Mar-a-Lago's Past and Present in Palm Beach

Mar-a- Lago 1973
Florida State Archives/Florida Memory

 By Jane Feehan


Addison Mizner wasn't the only architect to leave an imprint on Palm Beach. Several others were commissioned in the 1920s to build expansive, over-the-top-mansions on the island.

Mar-a-Lago 1920
Florida State Archives

Among them were Marion Sims Wyeth (1889-1982) and Viennese architect and production designer Joseph Urban (1872-1933). They designed Mar-a-Lago (ocean-to-lake) for Edward Hutton and his wife, cereal heiress Marjorie Merriweather Post. Sims drew up plans for the structure; Urban designed its interior.*

The opulent estate, with 115 rooms, a nine-hole golf course, 15th century tiles, and a 70-foot tower, took four years to build at a cost of $8 million. Completed in 1927, it still stands today. Hutton and Post divorced but the heiress continued to live at the mansion. Her parties and charitable functions at Mar-a-Lago were legendary, drawing national attention to Florida. When Post died in 1973, she left the estate to the U.S. government as a national landmark. Nearly seven years later, Mar-a-Lago was returned to the Post Foundation because maintenance costs were too high.

                                                                                  

Mar-a-Lago circa 1930
Florida State Archives/Florida Memory

In 1985, Donald Trump purchased Mar-a-Lago as his residence. A few years later, he was granted permission to run it as a private social club. Mar-a-Lago sits across from the Bath and Tennis Club, at the southern end of town. It is now included in the National Register of Historic Places.

*Wyeth also designed the Florida Governor’s Mansion and the Norton Museum; Urban helped write several children’s books and was production designer for the Ziegfeld Follies and Metropolitan Opera.
_________________________________

Sources:

Historical Society of Palm Beach County 

O'Sullivan, Maureen. Palm Beach Then and Now. West Palm Beach: Lickle Publishing, 2004

Tags: Palm Beach, Palm Beach history, Mar-a-Lago

Before Boca Raton Resort and Club, the Cloister Inn

 

Cloister Inn 1926
Florida State Archives/Florida Memory 

Addison Mizner (1872-1933) set his sights on Boca Raton in 1925 after eight years in Palm Beach – years in which he significantly influenced the architecture of that resort community.  Boca promised artistic freedoms he could only dream of while designing for the wealthy.

The 1920s were roaring, promising opportunities to those ready to seize them. Mizner and his brother Wilson (1876-1933) formed the Mizner Development Corporation in 1925 to promote Boca Raton, a town newly incorporated (August, 1924). With 17,500 acres in their grasp, they raised $26 million in the first six weeks of land sales. Lots jumped in value from a few hundred dollars to $100,000. "I am the Greatest Resort in the World," ads for the town proclaimed.

Boca Raton Hotel 1970
Florida State Archives

The centerpiece of their new resort town was the 100-room, $1.25 million Cloister Inn.  He claimed it reflected the atmosphere of Mediaeval [sic] days in architectecture," harking back to monastic days of the 13th century. Whatever Mizner couldn’t import to decorate and design with, he made in his terra cotta factory in West Palm Beach. Some pieces, many aged artificially by Mizner himself, remain at today’s Boca Raton Resort and Club (renamed "The Boca Raton in 2022)

Built on the shore of Lake Boca Raton, Cloister Inn opened Feb. 6, 1926. Some say it was the most expensive hotel ever built. Operated by Ritz-Carlton management, the rambling, red tile-roofed hotel drew notables such as the duPonts, Vanderbilts, Elizabeth Arden, composer Irving Berlin and a roster of Wall Street moguls.

Mizner Development Corp., National Register
of Historic Places
From City of Boca Raton 

The Boca Raton dream began to crack before the hotel opened. Florida’s decline was quietly predicted by a Wall Street wizard January, 1926. By year’s end, the boom went bust.  The hotel closed and Addison Mizner returned to Palm Beach where he died in 1933. His brother Wilson scrambled to Hollywood, California to operate a restaurant and to start a new career as screenwriter. He died a few weeks after Addison.

The Mizner dream ended but its influence did not; Boca Raton’s architecture and exclusivity are vestiges of the Mizner vision. The Cloister Inn is the nucleus of The Boca Raton (Boca Raton Resort and Club).

Cloister Inn from Lake Boca Raton 1926
Florida State Archives/Florida Memory

Sources:

Miami Herald, Nov. 8, 1925

Kinney, Henry. Once Upon a Time: The Legend of the Boca Raton and Club. Boca Raton. Arvida Corporation, 1966.

Johnson, Stanley. Once Upon a Time: The story of Boca Raton.  Boca Raton: Arvida Corporation, 1974.

Tags: Boca Raton Resort and Club, Addison Mizner, Boca Raton history, Florida history, Florida in the 1900s, 

Morris Lapidus: Architect with a sense of fun ... ahead of his time?

Fontainebleau today
 Creative Commons
Wikipedia 

By Jane Feehan


Once mocked by critics, architect Morris Lapidus (1902-2001) designed 250 hotels and 1,200 other buildings throughout the world. Among his most noted buildings were the Fontainebleau Hotel (1954), Eden Roc Hotel (1955) and the Americana (1956) - all in Miami Beach.*

Lapidus was a retail architect whose first Miami Beach hotel commission was to complete the Sans Souci Hotel in 1949 (another architect began the work). He was known for his use of whiplash curved facades, bright colors, and heavy adornments. His was a blend of French provincial and Italian Renaissance styles, leading some of his peers to call his work “boarding house baroque,” even “pornography.”

When he saw the Fontainebleau, architect Frank Lloyd Wright exclaimed it looked like an “anthill.” That didn’t bother the Russian-born Lapidus who said, “I’m flattered. An anthill is one of the greatest abodes nature ever perfected.” Critics said he was pandering to the public. “My critic is the masses,” Lapidus answered. “I design for them. Let’s stop educating the human race. Let’s just make them happy.”

