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Monday, January 25, 2021

Lauderdale-by-the-Sea's Anglin Fishing pier, once longest in Broward County

 


Anglin Fishing Pier
2 Commercial Blvd.
Lauderdale-By-The-Sea, FL 33308
954-491-9403
For more information on Broward County Piers
https://www.saltchef.com/catch_fish/FL/Broward/fishing_piers.html

Update: See web cam for Hurricane Nicole damage to Anglin's Pier (11/10/2022)


By Jane Feehan

Lauderdale-By-The-Sea pioneer Melvin Anglin built Anglin (some now say Anglin's) Fishing Pier in 1941. No fisherman, Anglin was encouraged by his son, Tom, to build the structure to attract tourists to the small town north of Fort Lauderdale.

The original pier, made of wood, jutted out past the shoreline 800 feet into the water, over the first reef. Anglers cast their lines off its 100-foot-wide T at the farthest end. In those days, the cost to visit or fish from the pier was 10 cents. The wooden structure was rebuilt by the Anglins at least three times when hurricanes broke it apart. After a destructive storm, the family would salvage its wood planks anywhere from 10th Street in Fort Lauderdale north to Sea Ranch Lakes to begin construction anew.

Real estate agents Everett Sorensen and Frank Myatt (son of Lord’s Realty owner Ann Lord) bought the pier, not the land, with a 99-year lease in 1962. They rebuilt it with concrete pilings, extending its length to 876 feet. Anglin Fishing Pier (the name remained) reopened Nov. 22, 1963, the day President Kennedy was assassinated.

The pier recently been sold again. Currently, the fee to fish is about $10 (check for fee updates), a sightseeing walk goes for about $2 (call to confirm price changes). Anglin Fishing Pier is now 900 feet long and Dania Beach states the same; Deerfield Beach claims its pier is 976 feet in length; Pompano says its pier is about 876 feet. See https://www.saltchef.com/catch_fish/FL/Broward/fishing_piers.html.

Florida State Archives
/Florida Memory 1996

Copyright © 2012, 2021 All rights reserved. Jane Feehan. 



Copyright © 2021, 2022. All rights reserved. Jane Feehan

Sources:
Richard, Candace. Seventy-Three Years By The Sea. Lauderdale by the Sea: Town of of Lauderdale-By-The-Sea, 2000.
Sun-Sentinel, Jan. 3, 2002
Miami News, Jan. 29, 1963


Tags: History of Lauderdale-by-the-Sea, Lauderdale-by-the-Sea history, Broward County fishing piers