in the “diplomatic corps in Peru” (U.S. State Department).

More on Victoria

Victoria Kuhn was born on Nov. 11, 1918, Armistice Day, thus her name. Of note, she became a playwright. Several of her plays were performed in New York City. One, “If the Greenwood” was performed at the Blackfriars Guild Theater during the 1940s.

Sources:

The Miami News, Aug. 23, 1924

The Miami Herald, Aug. 25, 1924

Fort Lauderdale News, Jan. 13, 1925

Fort Lauderdale News, Feb. 23, 1925

Fort Lauderdale News, March 13, 1925

Fort Lauderdale News, March 25, 1925

Fort Lauderdale News, Nov. 14, 1925

Fort Lauderdale News, Dec. 2, 1925

Fort Lauderdale News, Dec. 24, 1925

Fort Lauderdale News, Dec. 19, 1951

Fort Lauderdale News, Aug. 26, 1925

Fort Lauderdale News, Jan. 11, 1927

Fort Lauderdale News, Jan. 22, 1941

Fort Lauderdale News, March 8, 1942

Fort Lauderdale News, July 7, 1942

Fort Lauderdale News, Dec. 26, 1946

Fort Lauderdale News, Dec. 20, 1951

Tags: Victoria Park, Fort Lauderdale History, Alfred G. Kuhn, history of Fort Lauderdale

All aboard the Orange Blossom Special to Florida - a movable hotel

 

Postcard 1939 - Orange Blossom Special
Public Domain

By Jane Feehan

Some called visitors to Florida during the 1920s “the sunshine seekers.” Many hoped to cash in on the booming Florida real estate market. Most arrived by train.

Travel by train was also booming. Solomon Davies Warfield (1859-1927), president of Seaboard Airline Railroad (SAL) envisioned a formula for success in the Sunshine State: join service from the west to the east coast of Florida, provide premier, luxury services, and publicize.

Service from New York to Florida was provided along the tracks of several rail companies. But it was the train, the Orange Blossom Special, that received high praise.

“Travelers have become so sensitive and particular that they flutter with indignation if they can’t have their bath and their barber, hothouse strawberries and other such luxuries while on the train,” wrote The Miami Herald in early 1926.

The Orange Blossom Special operated as a “hotel on wheels” with maids, valets, manicurists, barber shops and hairdressers.  Also featured: a ladies’ observation car. Some Pullman cars used by SAL offered accommodations with bathtubs or showers. Service included bellhops (many Filipinos), and chef-inspired, fine dining in a car with paintings of orange blossom branches and other fruit on a background of gray paint.

Orange Blossom Special service officially connected the two coasts, terminating in West Palm Beach, January 28,1925 after a brief weather delay (reported The Miami News and The Miami Herald). Dates seem to vary on inaugural service depending on sources; accounts may have confused initial service to Miami in 1927. 

That first trip in 1925 involved six Pullman cars filled with representatives of Miami, including Coral Gables developer George E. Merrick, and West Palm Beach and SAL executives.

The Miami Tribune described the Orange Blossom Special as “one of America’s finest trains” traveling to and from New York in 35 hours with its trip through the Scenic Highlands {sic] of Central Florida. 

In August 1926, The Miami Herald reported the “Orange Blossom Special has become a famous train almost overnight.” 

Orange Blossom arrives in 
Miami 1927,
Florida State Archives

Whether by popular demand or seeking increased profits, Warfield arranged for the Orange Blossom Special to make its first through-trip from West Palm Beach to Miami on January 8, 1927. 

The train stopped in Fort Lauderdale that day for about 20 minutes. Mayor John Tidball greeted Governor John Martin, SAL’s Warfield and several hundred dignitaries at the train station off West Fourth Street. 

Big  crowds awaited the Orange Blossom Special in Miami: 15,000 residents were on hand at the Miami station and another 10,000 at Royal Palm Park, near the Seaboard Airline Railway office in the Lorraine Arcade on Southeast First Street.

Rail lines connecting
Orange Blossom Special (Florida State Archives) 1936

The winter-service only Orange Blossom Special hummed along for several decades. Service was suspended during World War II to accommodate military efforts. The train, originally a heavy steam-driven locomotive, was not fast. Nor was it economical to maintain with yearly interior and exterior painting. Travel times, however, improved to fewer more than 24 hours before its final trip April 13, 1953.

Today, the romance of the Orange Blosom Special lives through the lyrics and music of the bluegrass song by Ervin T. Rouse (1917-1981), the Orange Blossom Special (https://genius.com/Johnny-cash-orange-blossom-special-lyrics).  