Miami Beach 1954 41st Sreet
Florida State Archives/Florida Memory

And he did make the masses happy. Among its many “gaudy” features, the Fontainebleau (once called “America’s grossest national product”) was known for its staircase to nowhere. It actually led to a cloak room from which people could descend dramatically in all their jewels and other finery to an admiring audience. His Americana Hotel kept alligators in terrariums to remind tourists they were in Florida. “What I try to do is to create buildings which give people a sense of exhilaration and enjoyment,” Lapidus explained in a 1959 interview.

Architects today take a kinder view of Lapidus. Some call him the first post-modernist architect. He may have been ahead of his time, especially with pedestrian-friendly Lincoln Road Mall opened in November, 1960. Spanning several blocks, the outdoor mall was closed to traffic and accented with pools, fountains, shelters, gardens and tropical foliage.

Whatever critics think of him, Lapidus, who lived on Miami's Venetian Causeway until his death in 2001, will be remembered by his creed: “Even a doghouse or a birdhouse should have an adornment.”

*Fontainebleau Hotel - Listed year 2008 in National Register of Historic Places.
                  Open today: www.fontainebleau.com 

Sans Souci - now the RIU Florida Beach: http://floridabeach.riu.com

Eden Roc  - now a Marriott Renaissance Hotel –

www.marriott.com/hotels/travel/miasr-eden-roc-renaissance-miami-beach/

Americana imploded 2007

Sources:

Miami News, Sept. 3, 1959

Miami News, Nov. 26, 1960

New York Times, Jan. 20, 2001

LA Times, Jan. 20, 2001

Tags: Miami Beach history, Miami Beach architect, architect of Fountainebleau, architect of Eden Roc, architect of Americana, Lincoln Road architect, Miami Beach in the 1950s, Frank Lloyd Wright, Miami Beach hotels of the 1950s, film industry researcher, Morris Lapidus

History and a totally new look for Pier Sixty-Six in Fort Lauderdale

 

  Florida State Archives/,
Florida Memory 1996

See below for project update

By Jane Feehan

Phillips Petroleum, when headquartered in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, purchased land in south Fort Lauderdale for a gas station in 1956.   Within a few short years, the parcel, bordered on its west by the Intracoastal Waterway, began to evolve into the world-class hotel and resort that claims part of Fort Lauderdale’s skyline today.

Courtesy, Broward County

The oil company built a fuel dock on the parcel in 1957, then installed a marina for more than 100 yachts. In November that year, Phillips advertised the grand opening of a restaurant in the building that today anchors the west side of the resort. By 1959, a two-story hotel was added.  Pier 66’s reputation grew during those boom years as did its need for more rooms.

One of the primary designers of its iconic 17-story tower was Richard F. Humble (1925-2011), a Phillips Petroleum architect. The addition was constructed in 1964 for nearly $6 million. The project included about 250 rooms and a revolving top floor cocktail lounge (open only for special events today); both opened in 1965 but not after some construction problems. The building leaned slightly to one side and was righted with extra fill. When completed, the resort sprawled across 22 acres and berthed 142 boats.

The fortunes of Phillips Petroleum changed in the 1980s, the decade of takeovers. It fought two hostile takeovers and incurred $4.5 billion in debt. Assets were sold off to reduce that debt and included the sale of Pier 66 in 1985. In 2004 the complex was sold to the Blackstone Group of New York. Blackstone bought the Pier 66 property from H. Wayne Huizenga's Boca Resorts, Inc. 

About that really new look 

In 2016 Pier 66 (or sixty-six) was purchased by Tavistock Development of Orlando. New construction on the 22-acre property will include a revamped hotel, two 11-story condos (height limit under consideration as of 11/1/22), 12 waterfront homes with 5,000 sq feet each and retail and office space. 

For those of us who grew up with this iconic hotel, the property will appear unrecognizable. Some say the new look will "enhance its legacy." 

December 2022 - Lots of activity

Construction on nearly all of the cleared property to the Intracoastal

August 2022 update: Not much new in this photo

2021 UPDATE: The Sun-Sentinel reported on 5/4/21 that Tavistock says the COVID-19 pandemic has slowed the project and pushed an estimated completion to fourth quarter 2023. 

Update Jan. 1, 2023: Lots of building activity on grounds around the hotel tower.

Update August, 2021: no activity at site

For more, see: 

https://www.sun-sentinel.com/business/fl-bz-pier-66-redevelopment-ss-prem-20210504-g4gd3c3rung55nqy46pwt6vabe-story.html

Meanwhile (I say) it's an eyesore.

2020 update photo/video: 

https://www.sun-sentinel.com/business/fl-bz-pier-sixty-six-rebuild-20200227-ekdi5boljfc3xop5hv3zb7pkju-story.html

2018 UPDATE. New owners have new plans for Pier 66: portions of it will be developed into condos. See:   http://www.sun-sentinel.com/local/broward/fort-lauderdale/fl-pier-66-vote-passed-20180711-story.html

Copyright © 2016 2020 All rights reserved. Jane Feehan.

Sources:

Broward County Historical Commission
Miami News:  Nov. 22, 1957
Miami News:  Dec. 27, 1964

Sun-Sentinel, July 23, 2014

Sun-Sentinel, Feb. 27, 2020

Tags: Fort Lauderdale history, history of Fort Lauderdale, Pier 66, Pier Sixty-Six, Florida architect

Yankee Clipper Hotel still "sails" in Fort Lauderdale

 

Florida, State Archives/Florida Memory

By Jane Feehan

A number of hotels went up along Fort Lauderdale beach in the 1950s including the iconic Yankee Clipper that remains today. Gill Construction built the hotel; the concept was the brainchild of prolific architect M. Tony Sherman of Miami.

