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| Postcard 1939 - Orange Blossom Special Public Domain |
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.”
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| 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.
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| 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,