Ride the train and lose those New York blues, to paraphrase the song. Contemporary lyrics might say “get to Florida any way you can to lose those New York, Chicago or Los Angeles blues."

 

Sources:

The Miami News, Dec. 30, 1924

The Miami News, April 25, 1925

The Miami Herald, Jan. 17, 1926

Miami Daily News, Jan. 24, 1925

The Miami Herald, Jan. 26, 1925

The Miami Tribune, March 17, 1926

The Miami Herald, Aug. 20, 1926

Fort Lauderdale Daily News, Dec. 7, 1926

The Miami Herald, Jan. 9, 1927

The Miami Herald, Oct. 21, 1941

CorridorRail.com

TransportationHistory.org

Wikipedia

Tags: Orange Blossom Special. Florida railways, Seaboard Airline Railroad, Seaboard Airline Railway, S, Davies Warfield, 

Davie, Florida, Cowboy Town and the Panama Canal Zone

 

Rodeo in Davie 1991
State of Florida Archives

By Jane Feehan

Many associate the Broward County town of Davie with its Western vibe of cowboys, horses and rodeos. But, as with several early South Florida settlements, farming was its foundation.

Developers and politicians of the first few years of the 20th century touted the possibilities of draining the Everglades for settlement and farming. Governor Napoleon Bonaparte Broward (served 1905-1909) ran on a platform that included draining the Everglades. *  In 1909, he called for the sale of 100,000 acres to finance such a project.  

Land sale prospects attracted real estate enthusiasts. Some say salespeople enticed American workers in the Panama Canal Zone to buy Everglades property. Panama and South Florida, after all, were similar in climate and topography. The Canal was not completed until 1914, but some workers bought land unseen and made the move to Florida in 1909-10.

One of the companies to facilitate sales was the Everglades Land Sale Company, established by Robert Parsell Davie in 1909 who purchased about 28,000 acres. Davie, a native of Flushing, Michigan, was a successful entrepreneur. He had opened a drug store in Colorado Springs, financed and was a stockholder in beet sugar factories and irrigation projects in Colorado, Kansas, and Arizona and was involved in California real estate.

Davie was impressed by the tall sugar cane he saw growing along a canal to Lake Okeechobee on an early visit. His experience in sugar production and particularly irrigation—"a hobby of mine for several years”—would be applied to Florida efforts.

Farmers in the new settlement they called Zona (a reference to Panama) were also impressed. They grew strawberries, tomatoes and peppers in the rich dark and mucky soil of the Everglades. Davie had created the Davie Farm by 1912 and constructed a $1,700 packing house for fruit and vegetable shipping December 1913 or early 1914. At that time, the town was accessible only by boat. In 1914 an announcement for creation of the Davie Farm Drainage District was published.

It was also the year Davie donated land for a school for the growing community of a few hundred. The Davie School was designed by August Geiger who also designed Fort Lauderdale High School. It still stands as part of the town’s historic district.

The name of the new settlement had to go, however, on “account of mail trouble arising from the similarity of the names Zona and Ozona” in Pinellas County. The U.S Assistant Postmaster granted their request to change the name to Davie Nov. 1, 1913. The name was changed in early 1914 to Davie in honor of the man who invested much to reclaim the Everglades, donated land for the school, and established Davie Farm and its drainage district. (Dreams of draining the Everglades faded with the 1926 and 1928 hurricanes.)

The Town of Davie was incorporated in 1925 when there were 440 residents. Frank Stirling was tapped as first mayor. A horticulturalist at the University of Florida for more than a decade and leader in the fight against citrus canker, Stirling moved to Davie because “it was far enough south for a tropical and subtropical climate and the soil was some of the best in the world.” He owned Stirling and Sons Nursery and helped establish Flamingo Growers and Gardens, now Flamingo Gardens.

In 2021, the Town of Davie was home to about 104,882 residents. The U.S. Census counted 110,000 residents in 2020.

An obituary for Robert P. Davie, born in 1867 is not available. Published accounts say he died around 1930. His wife, Martha Hays Davie died in Los Angeles County in 1949 and was then referred to as the widow of Robert Parsell Davie. With so many interests around the country he probably didn’t reside for long in the Florida town named for him, especially when draining proved to be unfeasible.