Sherman designed the 130-room Yankee Clipper to appear as an ocean liner. The $1.5 million hotel opened during the summer of 1956 and drew locals and tourists with its 400 foot beach, pool with portals visible from the Wreck Bar, a Polynesian review, and stellar dining. 

During the same time this project was underway, Sherman designed the 300-room Tropicana Hotel in Las Vegas and an addition to the Reef Restaurant in Fort Lauderdale. He had designed the Castaways Motel in Sunny Isles (North Miami Beach), which officially opened in February 1952.  Also during the early 50s, the architect designed the Jolly Roger Hotel on the Fort Lauderdale strip as well as the building for nearby Causeway Realty.  Sherman also left his imprint on another Gill Construction project of the time, Lauderdale Isles. 

Sherman died in 1999. As of early December, 2014, the Yankee Clipper Hotel is now an InSite Group property. It operates in affiliation with B Hotels and Resorts as the B Ocean Resort. The Wreck Bar and its Mermaid Show remains.  

Tags: Fort Lauderdale history, Fort Lauderdale architects, architects

Hotel Champ Carr - known today as the Riverside Hotel - opens in 1936

 

New River at Champ Carr Hotel, now Riverside Hotel
Florida State Archives

Riverside Hotel

620 E. Las Olas Blvd.

Fort Lauderdale, FL 33301

954-467-0671

www.riversidehotel.com

By Jane Feehan

The Riverside Hotel, currently the only hotel on Las Olas Boulevard, attracts locals who appreciate its history as well as tourists who seek the cultural, entertainment and business center of Fort Lauderdale.

The Riverside opened as Hotel Champ Carr Dec. 17, 1936. Preston and John Wells, wealthy Chicagoans, met Champ Carr when he worked on a fishing boat they chartered, the story goes. They liked him so much that when they decided to build the hotel, they named it after Champ Carr, who they tapped as its first manager. The hotel was designed by Fort Lauderdale’s leading architect, Francis Abreu, and constructed by contractor George Young. The "Monterey-style," three-story, 80-room hotel drew business types and tourists in its early days, including a member of the DuPont family and Ronald Reagan. Carr left in 1947 and the name was changed to the Riverside Hotel.

Hotel Champ Carr, 1936
Florida State Archives/Florida Memory

Today, the hotel has expanded to 214 rooms. It maintains that old Florida feeling with Spanish tiled floors in the lobby, dark wood molding and doors, and a mix of blue, dark green and orange hues throughout many of its hallways and attractive guest rooms.

Preston’s Lobby Lounge once hosted a happy hour with a piano player Monday through Friday (check for offerings during these COVID days). A short walk across the lobby sits the sophisticated Wild Sea restaurant. Another eatery, Indigo, serves breakfast, lunch and dinner seven days a week (check first, check dining room names; they also change). 

The hotel recently opened its waterside Boathouse (https://www.boathouseriverside.com). For some, food is secondary here; tradition, atmosphere, and people watching from its sidewalk dining area and now the dock, is what Riverside is all about.

Today

Meeting rooms are available to accommodate business functions, and special events, including weddings. Service: very good.
_____
For Francis Abreu, see, https://janeshistorynook.blogspot.com/2020/08/fort-lauderdales-first-architect.html

Sources:

Fort Lauderdale News, Dec. 16, 1936
McIver, Stuart. Glimpses of South Florida History. Miami: Florida Flair Books, 1988.




Tags: Fort Lauderdale dining, breakfast in Fort Lauderdale, pre-theater dining in Fort Lauderdale, hotels in Fort Lauderdale, Las Olas Boulevard hotel and dining, restaurants in Fort Lauderdale. Indigo, Fort Lauderdale

Fort Lauderdale's early golf courses and the one still operating today

 

Broward County golf course in construction 1973
State of Florida Archives

By Jane Feehan

Fort Lauderdale embraced golf as a way to promote the city and draw tourists as early as 1921.  The city’s first course, a nine-hole affair, was built off Dixie Highway (today the site of the Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood International Airport) to attract visitors on their way to Miami. President-elect Warren Harding played a round there shortly after the fairway opened.

Golf expanded in December 1926 with construction of the Westside Golf Course. A tournament between Miami and Palm Beach pros opened the two-course  attraction (one was 18 holes, the other, nine). Reporters of the time described Westside as providing 6,410 yards to play with a par 71. There was one long hole of 830 yards, several of 500 yards, and others of 200. Greens fees were $1.50 per day or $30 per month. Memberships were offered at $50.

The clubhouse opened January 1927. Fort Lauderdale architect Francis L. Abreu* designed most of it. The Miami News listed the golf course architect as Capt. H.C.C. Tippett.

Today, Westside is the beautiful 36-hole Fort Lauderdale Golf and Country Club, four miles from 

downtown. Its clubhouse underwent a $4.8 million renovation in 2007. It stands as the oldest private country club in South Florida.  Copyright © 2020. All rights reserved. Jane Feehan.

*Abreu left Fort Lauderdale after the 1926 hurricane a few months prior. See a list of his designs at: 

https://janeshistorynook.blogspot.com/2020/08/fort-lauderdales-first-architect.html

For more on Fort Lauderdale golf, see:

https://janeshistorynook.blogspot.com/2013/02/golf-deemed-game-for-fat-old-feeble.html
---------- 

Sources:

Gillis, Susan. Fort Lauderdale: The Venice of America. Charleston: Arcadia (2004).

