Coral Springs, once green beans and cattle but no springs

 

Coral Springs in 1977, State of Florida Archives

By Jane Feehan

Broward County pioneer Henry L. Lyons arrived in Florida during the early 1900s with plans to farm and assess other opportunities. About 100 settlers lived in  northern Broward County then.

Lyons (1893-1952) a Valdosta, Georgia native, looked west, toward the Everglades, as many new settlers did, for an income source. The rich, dark mucky soil of that area held promise for growing vegetables.

Lyons accumulated about 20,000 acres over the years. He built canals and installed pumps to accommodate his growing green bean farm. According to The Palm Beach Post (Aug. 27, 2020), Lyons dedicated 4,000 acres to growing green beans and was thought to own the largest bean farm in the United States at one time.

But Mother Nature altered farming plans of some and launched plans of future developers.

Two September hurricanes in 1947 flooded crops throughout South Florida. What became the South Florida Water Management District drained areas that later included Coral Springs. Lyons shifted gears to cattle ranching. He dominated that Florida industry for a few years, and became a member of the Broward County and the National Cattlemen's Association.

South Florida and Broward County grew at leaps and bounds during the 1950s and 1960s attracting developers, builders and real estate entrepreneurs. A few years after Lyons died (1952), his family wanted to sell off their land holdings.

Coral Ridge Properties (CRP), founded by James S. Hunt (d. 1972) and Joseph P. Taravella (d. 1978), saw gold in western Broward County. A high-profile, successful real estate development company, Coral Ridge Properties had scored a few notable land deals in the eastern part of the county, including the purchase of Galt Mile and also what became known as Coral Ridge.

CRP bought 3,859 acres from Lyons family in 1961 for a reported $1 million. CRP purchased additional property from family through the 1960s amassing future acreage of the city of Coral Springs. 

Hunt and Taravella used auctions to sell lots or tracts as investment packages to attract builders.  A group settled on the name Coral Springs though the city cannot boast of any springs. To advance development plans, Coral Springs was created by legislative act June 6, 1963 (along with North Lauderdale and Parkland). Harry W. Wilson of Lauderdale-by-the-Sea was tapped as first mayor/commissioner of Coral Springs. See the “Birth of  a City,” ran the ads and other promotions for Coral Springs.

In 1963 Hunt and Taravella planned a city for an expected 50,000 residents. They envisioned a large retirement village for about 3,500 apartments, medical facilities and 24-hour nursing services. Total monthly payments would include the cost of prescriptions and other medicines. CRP built roads and 50 miles of canals for about $3.2 million. Focus on a retirement village expanded into condos, co-ops, a golf course and all the amenities of a new city. They knew their market.

Enthusiasm for Coral Springs proved boundless. An auction held in July 1964 highlights how hot the market was for Coral Springs. Held at Galt Ocean Mile Hotel, the auction sold off 568 lots or 160 acres valued at $1.6 million in a reported seven minutes. Tracts of 1.25 acres to two acres sold for $19,000-$50,000 with 20 percent down, 80 percent payable over five years at a 5.5 percent interest rate.

Coral Springs land sales also attracted the famous. Jack Drury, a well-known and respected public relations figure in Fort Lauderdale, persuaded friend and entertainer Johnny Carson to buy a few lots in Coral Springs. Carson was on hand for one of the city’s early land auctions and a groundbreaking event when he purchased 60 acres in 1964. He held on to the property for eight years and later told Drury it turned out to be one of the best financial decisions of his life.

Westinghouse purchased Coral Springs land in 1966 and left Coral Ridge Properties as developers. The city, totally built out by 2003, set restrictions on commercial signage, house colors and vehicle storage, elements of a planned community that differentiated them from others at the time. A covered bridge, built in 1964 at one of the city entrances to attract interest, remains standing.

Today Coral Springs is home to about 135,000 residents, three high schools, a middle school two, several elementary schools and a shopping mall. Occupying 24 square miles, the center of Coral Springs sits at West Sample Road and University Drive. (University Drive was built to “link the major educational plants of Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties" in 1965.)

Some may say that enthusiasm about Coral Springs, once farmland, amounted to much more than a hill of beans … green beans.