About those cowboys and rodeos

The first rodeo in Davie (Cowboy Town) was held in 1940 by Claude Tindall, a cattle rancher referred to as the “father of Florida rodeo.” A Davie resident, Tindall used his own livestock and gathered a “collection of local cowhands” for the inaugural event. Spectators sat in cars around a fenced area. Afterward, Tindall passed a hat for the production; he collected $140 that day. Tindall went on to hold two rodeos a year in Davie at the Bergeron Rodeo Arena as well as events in West Palm Beach and at Miami’s Orange Bowl. Today, rodeos are produced by the Weekley Bros. Davie Pro Rodeo at 4271 Davie Road (954-680-8005). A Western parade is held as part of the Orange Blossom Festival. Bergeron Arena at 4201 Rodeo Way holds a number of events other than rodeos for the Town of Davie.

Cowboys remain along with horses but there are far fewer farms. Developers now go where angels fear to tread.  

*Note: Hamilton Disston sponsored the first Everglades drainage project in 1881. For more, see: 

https://janeshistorynook.blogspot.com/2020/09/hamilton-disston-and-early-attempt-to.html

 For more on Napoleon Bonaparte Broward, see: https://janeshistorynook.blogspot.com/2021/01/napoleon-bonaparte-broward-and.html

Sources:

The Miami News, Feb. 7, 1912

The Miami News, Feb. 11, 1913

The Miami News, Feb. 14, 1913

The Miami News, Oct. 14, 1913

The Miami News, Dec. 19, 1913

The Miami News, Jan. 16, 1914

The Miami News, Jan. 19, 1914

The Miami News, May 23, 1914

The Miami News, Nov. 29, 1915

The Miami News, July 18, 1916

The Miami Herald, April 10, 1926

The Miami Herald, Feb. 21, 1954

The Miami Herald, July 8, 1979

Fort Lauderdale Magazine, March 1, 2017

Daily Independent, Dec. 23, 2022

Ancestry.com

Town of Davie

https://davieprorodeo.com/dpr/page/2/

Wikipedia

Tags: Broward County history, Davie, Robert Parsell Davie, Cowboy Town, Davie History, Frank Stirling, Davie, Florida, Flamingo Gardens

Hollywood Beach Hotel and its descent from splendor

 

Hollywood Beach Resort 2024

By Jane Feehan

Joseph W. Young planned a whole community for land he purchased north of Miami in 1920. Hollywood-by-the-Sea would include a broad boulevard to the ocean from a 10-acre landscaped circle, a train depot, schools for year-round residents and several hotels for visitors.

Ground was broken in 1920-21 for his town. The boulevard he promised was reportedly the widest in the state at 120 feet. He built 25 bungalows for “regular” residents and later a tent camp near Dixie Highway for winter visitors.

Perhaps the building with the widest impact on publicity for the town was the Hollywood Beach Hotel. Construction began at Young’s request in early 1925 for the impressive 500-room beachside structure. Its architects Rubush and Hunter had also designed Carl Fisher's Flamingo Hotel on Miami Beach.

The $3 million plus, seven-story hotel, featuring fireproof, “Spanish-type” architecture would also hold a shopping arcade of 28 stores to draw both guests and customers from the street. A large, $30,000 pipe organ from Chicago’s W. W. Kimbell Company was installed, thousands of pieces of Bavarian dinnerware were purchased, and a driveway for “motor cars” (an unusual hotel amenity at the time) was built. The structure spanned 525 feet along the ocean front.

According to news accounts at the time, 100 trucks were spotted on the project one day and workers “labored day and night” on the project in December 1925 to complete it for the opening event in January 1926. Not to be hindered by building supply shortages due to inadequate rail capacity throughout South Florida, Young set up a “private fleet of boats” to do the job, which included delivering boatloads of cement made in Norway.

Lower rates than those at other hotels were promised. “This is the rather humanitarian idea of Mr. Young, believing in its business-building effect,” reported The Miami Herald.

Opening night – a date later than originally planned—was an informal affair in early February attended by a few hundred guests. Reservations for the entire winter season were already booked by residents from “up North.” It promised to be a busy first tourist season. It was the Roaring 20s after all. The roar, however, turned into a whimper months later with the Great Hurricane of September 1926.

Many structures fell with that storm, but the Hollywood Hotel remained standing. Damage to the hotel was estimated to be about $400,000. They were insured for $1.2 million. But, within a few months, pages of local newspapers were again filled with reports on hotel visitors and social events.