Weidling, Philip J. , Burghard, August. Checkered Sunshine. Gainesville: University of Florida Press (1966)

Miami News, Nov. 29, 1926, p. 11

Fort Lauderdale Golf and Country Club

http://www.fortlauderdalecc.com/Club/Scripts/Home/home.asp

For golf in South Florida, the Fort Lauderdale area, visit:  http://www.sunny.org/sports/golf/

Tags: Fort Lauderdale golf history, West Side Golf course, Fort Lauderdale in the 1920s, first golf course in Fort Lauderdale, South Florida golf, golfing in Fort Lauderdale, South Florida golfing, film researcher, Fort Lauderdale history, history of fort Lauderdale

Fort Lauderdale's first architect, Francis Abreu, leaves some familiar landmarks

 

A 1920s-era Abreu-designed home, now Casablanca Cafe
on A1A, near Las Olas

By Jane Feehan

While Palm Beach and Boca Raton bear the imprint of Addison Mizner’s distinctive style, Fort Lauderdale can also claim the influence of one architect during the 1920s land boom.

Francis Luis Abreu (1896-1969), son of Cuban sugar plantation owners Diego and Marie Abreu, moved to Fort Lauderdale (where they resided) after graduating from Cornell University. 

Early in his career, Abreu designed a winter home for his grandfather, Juan Jacinto Jova (today the Casablanca Cafe), and moved on to other buildings. His work featured barrel tile roofs, twisted columns, arched walk-ways, antique lanterns, iron gates and heavy dark wooden doors.

His Fort Lauderdale architecture includes (all projects not listed):

The Moroccan-style Casablanca Café at 3049 Alhambra St., Fort Lauderdale beach, a 1920s era home converted to a restaurant

Casino Swimming Pool, 1928

Las Olas Sailboat Bend Fire Station

Dania Beach Hotel, 1925

Needham House, 1925

The Saint Anthony School at 820 NE. 3rd St.,Ft. Lauderdale, 1926, which is on the National Register of Historic Places

The Fort Lauderdale County Club, 1926

Old Post Office at 330 SW 2nd Street, 1927

Riverside Hotel, 720 E. Las Olas Blvd., 1936 (today, the city's oldest hotel, it opened as the Champ Carr Hotel )

Towers Apartments, 824 SE 2nd St. (once largest apartment building, now a retirement home and awarded Broward County historic designation in 2015)

Abreu moved to Georgia where he formed a partnership with James Robeson (Abreu and Robeson) and gained recognition for designing the Cloister Hotel on Sea Island, a home for playwright Eugene O’Neal, also on Sea Island, and a number of public buildings.

Note: Architect John Peterman of Miami also designed a number of public buildings before or concurrently with Abreu. He also lived in Fort Lauderdale. 

Copyright © 2020 All rights reserved. Jane Feehan.

________

Sources:
  McIver, Stuart. Glimpses of South Florida History. Miami: Florida Flair Books, 1988. 

  Abreu Foundation

Ancestry

Tags: Fort Lauderdale history, Fort Lauderdale architecture, Florida history, Francis L Abreu

First hotel built in Fort Lauderdale after WWII ... offers other firsts

Fort Lauderdale Beach circa 1950
Florida State Archives/Florida Memory/Postcard collection

By Jane Feehan 

Touted for its new architectural features, the Holiday Hotel opened in January, 1948. It was the first hotel constructed in Fort Lauderdale after World War II.

The hotel garnered attention because each room faced the ocean, a “startling” concept.  Its through-ventilation was also unique at the time.  Visitors to Fort Lauderdale today would take those features for granted.

Located on Mayan Drive, where part of the Marriott Harbor Beach Resort sits today, the Holiday Hotel was built in a U-shape with the ends splayed outward. New in those days was its outdoor access to rooms and cantilevered balconies over room entrances. Stairways on the four-story building were covered. It was an expensive construction but outdoor entrances completely eliminated the need for fire escapes and the dangers of guests being trapped in hallways.

An article about the 50-room Holiday Hotel claimed “all rooms are provided with baths, and end rooms are equipped with elecrtric refrigerators …” It also had a cocktail lounge, dining room, dining terrace and large ground-floor lobby. Its horse shoe shaped bar was built of bleached mahogany. Guests could also expect central heating and complete phone service. Two penthouses and a large sun deck sat atop the building.

The Holiday Hotel became a popular place to book social functions and Chamber of Commerce events.

And there was other booking, so to speak. The hotel nearly lost its liquor license in 1951 after bartender Louis Kettler was convicted of bookmaking, the second such arrest and conviction in 1951. The state didn't (or failed to) carry out the revocation.

Designed by Clinton Gamble and Associates, and built by Leonard Brothers, the popular Holiday Hotel sat 100 feet from the water’s edge ... at the best beach in Fort Lauderdale.

Sources:

Fort Lauderdale News, Jan. 4, 1948.

Fort Lauderdale News, Oct. 18, 1951

Tags: Fort Lauderdale hotel history, Fort Lauderdale in the 1940s, Fort Lauderdale in the 1950s, Fort Lauderdale architecture, post WWII Fort Lauderdale, film industry researcher, Fort Lauderdale history

Of Russians, the Splitnick, Inverrary, Jackie Gleason ... and golf

Jackie Gleason circa 1950
State of Florida Archives

By Jane Feehan

All-State Properties was selected to construct an American house for the U.S. Exhibition in Moscow in 1959. Herbert Sadkin, the company’s president, tapped architect Stanley H. Klein to design a home representative of the American middle class. The $13,000 “Splitnik” contained one and a half bathrooms, three bedrooms, two patios and an L-shaped living room. The Russian state news agency, Tass, ridiculed the house, saying it was as typical of the American worker’s house as the Taj Mahal was typical of the Bombay textile worker’s house.

That didn’t stop Sadkin from building the same model on Long Island. There, he discovered the house wasn’t luxurious enough for the American worker. He continued to upgrade. In July, 1959 Sadkin opened his first Florida development on 1,300 acres he purchased for about $1 million near the Sunshine Parkway (now Florida's Turnpike).  Located in Broward County, the new city was chartered as Lauderhill. Sadkin went on to build about 1,000 more homes in the area that also became known for its Inverrary Country Club and golf course.