Copyright © 2025. All rights reserved. Jane Feehan

Sources:

Fort Lauderdale News, July 11, 1931

Fort Lauderdale News, July 16, 1952

Fort Lauderdale News, March 27, 1963

Fort Lauderdale News, June 6, 1963

Fort Lauderdale News, July 15, 1964

Fort Lauderdale News, July 21, 1964

Fort Lauderdale News, July 22, 1964

Fort Lauderdale News, Feb.27, 1965

Fort Lauderdale News, Nov. 29, 1965

Fort Lauderdale News, March 1,1979

The Palm Beach Post, Aug. 27, 2020

South Florida Sun-Sentinel, Sept. 25, 2021

Drury, Jack. Playground of the Stars. Charleston: Arcadia Publishing, 2008

The City of Coral Springs

Tags: Coral Ridge Properties, Coral Springs, Henry L. Lyons, Broward County in the 1960s, Johnny Carson, Jack Drury

Hollywood, Florida: vision, plan and savvy of Joseph W. Young

Young Circle, Hollywood 1980
Florida State Archives

By Jane Feehan

Florida boom days of the 1920s drew people from around the United States looking for new opportunities. A new frontier, the state provided a tabula rasa for shady fortune seekers and solid entrepreneurs. Joseph Wesley Young was an entrepreneur with experience, a vision for the future, and a knack for promotion.

Born in Seattle in 1882 (some news accounts indicate San Francisco), Young reportedly ventured to Alaska during its Gold Rush days of the late 1890s. However, a more lucrative career in real estate development awaited him in Long Beach, CA about 30 miles south of the new city (founded 1903) of Hollywood.

When Long Beach flooding dashed near-term prospects for development, Young and his family moved to Indianapolis in 1916. There, he served as head of Home Seekers Realty Company. At the time, word about Florida opportunities made headlines. Miami then was often referred to as the “Los Angeles of the South.” Also, the success of Indianapolis native, Carl Fisher, the force behind the Indianapolis Speedway, Dixie Highway and the development of Miami Beach, may have enticed Young.

Young visited Miami in 1920 and reportedly purchased and sold 120 acres in Allapattah (Miami Herald Aug. 14, 1921), a Miami suburb. He then bought 4,000 acres between Hallandale and Dania, bordered on the west by Dixie Highway and in the east by the ocean. Influenced by the success—and popularity—of Hollywood, CA, he decided to name his new planned community Hollywood-by-the-Sea.

Hollywood Beach Hotel 1947
State Archives of Florida

He began to clear and plat land for his new community, much of it mangroves, during the summer of 1921. Young’s newly formed Hollywood Land and Water Company operated from the Columbia Building in downtown Miami. The company claimed it would build a city of comfort and beauty. The municipality would include a wide boulevard (120 feet reported as the widest in the state), a highly landscaped 10-acre circle park, school, utilities and a train depot. He built 25 bungalows for “regular” residents (year-round?) and later a tent camp near Dixie Highway for winter visitors.

He also built the impressive 100-room Hollywood Beach Hotel (today Hollywood Beach Resort), the Parkview Hotel in Circle Park, the Great Southern Hotel, the Hollywood Hills Hotel and the Hollywood Golf and Country Club. Young could also be credited with encouraging entertainers to consider Florida winter performances. He paid as much as $4,000 weekly to stars of the day, including “Shimmy Queen” Gilda Gray.

Young’s marketing of the new community included ad campaigns in the nation’s Midwest offering Pullman car transport to Miami and bus rides from there to his nascent community 18 miles north. He also offered a free meal to prospects, a fish bake whipped up by famous chef of the day, “Dad” June of Indianapolis. He claimed thousands showed up to see his new development.

Young’s advertising savvy paid off.

It was reported in 1934 that he had amassed $100 million in sales of Hollywood acreage with the biggest one day of “aggregated sales” of $2.5 million. Young’s grand vision became a reality in 1925, when Hollywood was incorporated. He was tapped as the city’s first mayor. He was also a key player in the development of Port Everglades, which opened in 1928 (see index).

The Great Miami Hurricane of 1926 plowed through and damaged much of Hollywood, but as with most of South Florida, the city recovered. 

Young visualized other projects, including Hollywood-in-the-Hills in Old Forge, NY. He claimed New York City as his permanent residence in the late 1920s but continued winter residency in Hollywood where he died in 1934 of a stroke and/or heart attack at age 51. He is buried in Long Beach, CA.