Hollywood Beach Hotel
1930 State Archives of Florida

The Hollywood Hotel, “Grand Lady,” became a fixture of South Florida tourism for decades. Unfortunately, its tale is one of a slow descent from splendor. According to accounts, tourists, including notorious mobsters, stayed there until at least the early 1940s, when it became a naval training school during World War II. It transitioned back to a hotel and tourists rediscovered it during the 1950s and 60s. During the 1970s it was home to Hollywood Bible College.

From the 1980s to today, the hotel (renamed Hollywood Beach Resort) has come under an assortment of owners – some at the same time—who converted hotel rooms into timeshare units and condos on some floors while re-making the street level floor into a shopping center and food court. Ramada Inn reportedly operated parts of the Grand Lady at one time. 

Because of concurrent multiple owners, efforts to place the property on the National Register of Historic Places failed. News accounts indicate residents considered the hotel an eyesore by 2002. Electricity was turned off in parts of the building in 2003.

Today, the 368-room property, with parts demolished, seems to be in legal limbo. A law firm is listed in property records as owner of most of the Grand Lady. Construction fencing circles the hotel and parts of its lot serve as fee-based public parking. With old beachfront properties falling to developers, this sliver of South Florida hotel history may be nothing more than a memory or a page in history books. A condo, no doubt, will eventually sit on this prime property.

Stay tuned for updates …

Entrance from Hollywood Blvd., circa 1926
Florida State Archives

Sources:

The Miami Herald, Jan. 28, 1923

Fort Lauderdale News, April 8, 1925

The Miami Herald, July 26, 1925

Miami Tribune, Sept. 25, 1925

The Miami Herald, Nov. 8, 1925

Miami Tribune, Nov. 17, 1925

The Indianapolis Star, Dec. 16, 1925

The Miami Herald, Dec. 27, 1926

Fort Lauderdale News, Feb. 4, 1926

The Miami Herald, Dec. 31, 1926

Miami News, Sept. 30, 1926

The Miami Herald, Jan. 9, 2000

The Miami Herald, Jan. 9, 2000

The Miami Herald, May 24, 2002

The Miami Herald, Dec. 18, 2004

The Miami Herald, June 5, 2005

The Real Deal, May 22, 2022

Commercial Observer, May 13, 2022

The Miami Herald, Nov. 26, 2023

Tags: Hollywood Beach Hotel, Hollywood Beach Resort, Hollywood history, Joseph W. Young,   

Fort Lauderdale’s Yellowstone Park

 

Fort Lauderdale 1917 - New River & Intracoastal
State Archives of Florida

 By Jane Feehan

Yes, Fort Lauderdale has a Yellowstone Park. Unless one lives there or has house hunted in the area, few are aware of this community first developed in the 1920s. The early subdivision sat off West Avenue and was bordered on the east by the New River off SW 17 Street. Parts of the community sit close to Croissant Park.

M.A. “Al” Hortt, a former streetcar conductor and gold prospector from Utah developed Fort Lauderdale’s Yellowstone Park around 1925, aiming to build “the most complete subdivision of Broward County.” It sat three miles from the city hall at that time. Hortt installed sidewalks, curbs, gutters, paved streets, lighting, water lines and shrubbery. 

A successful developer and real estate entrepreneur who arrived in Fort Lauderdale in 1910, Hortt advertised lots in the 1925 community for $5,000 for a corner location, $4,000 for lots next to the corner and $3,500 for inside lots. He offered an interest rate of “8 percent on deferred payments.” Hortt touted “profits on resales.”

Hortt had already developed the Colee Hammock, Beverly Heights, Idlewyld, Riviera and Lauderdale Shores neighborhoods. The 1920s were roaring for South Florida then and Hortt was particularly successful.

In December1925 he announced 50 houses would be built at Yellowstone, averaging $10,000 each with prices ranging from $7,000-$12,000. Fort Lauderdale businessman Fred Maxwell was financing construction. Maxwell moved machinery into the tract to make cement for the new houses. The project was expected to “relieve the housing shortage in Lauderdale.”

According to his autobiography, Gold Coast Pioneer, Hortt also accepted $25,000 for a group of 10 lots purchased by “building contractor Mr. Roach.” (I believe this was C.A Roach, a known contractor at the time.) Seven one-family and two duplexes were completed before the boom collapsed.

The bust was delivered by the 1926 hurricane, which upended plans for continued building and damaged many houses; a few were repaired with insurance money. Most houses, however, were vacated after the storm and rented for as little as $10. I assume that was a monthly rate. By 1927, five-room houses were rented for $25-$35. Hortt bought back several lots from buyers who could not afford property taxes on the lots in the ensuing years.