Cut forward to 1972. Actor-comedian Jackie Gleason (1916-1987), a resident of the country club in Lauderhill, kicked off the first Inverrary Classic bearing his name. Those were the glory days of golf legends Tom Weiskopf, Lee Trevino, Jack Nicklaus, and Johnny Miller; they each played the Jackie Gleason Inverrary Classic. Gleason’s involvement ended in 1980 when CBS-TV cut the Inverrary Classic from the event list for the 1982 broadcast season. Tournament officials sought a big-money corporate sponsor and planned to ease Gleason aside.

“I’m not going to have my name associated with some car company,” said Gleason who died at his Inverrary home a few years later. “The only reason I wanted to be involved in the first place was to raise money for charity.” Gleason’s name attracted celebs to play in the pro-am. He and President Gerald Ford were golfing friends. He had planned to invite President-elect Ronald Reagan to play in 1981 but decided against it given the circumstances.

Today we know the golf tournament as the Honda Classic, now played at PGA National in Palm Beach Gardens. The Inverrary Country Club and its golf courses in Lauderhill closed June, 2020. And Sadkin, a Fort Lauderdale resident, went on to build Bonaventure and other South Florida projects before he died in 1972. Copyright © 2012 2020 All rights reserved. Jane Feehan.

Sources:

Miami News, July 14, 1959

Palm Beach Post, Nov. 1980

New York Times, Feb. 18, 1989

http://www.inverrarygolf.com/

http://www.jackiegleason.com/bio.html

Tags: Lauderhill history, Jackie Gleason, Russians, Fort Lauderdale in the 1960s, celebrities in South Florida, Fort Lauderdale history

Trailblazing Jolly Roger Hotel, Jayne Mansfield and an adventure

Jolly Roger, now Sea Club

By Jane Feehan

Builder-turned-hotelier George “Bob” Gill developed six properties during the 1940s, 50s and 60s along Fort Lauderdale beach including the iconic Jolly Roger.

The Jolly Roger Hotel (now the Sea Club), designed by Miami architect Tony Sherman, opened in 1953. It was first in the area to “offer in-room air conditioning.”

Actress Jayne Mansfield* and husband Mickey Hargitay (mother and father of today’s Law and Order: Special Victims unit Mariska Hargitay) stayed at the Jolly Roger in February, 1962 when other hotels were booked. Mansfield, who was 28 then, obliged the press with a photo session at the hotel pool deck before their ill-fated trip to the Bahamas. 

They were briefly shipwrecked on a small island when their boat, piloted by Gill’s public relations man Jack Drury, broke down. Rescued the next morning, the trio made headlines worldwide over their lost-at-sea adventure.

The Jolly Roger drew tourists – and college students – for decades. And who among the locals could resist claiming the pirate’s skull and bones flag waving to us from the roof? Today, as the Sea Club, it remains a favorite beach hotel with European tourists. In 2009, the hotel was granted historic status by the Fort Lauderdale Historical Society.

Jolly Roger now Sea Club

* Mansfield and Hargitay divorced in 1963. She married director Matt Cimber in '64 and had another child. Mansfield was killed in an auto accident in 1967 on her way to an appearance in Biloxi. Her three children, including Mariska Hargitay, were with her and survived.


Sources:

Sun-Sentinel, Jan. 29, 2009

Sun-Sentinel, Feb. 26, 2009
Drury, Jack. Fort Lauderdale, Playground of the Stars (Charleston: Arcadia Publishing, 2008).

Tags: Jolly Roger Hotel, Fort Lauderdale in the 1950s, Bob Gill, Gill Hotels, Fort Lauderdale history, Mariska Hargitay, Jack Drury, film industry researcher

Before Fort Lauderdale's Galleria, Sunrise Center: "One of the most magnificent in the world ..."

Sunrise Shopping Center
Florida State Archives/Erickson

By Jane Feehan

Fort Lauderdale gained national attention when Sunshine Shopping Center (try saying that three times - fast) opened in January, 1954. It was developed by Antioch College, which was bequeathed the property by Hugh Taylor Birch. Within a year, restaurateur and area businessman Charlie Creighton*began negotiations to buy the center.

By 1957 the $14 million development was Creighton’s and renamed Sunrise Center, drawing upscale retailers including Saks Fifth Avenue. The center soon became known as “Florida’s Fifth Avenue.”

According to the Miami News (Feb. 23, 1957), Creighton had bigger plans for the development. He announced the upcoming construction of the largest movie theater in Florida with 2,865 seats and a hotel overlooking the nearby Intracoastal. He also built a restaurant, Creighton’s, adjacent to the shopping center.

Jordan Marsh jumped into Fort Lauderdale in 1957 with plans for a $7 million, three-story department store at Sunrise Center.  Allied Stores had opened a Jordan Marsh in Miami the previous year. According to the Miami News, store executives had wanted to open in Fort Lauderdale first. “This is the place to be,” said Richard. V. Dagget, president and managing director of Jordan Marsh.

Two other stores announced their debut at the Sunrise Center that February, DePinna’s and Bramson’s. Saks Fifth Avenue expanded into larger quarters shortly after. Architectural firm Gamble, Pownall, and Gilroy designed the additional buildings and expansion to two stories, all air conditioned.  “… all tie together into one of the most magnificent shopping centers in the world,” said architect Clinton Gamble.

Creighton’s is gone, there is no longer a movie theater but the Sunrise Center evolved into today’s beautiful Galleria Mall.  *For more on Charlie Creighton and his civic contributions, see index.