Young's house at 1055 Hollywood Boulevard has been added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places. Today, the city of Hollywood is home to about 154,000 and is among Florida’s top 10 largest cities.

 Copyright © 2023. All rights reserved. Jane Feehan.

Hollywood Beach 1925
State Archives of Florida/Romer

Sources:

https://www.geni.com/people/Joseph-Young/2667926

Miami News, Aug. 14, 1921

Miami News, Sept. 14, 1921

Miami News, Nov. 19, 1921

Miami Herald, Feb. 27, 1934

Miami News, Feb. 27, 1934

Tags: Hollywood history, Hollywood-by-the-Sea, Joseph Wesley Young, Broward County cities, Jane Feehan

 

Hallandale: a farming legacy transitions to upscale beach life

 

General store or restaurant in Hallandale 1921
Florida State Archives

By Jane Feehan

Hallandale, a mostly rural community from the late 1800s until the 1960s, was first laid out in 1898. Henry Flagler extended his Florida East Coast railway from St. Augustine to Miami after a series of damaging Florida freezes from 1894-1896 left South Florida relatively unscathed.

Flagler’s business model, as with other railways across the nation at the time, included developing and populating communities along the line. Rev. Bengt Magnus Halland of Burlington, Iowa was recruited by Flagler’s company to promote settlement in an area south of Fort Lauderdale. Halland, a Swedish immigrant, had already helped develop communities along rail lines in the Midwest.

Florida East Coast Rail Depot in Hallandale 1922
Florida State Archives

The settlement was first referred to as Halland, but the U.S. Postal Service, according to some accounts, probably added the “dale” to distinguish it from a town named Holland on Florida’s west coast. History claims the town was named after the Reverend’s son, Luther Halland. Swedes from the North and among those immigrating from Sweden were encouraged to settle in Halland’s community (ethnic settlements along Florida’s rail lines were a common occurrence).

Flyers or announcements in Swedish described farming opportunities awaiting them in the settlement— a place where “10,000 acres of good lands will raise profitable crops within a two-mile radius of Hallandale.”  It was reported the land would support a wide variety of crops including tomatoes, corn, Irish potatoes, sweet potatoes, lettuce, celery, cabbage and strawberries ... and maybe pineapples. In 1912, the railway in Hallandale was claimed to be one of the heaviest shipping points along the [rail] line.

By 1921, the small town was home to 500 residents, four general stores, a school and packing house. The Flava Fruit Company, which owned groves 12 miles south in Miami and acreage in Hallandale set out to develop the town. 

They promoted the sale of 115 lots along Dixie Highway  known as Flava Park, a sub-division of the community. They also planned a wide boulevard from the ocean to the East Coast Canal. In 1921, the Flava Inn opened featuring a Sunday fried chicken dinner for $1.50. 

They sold their subdivision in 1923 and continued similar activities in Miami. Development of this farming town did not capture the same attention nor dynamic as did Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Boca Raton and Palm Beach.

Gulfstream park
Florida State Archives 

Hollywood annexed Hallandale in 1926. Residents petitioned to secede from Hollywood and were granted to do so in 1927. By that year, 1,500 called Hallandale home. The town reincorporated in 1947 as the City of Hallandale  (eighth municipality of Broward County) and transitioned to the name Hallandale Beach in 1999. Shedding its rural character, Hallandale Beach is now lined with shoulder-to-shoulder multi-million-dollar beachside condominiums. Today, one of  the  hottest real estate markets in South Florida, Hallandale is also the home of Gulfstream Park.

Copyright © 2022 All rights reserved. Jane Feehan

For more on Hallandale Beach, see: https://www.cohb.org/ and https://hallandalebeachchamber.org/

The city also offers some interesting mob and gambling history of the 1940s; For more, use search box for Meyer Lansky, Colonial Inn.

 Sources:

Miami News, May 17, 1912

Miami Herald, March 3, 1921

Miami Herald, April 20, 1921

Miami Herald, July 7, 1921

Fort Lauderdale News, Jan. 17, 1926

Miami News, Feb. 19, 1927

Miami News, March 6, 1927

Miami News, May 15, 1927

Florida Journal, Broward Legacy, Vol. 20: Adams, William R

Tags: Hallandale history, Broward County cities