Hortt, who later served as a Fort Lauderdale city commissioner and mayor, shared a somewhat humorous, if not aggravating, ending to the 1925 version of Yellowstone Park. In 1928, after another hurricane, he sent an employee to see if houses were damaged. The employee was greeted by fresh tire tracks and missing plumbing fixtures in several houses. Hortt called the sheriff’s office and they tracked down and recovered the fixtures along with those from houses in Pompano being built by William L. Kester. Kester didn’t know the fixtures were missing.

M.A. Hortt shifted focus to other land purchases, including some in Pompano Beach, where he died in 1958 at 77.

Today’s Yellowstone Park houses, many of which were built in the 1950s and 60s, sell for $500,000 and up, often topping a million dollars. Boat access to the ocean via canals and the New River ranks as a strong selling point for the community.

Sources:

Hortt, M.A., Gold Coast Pioneer. New York: Exposition Press, 1955

Fort Lauderdale News, Oct. 12, 1925

Fort Lauderdale News, Aug. 17, 1925

Fort Lauderdale News, Dec. 16, 1925

Fort Lauderdale News, June 20, 1927

Tags: M.A. Hortt, Fort Lauderdale history, history of Fort Lauderdale, Yellowstone Park. Fort Lauderdale in the 1920s

Interesting facts about Fort Lauderdale during the 1980s

Fort Lauderdale 1983 Florida State Archives

Below is a small collection of Fort Lauderdale-specific news items of the 1980s. Some may jog a memory or two or evoke surprise about that decade—one of change for this beachside city.

Merchants along Fort Lauderdale’s “strip” off A1A near Las Olas Boulevard consider the “troubled area” 80 percent better than during the last few years of high crime. Two additional police officers were recently assigned to this popular spot across from the beach. 1980

Mayor E. Clay Shaw sponsors an ordinance to permit high-density hotels for two blocks at A1A near Las Olas to “prevent further deterioration of the beach area.” Merchants express new fear of being pushed out. 1980

The Fort Lauderdale Strikers draw 18,223 for a soccer game aired on ABC-TV June 8, 1980. They played the Tampa Rowdies.

Controversial ophthalmologist Dr. Frederick Blanton loses appeal and is sentenced to five years in federal prison for dispensing Quaaludes to patients. He first gained attention during the 1970s for prescribing marijuana for patients with glaucoma. He was also accused of assault of a police officer after allegedly pointing a gun at a cop. Before sentencing he says he prefers a one-way ticket to Russia rather than go to jail. 1983

Fire destroys one of Fort Lauderdale’s oldest buildings, the Ship Apartments at 303 N. New River Drive West. Built in 1905 by Fort Lauderdale pioneer Philemon Bryan for his son, Reed Bryan in 1905, the 75-year-old building, next to the New River Inn, is vacant when the fire occurs. 1980

A six-month federal investigation reveals mob ties to Heaven nightclub at 3937 North Federal Highway. Activities involving New Jersey mobster Anthony Acceturro of the Lucchese crime family are cited in a report submitted in 1983

Beach residents rally to complain about Spring Break patrons of Penrod's relieving themselves behind the popular nightspot. 1983

Sunday Brunch at the Galt Ocean Mile Hotel advertised for $6.95. 1983

The first person is arrested under a controversial anti-vagrancy law making it illegal to rummage through other people’s garbage. The violator was arrested for allegedly rummaging at an apartment building at SE 4th Avenue and 23rd Street. 1984

The inaugural Greater Fort Lauderdale Film Festival is approved by the city and held in late 1986. Realtor Patty Lombard serves as first president of the festival.

New York businessman Donald Trump’s $29 million, 282-foot yacht Trump Princess will berth at the Best Western Motel off the 17th Street Causeway until March that year (1988).