  

Tags: Fort Lauderdale history, Fort Lauderdale in the 1950s, Antioch College, Hugh Taylor Birch, Sunrise Shopping Center, Galleria Mall, film researcher

Miami Beach hotel wars: Fontainebleau, Eden Roc and the spite wall

Fontainebleau 1956
Florida State Archives/Florida Memory

By Jane Feehan

The Eden Roc Hotel in Miami Beach is easily spotted with its iconic signage. It seems to  beckon visitors along the 4000 block of Collins Avenue to appreciate its glamour before considering the Fontainebleau, the area’s flagship hotel next door. Competition between the two is tightly woven into Miami Beach history, and their ups and downs reflect economic recessions and recoveries of years past.

Partners Ben Novack and Harry Mufson built the Sans Souci Hotel in 1949 on Miami Beach with architect Morris Lapidus completing its design. They then collaborated on the Fontainebleau Hotel, constructed on beach front property once owned by the Firestone family.  The partners commissioned Lapidus to design the building and opened the Fontainebleau hotel in 1954 to great fanfare. The hotel was spectacular, drawing national attention and some scorn.

Shortly after, Mufson bought property just north of the Fontainebleau from the Warner estate, which belonged to one of Hollywood's Warner Brothers. He wanted to build his own hotel, the Eden Roc. Novack was not pleased, ending his partnership with Mufson.

Mufson, founder of the Jefferson department store chain, again engaged Lapidus to work his design magic. For ideas, the architect traveled to the elegant Eden Roc in France, a known Kennedy family vacation destination. He returned with Italian Renaissance objets d’ art and blended them with elements of his unique style.

The glamorous $13 million Eden Roc opened its doors in 1956, attracting Hollywood movie stars, including Elizabeth Taylor. Among its regular winter visitors was a young Steve Wynn, future Las Vegas impresario, and his parents. (Wynn today says Mufson is one of his all-time heroes.)

Closely watching his competition next door, Ben Novack decided to take revenge. In 1961 he built a 14-story tower with more than 350 rooms on the north side of the hotel. All rooms faced south; there were no windows on the north side and the wall remained unpainted in stark view of Eden Roc guests. Not only was it an eyesore, Novack’s “spite wall” blocked the afternoon sun from the Eden Roc’s pool deck.  Mufson obtained permits to extend the deck away from the building toward the beach to claim its share of the sun.

Mufson sold the Eden Roc in 1965. The hotel operated through a severe recession during the 1970s under several owners, as did the Fontainebleau, and shut down for about a year in 1975-76. Bob Guccione and his Penthouse Corporation placed a bid on the Eden Roc in 1978 hoping to convert it into a casino but a gambling referendum failed so he withdrew the offer.

The hotel was sold in bankruptcy proceedings for $4.6 million in 1980.  A month later the new owners sold it to Saudi Sheik Wadji Tahlawi for $12.5 million. In 1981, Stephen Muss then Fontainebleau owner (he bought it for $28 million in December, 1977 and later chose Hilton to run it), hoped to acquire the Eden Roc to make it an unattached annex of his  property. The deal fell through.

In 2008, Eden Roc owners constructed the 21-story Ocean Tower, finally defeating Novack’s wall of spite. Today, with 631 rooms, the Eden Roc is owned by Key International, a real estate development and investment company -- and both hotels again claim their place among Miami Beach’s best. 

Sources:

Miami News, Jul. 8, 1981

Eden Roc www.edenrocmiami.com/

Bramson, Seth. Miami Beach. Charleston: Arcadia Publishing (2005)

South Beach Magazine, Jan. 9, 2008

Tags:  Eden Roc Hotel history, Fontainebleau  Hotel history, Miami Beach history, Miami hotel history Ben Novack, Harry Mufson, Morris Lapidus, Miami  Beach during the 1950s, film industry researcher, architects

Art Deco and Miami Beach's revival

Aerial view of Art Deco area  - Florida State Archives

In May 1979 one square mile was designated “Old Miami Beach,” a historic preservation area comprising more than 1,600 buildings from the 1920s and 30s. Registered with the National Register of Historic Places, the area covers one fifth of the city from 6^th to 23^rd streets between Ocean Avenue and Alton Road.

Many refer to the area as the Art Deco District. Linear symmetry, gaudy ornamentation, and spires characterize many of the buildings of the Art Deco style. Most structures were built of Keystone, a limestone quarried in Florida. Roots of the term art deco came from the 1925 Paris Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs.  The term entered the English lexicon in the late 1960s.

The assorted architects of the buildings, which included Henry Hohauser, Roy France, L. Murray Dixon (and others) were not aware they were employing any particular style, nor did residents in Miami Beach, until the arrival of Barbara Capitman in 1973.

Capitman was a New York design journalist who saw something in Miami Beach that many did not – a distinctive style. For her, the buildings – hotels, apartment buildings and theaters - defined the city. She became the driving force behind the movement, along with friend Leonard Horowitz, to preserve the Art Deco District.

Miami Beach was inert in the late 1970s; one hotel was built in the late 60s but many of the old buildings were occupied by elderly residents. A battle against developers, some long-time residents, and old-time hotel owners ensued to preserve the area with its distinct architecture. When it was over, the federal government certified 400 buildings as historic.  Federal tax incentives were made available to those who renovated and rehabilitated their buildings in the historic style. Buildings could be knocked down but advance notice would have to be given and incentives would be taken away.

Some hotels were renovated and revived, beginning in the early 1980s; others were revived and then shuttered. Old Miami Beach has seen its ups and downs and buildings have seen their share of serial owners but South Beach is now viewed as one of the trendiest, most sophisticated destinations and night spots in the United States, with emphasis on youth, sophisticated dining and entertainment.

Thanks, Barbara Capitman (d.1990) and friend, Leonard Horowtiz (d. 1988) and legions of others who worked with them to preserve Art Deco architecture, ensuring Miami Beach’s place in history.

Sources:

Kleinberg, Howard. Woggles and Cheese Houses. Miami Beach: The Greater Miami Beach Hotel Association (2005).

Miami News, May 15, 1979

Miami News, Dec. 26, 1987

Tags: Art Deco Miami Beach, Miami Beach history, Miami Beach hotels, Miami Beach architects, film research, Miami Beach history

Miami Beach's first oceanside grand - Roney Plaza Hotel

Roney Plaza Hotel, circa 1930 - Florida State Archives/Florida Memory

By Jane Feehan

The Roney Plaza Hotel opened in February, 1926. Built by N.B.T. Roney (Newton Baker Taylor Roney) of Camden, NJ, the $2 million project was the first large luxury hotel on the ocean in Miami Beach.*

Roney, a lawyer who was more interested in construction than law, first came to Miami in 1909 passing through on a trip from Cuba. With investment notions, he returned to the Magic City in 1918. The following year, he bought the Biscayne Hotel on Flagler and Washington Avenue. Roney gained notoriety as a wheeler dealer or “Man with the Golden Touch.”  News accounts relate his quick deals and spectacular purchases in New Jersey and Florida.   

In 1924 Roney announced his plan for a luxurious hotel in Miami Beach. The site for the Roney Plaza - Collins Avenue at 23^rd and 24^th streets – was purchased from from T.J. Pancoast and John S. Collins during February, 1925. Roney hired New York architectural firm Schultze and Weaver* to design the most ambitious of his 30 ongoing projects in Miami Beach.

A year later advertisements for the opening of the Roney Plaza Hotel welcomed visitors to elegant dining, 15 acres of formal gardens and gracious rooms. It became the place to vacation in Miami Beach, drawing European royalty, high society, and Hollywood notables. Roney hosted NJ Governor Morgan F. Larson - one of many prominent politicos who were to stay at the hotel - for his three-week honeymoon during the 1920s. 

Roney Plaza Hotel circa 1920 Florida State Archives

Neither the devastating hurricane of 1926, from which the hotel emerged structurally sound, nor the Depression stopped Roney from adding to and improving his hotel. In 1931 Roney spent $200,000 to build a pool and cabana colony. He sold his interest in the profitable Roney Plaza to Henry L. Doherty, a financier, utilities expert and oilman, in 1933.

With a string of owners, the hotel continued to take center stage in Miami Beach until it faded in the 1950s; other glamorous hotels such as the Fontainebleau competed for the limelight. The Roney Plaza was torn down in 1968, making way for the Roney Apartments. Today, after a $25 million renovation, the building stands as the Roney Palace, a resort and condominium.* 

Copyright © 2012. All rights reserved. Jane Feehan.

 _________

* Carl Fisher's Flamingo Hotel was actually the first grand hotel in Miami Beach but it sat on the bay side.

*The firm also designed the Coral Gables Biltmore, Miami’s Freedom Tower, and the Waldorf Astoria in New York.

*Roney died in 1952. He left a rare map collection to the University of Miami in Coral Gables and a legacy of being one of Miami Beach's most significant developers.

Sources:

Miami News, July 3, 1922

Kleinberg, Howard. Woggles and Cheese Holes. Miami Beach: The Greater Miami & Beaches Hotel Association (2005)

Florida International University archives

USGenWeb Archives

Tags: Miami Beach hotel history, Miami Beach history, Miami Beach during the 1920s, Florida hotel history, first large, luxury ocean front hotel in Miami Beach,  Roney Plaza Hotel

Lincoln Road Mall - where time caught up with architect Morris Lapidus

Original Lapidus geometric feature as seen today

By Jane Feehan

During the 1920s, early Miami Beach developer—and promoter—Carl Fisher (1874-1939) envisioned east-west thoroughfare Lincoln Road as a shopping area to rival New York City’s Fifth Avenue. Only a few decades later, Lincoln Road had devolved into an area overrun by automobile traffic and dimmed by urban blight.

Seeds of another idea, a pedestrian mall, first surfaced in the mid-1940s. By the 1950s, controversial Miami architect Morris Lapidus (1902-2001) and firm Harle and Liebman were commissioned to design a pedestrian mall to replace the ageing Lincoln Road shopping area. “I designed Lincoln Road Mall for people, a car never bought anything,” said Lapidus, also the architect for the Ponce de Leon Shopping Center in St. Augustine, FL.

Original Lapidus design 

The proposed $600,000, mile-long mall featured fountains, shaded walkways, lush landscaping, piped-in music and electric trams. The city and merchants approved the design, but funding would come from mall merchants. Stakeholders went to the polls Nov. 3, 1959 to vote in a special bond election. Merchants would repay a $600,000 bond or face a lien on their business. A few objected to the new plans citing limited accessibility with a ban on autos but there wasn’t much of a dramatic showdown on election day. Unofficial vote tallies the next morning revealed the proposal’s popularity: 2,993 for; 899 against.

In anticipation of increased business, merchants such as Saks Fifth Avenue and Andrew Geller Shoe Salon began extensive improvements, renovating interior and exterior displays and signage; prospects for the new mall also prompted lease extensions and attracted new merchants.

An official groundbreaking event for Lincoln Road Mall was held August 1, 1960. On hand for festivities was elephant Rosie, Jr., who stood patiently by with a shovel in her mouth. (The first Rosie was the elephant used by Carl Fisher to help clear Miami Beach mangroves and appeared at several Fisher hotel openings.)  Among others at the festivities were Pat Fisher, Miss Lincoln Road Mall, Mona Fillmore, Miss Lincoln Road Mall Hospitality, and Marcie Lieberman, vice mayor of Miami Beach. Work on the project,however, began July 11, 1960. The city of Miami Beach provided most of the construction; the arrangement eliminated the need for a general contractor.