Fort Lauderdale Water Taxi begins service between Commercial Boulevard and Port Everglades October of 1988. Bekoff Yachting Service launches its Canal Cabs the same month. Rides on both are $2.50-$5.00

Population of Fort Lauderdale in 1989 - about 148,500

Fort Lauderdale restaurants open for late-night eats after night clubbing in 1989 (does not include chain restaurants):

Bahia Cabana

Bootleggers

Boat House Bar and Grill

North Ridge Raw Bar and Restaurant

At’s a Pizza

Peter Pan Diner and

Joseph’s Restaurant and Lounge

Bahia Cabana circa 1996 Florida State Archives

Sources:

Fort Lauderdale News:

Jan. 6, 1980

Oct 23, 1980

Jan. 9, 1980

March 30, 1983

April 3, 1983

April 17, 1983

June 4, 1983

Oct. 11, 1984

South Florida Sun-Sentinel:

May 29, 1986

Oct. 8, 1988

Dec. 30,1988

Dec. 30, 1989

https://www.biggestuscities.com/city/fort-lauderdale-florida

Tags: Fort Lauderdale during the 1980s, Fort Lauderdale History. history of Fort Lauderdale, Trump, Water Taxi, Penrod's, population of Fort Lauderdale

Jolly Roger Hotel and a pirate flag debate

Jolly Roger Hotel 1953,
State Archives of Florida

Pirate flag, Åland Maritime Museum
* See below for more 

By Jane Feehan

A flag controversy at the opening of the Jolly Roger Hotel in 1953 sparked outrage—and a tradition.

The public was invited to opening night festivities at the 50-room, pirate-themed hotel, which included a display of treasure recovered from a Spanish galleon sunken off the Florida Keys. And what would a hotel named Jolly Roger be without a pirate flag, a jolly roger flag? Owner Bob Gill displayed the skull and crossbones pennant on a 75-foot mast along with the flag of the United States.

The July 29 festivities appeared on WFTL-TV. Soon after, calls, many from boaters, came into the station and to the Fort Lauderdale News about flag placement order. It appeared the pirate flag was placed in prominence over the U.S flag. Not only that, but some also said the flag should not be flown at night.

Gill was prepared, though the controversy didn’t end right away. The U.S flag can be flown at night if it was well illuminated, the hotelier said; lights were ablaze. Many said the two flags should not have been displayed together.

On the order of placement, hotel management cited the 1949 edition of Charles F. Chapman’s Piloting, Seamanship and Small Boat Handling. “Honor for national colors on land is as follows: on a straight mast, at the gaff.” The hotel mast had a gaff or yardarm. (At sea, a chaplain’s flag may be flown over the US flag only during services conducted by a Navy chaplain.)

Maybe it was the excitement of the festivities, the romance of piracy or the illumination of both flags, but overnight July 29-30, the skull and crossbones disappeared. Another pirate flag was on display a few days later; it was the first of many flag thefts and replacements. The pirate flag was grabbed again in 1955. Hotel management said the worst part of that incident was the car displaying it while cruising A-1-A in front of the Jolly Roger Hotel.

Fort Lauderdale News wrote that the pirate flag “seems to catch the eye of tourists who get the urge to bring it back home as a souvenir.”

It wasn’t just tourists who wanted that flag. Making off with it became a rite of passage for some kids. Many who grew up in 1950s and 60s Fort Lauderdale know of at least one jokester who stole the iconic flag. Known as the Sea Club Resort today, the hotel maintains a pirate theme, especially in the lobby. The hotel was given a historic designation by the city of Fort Lauderdale in 2009.

For some fun, let’s bring that flag back.

Pirate flag background

The jolly roger flag, so named by the British, is a skull and crossbones pennant first used in the early 1700s. Hoisted by pirates as an identifier in skirmishes or display of bravery or swagger, the traditional pirate flag was also raised by the British Royal Navy during World War II to indicate successful completion of a mission.

Sea Club today

* Picture of flag above:

Pirate flag at the Åland Maritime Museum, one of two pirate flags that are considered authentic. The flag is about 200 years old and came to Åland from the North African Mediterranean coast, where piracy occurred right into the 19th century. It is made of cotton and was once dark brown. Now it is faded by the ravages of time, weather and wind. This photo has been color corrected by user Blockhaj to try to show the flag as it originally appeared.

For more on the Jolly Roger Hotel, see: 

https://janeshistorynook.blogspot.com/2020/07/trailblazing-jolly-roger-hotel-jaynes.html

Sources:

Fort Lauderdale News, July 29, 1953

Fort Lauderdale News, July 30, 1953

Fort Lauderdale News, Aug. 1, 1953

Fort Lauderdale News, Aug. 4, 1953

Fort Lauderdale News, Oct. 22, 1955

Fort Lauderdale News, Jan. 17, 1955

Fort Lauderdale News, Jan. 22, 1958

Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel, Jan. 29, 2009

Wikipedia

Tags: Jolly Roger Hotel, Fort Lauderdale History, History of Fort Lauderdale, Jolly Roger flag, Bob Gill, Gill hotels, Fort Lauderdale during the 1950s