Lincoln Road before and after
Florida State Archives

Lincoln Road Mall opened a few months later, Nov. 28, 1960, with adjacent parking for 3,500 cars. Visitors described it as “glamorous and beautiful.” Others touted it as one of the most picturesque streets in the world. Interestingly, the new shopping area was not the first pedestrian mall in America. That honor went to one in Kalamazoo, MI and was followed by one in Toledo, OH. Both sites were unsuccessful—and temporary.

Like several areas of Miami Beach, the Lincoln Road Mall went through years of decline after the 1960s. In 1997, a $16-million restoration project brought it back to life. Landscape architect Martha Schwartz helped revive the landmark with replanting of sabal palms and other flora. In 2010 one block was added to the original eight-block thoroughfare by designer Raymond Jungles.

A resurgence of South Beach has also affected the popularity of Lincoln Road Mall—as has environmental interest in pedestrian-friendly shopping areas and central business districts. Today, the mall, extending from the west side of Washington Avenue to the east side of Alton Road, is home to a long list of stores, restaurants and other businesses (see www.lincolnroadmall.info for a directory). 

Time has finally caught up with Lincoln Road Mall and its forward-thinking architect, Morris Lapidus.

Sources:

Miami News, June 6, 1959

Miami News, Sept. 16, 1959

Miami News, Nov. 1, 1959

Miami News, Nov. 2, 1959

Miami News, Nov. 4, 1959

Miami News, June 19, 1960

Miami News, July 25, 1960

Miami News, Aug. 1, 1960

Miami News, Nov. 27, 1960

Miami News, Nov. 28, 1960

Miami News, Nov. 29, 1960

Miami News, Dec. 24, 1961

Sun-Sentinel, April 18, 1999

www.lincolnroad.org

The Cultural Landscape Foundation at: https://tclf.org

https://lincolnroadmall.com/on-the-go-3-popular-ways-to-get-around-in-south-beach

Tags: Miami Beach History, Morris Lapidus, tourist attractions in Miami Beach, South Beach, Mi Mo architecture, Miami Beach in the 1950s, Miami Beach in the 1960s, Miami Beach in the 1990s, Carl Fisher, Miami Beach tourism, Jane Feehan

Plans before Fort Lauderdale's Parker Playhouse: What were they thinking?

Fort Lauderdale Beach 1967
Florida State Archives

By Jane Feehan

Fort Lauderdale’s Parker Playhouse lifted the curtain on its first production Feb. 6, 1967*.  The theater is located at the fringe of Holiday Park off Federal Highway near Sunrise Boulevard, but few remember another theater was planned in 1959 for a site off A1A near the Galt Ocean Mile.

The participants in the two projects were different – and so were the plans. George S. Engle, owner and producer of the Coconut Grove Playhouse in Miami, teamed up with famed Florida architect Alfred Browning Parker (no relation to donor Louis W. Parker of the Parker Playhouse), to draw up elaborate plans for the A1A location.

The $2 million project would include features “never before attempted in the entire country.” For starters, its marquee was to be so large that 30 automobiles could pull up at once to discharge passengers. A drive-in ticket window would be available where patrons could view available seating and purchase tickets before parking their cars. A restaurant and lounge seating 1,000 theatergoers would operate near another lounge with a soda fountain and dining area for teenagers.

There’s more. Much more.

The ambitious plans also included a library for playwrights, producers and directors, a private room for the press, an art gallery and exhibit hall for artists and students, and a theater memorabilia room featuring thespian history since Greek and Roman times.

A penthouse and club would operate late into the night for dining and dancing. Also, a model of Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre would be constructed featuring manikins draped in clothes of that era. A drama and art school was to operate at this very busy facility. The entire complex and its offerings were to be run by a Society of Theatre Arts that would coordinate activities and performances at the Coconut Grove Playhouse … and a theater in Nassau, Bahamas (a tropical paradise teaming with theatergoers).

Engle proposed a 99-year lease on an 800-ft frontage property along A1A. A condition of the project would be a substantial advance subscription sale. That never happened. What were they thinking? People came to Fort Lauderdale (and still do) for surf, sun and fun, and depending on the age group, the fun might be boats, booze, and babes—not theater.

Theater sanity arrived with electrical engineer and inventor, Louis M. Parker, Ph.D., who tired of driving to Miami and Palm Beach to see plays.  In 1966 it was announced that Dr. Parker would

Parker Playhouse before
2020-2021 renovations

donate $700,000 for construction of a theater on land near Holiday Park. The City of Fort Lauderdale would pay $300,000 for the property. Some papers reported that Parker donated up to $1.5 million.

The theater, run then by Zev Buffman, opened with about 2,000 seats, 48 shimmering chandeliers and two cocktail lounges, a much more realistic venture than the one proposed earlier.  Its architect, John Volk was the last of the early 1920s Palm Beach architects that included Addison Mizner. Volk  had also designed the Good Samaritan Hospital, parts of the Everglades Club, the Royal Poinciana Theater—all in Palm Beach—and a long list of other landmarks.

The Parker Playhouse is now run by the Performing Arts Center Authority, which includes the Broward Center for the Performing Arts. The Playhouse recently underwent renovation.

Copyright © 2015, 2022 All rights reserved. Jane Feehan.

*The play that night was Neil Simon’s “The Odd Couple,” starring E.G. Marshall and Dennis O’Keefe. It was directed by Danny Simon, the playwright’s brother.

Sources:

New York Times, Nov. 15, 1959

Pittsburgh Press, Nov. 25, 1966

Palm Beach Daily News, Feb. 22, 1984

New York Times, Feb. 6, 1967

Tags: Fort Lauderdale theater, Parker Playhouse, Jane Feehan, film researcher, Alfred Browning Parker. Louis M. Parker, Fort Lauderdale in the 1950s, Fort Lauderdale in the 1960s, Fort Lauderdale history, architects