Riviera Isles off Las Olas - brisk sales, a hotel and a hard landing after the Great Hurricane

 

Riviera Isles 1996, State Archives of Florida

By Jane Feehan

To some, Fort Lauderdale is known as a modern Venice. Finger islands bordered by canals off Las Olas Boulevard gently suggest images of that beautiful city in Italy. The area was the vision of early Fort Lauderdale developer W.F. Morang who began the dredging process during the early 1920s.

Where he left off other developers continued. One of those islands, Idlewyld, adjacent to the Las Olas Bridge, was successfully developed in 1924-25 by pioneer M.A. Hortt, his business partner Bob Dye and new man in town, Thomas Stilwell.

Encouraged by the success of Idlewyld, Stilwell headed the Fort Lauderdale Riparian Company and bought a few parcels of land near that project. His company placed 270 lots for sale in March 1925 in what became Riviera Isles: Flamingo Drive, Solar Isle Drive and Isle of Palms Drive or Southeast 25^th Avenue. Lots were priced from $4,000 to $15,000. Every lot offered a waterfront vista, newspaper ads declared.

All 270 lots, according to the Fort Lauderdale Daily News in May 1925, were sold in less than two months. Resales ensued. One real estate speculator advertised a cash offer for three lots in Riviera Isles.

With $1.4 million in total sales of those lots, work began on dredging. They pumped two feet of sand onto the Riviera finger islands to raise each to the level Idlewyld sat—five feet above the high tide mark. They then installed roads, lighting and other infrastructure.

Perhaps the most interesting chapter in the Riviera Isles story was the one about Hotel Riviera or Riviera Hotel. With an estimated cost of $500,000, the 200-room guest accommodation was to be constructed in the Dalmatian style of architecture with small bricks and dome-like roofs featured in Romanesque churches. The ornate structure would face Las Olas Boulevard and its Sunset Lake. The hotel was expected to open October 1, 1926.  

What wasn’t expected was the Great Hurricane of September 1926. Stilwell and his company tried to regain financial footing in the months and few years that followed. Hotel plans never reached fruition. Properties throughout town were auctioned off to pay taxes during the late 1920s and into the 1930s. The real estate boom went bust.

By the 1940s a few Riviera Isles houses built in the slow years sold for $21,000 to about $40,000. A building and development boom followed in the 1950s with very little slowdown since.

Houses today in this exclusive area (most all the Las Olas isles) run as high as $20,000,000, or more. Let’s hope these land-filled islands with their beautiful homes survive a Cat 5 hurricane; some predict they won’t.  

Sources:

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

Fort Lauderdale Daily News, March 19, 1925

Fort Lauderdale Daily News, May 20, 1925

Fort Lauderdale Daily News, June 2, 1925

Fort Lauderdale Daily News, Aug. 12, 1925

For Lauderdale Daily News, Oct. 31, 1925

Fort Lauderdale Daily News, Nov. 21, 1925

Fort Lauderdale Daily News, Feb. 23, 1927

Fort Lauderdale Daily News, April 20, 1928

Fort Lauderdale Daily News, June 25, 1930

Tags: Fort Lauderdale in the 1920s, Las Olas Boulevard, Las Olas isles, Riviera Isles, Fort Lauderdale communities

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.

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.” 

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.

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.

Copyright © 2024. All rights reserved. Jane Feehan.

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, Lake Stranahan

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.

Copyright © 2024. All rights reserved. Jane Feehan.
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

Fort Lauderdale's Croissant Park and its colorful developer Frank Croissant - of Rolls Royces, diamonds and a solid gold dinner service

 

Croissant Park Administration Building
 at 1421 South Andrews Avenue 

By Jane Feehan

Many may know of or grew up in Croissant Park, one of the oldest neighborhoods in Fort Lauderdale. Few are familiar with its namesake, Frank Croissant, and his colorful life.

Born in Brooklyn in 1887, the hugely successful real estate developer (self-described “World’s Greatest Salesman), pursued business opportunities across the U.S. After operating in Ohio and moving to Detroit where he was associated with Henry Ford in real estate, Croissant relocated to Fort Lauderdale in January 1925.

He bought about 1,200 acres in an area south of the New River and Las Olas Boulevard on the west side of Andrews Avenue. The Croissant Park Administration Building, site of his sales office, still sits on South Andrews Avenue and was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2001. Sales at Croissant Park were brisk; those were the boom days. Today asking prices for a few houses in that neighborhood are close to $500,000.

Croissant’s plans for his subdivision included a hotel, the Croissantania (also the name of a local baseball team he may have promoted). Designed by architect John M. Peterman, and built by DeCato Construction Co., the 125-room hotel failed to become a reality. Though started in late 1925, the cost of labor and shortage of materials first slowed or delayed the hotel project; it was then halted by the 1926 hurricane. By the end of 1926 and several years after, G. Frank Croissant Co. was reported by the Fort Lauderdale News as defendant in several lawsuits over mismanagement of money and other disputes.

Some news accounts reported Croissant was worth $30 million resulting from all his real estate endeavors, but it was said he lost most of it in the 1929 stock market crash. He probably lost a significant portion of that fortune beforehand, in the South Florida land bust following that hurricane.

Reversal of fortune did not slow down Croissant nor sour him on Fort Lauderdale. He bought tracts of land in Northern New Jersey (Teaneck, West Englewood, Bergenfield) for development. He opened offices in Europe, including London, Paris, Madrid and Mallorca, where he often talked up Fort Lauderdale, referred to then as “the Friendly City.” Croissant could claim 56 offices with 1,200 salesmen in 11 states and seven countries.

Some say he was involved in the launch or promotion of New York’s radio station WNYC. The station was established in 1924 but his involvement is unconfirmed. 

He, wife Harriet and son moved to Mallorca, Spain in 1933 or 1934 where he reportedly sold more than 8,000 lots in assorted projects. Included in those lots was one he sold to actress Claudette Colbert, another to Hollywood heartthrob Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.

Croissant’s 13-year-old son died in a mountain climbing accident in Spain and a civil war erupted there in 1936—both spurring the developer’s return to Fort Lauderdale. 

On his return, he was involved in the constructions of Port Everglades, in promoting Hialeah Park racing and operating a stable of 110 horses. He also had his sights set on a project in North Palm Beach near today’s Donald Ross Road. It was abandoned after his death. Ever the entrepreneur, he returned in 1952 from a business trip to Colombia where he landed a few dog track concessions.

A high-profile resident, Croissant remained in local headlines about his business and civic activities and frequent lawsuits. In 1950 he was charged by the federal government with participation in a $2 million international lottery ring. Charges were dropped due to lack of evidence.

In 1954, Fort Lauderdale News columnist Wesley W. Stout provided a list of items and activities that distinguished Croissant as one of the town’s most colorful characters:

• Won more horse races than all other racetrack notables in 1925-26
• Owned a 154-ft yacht, the Jemima F
• Owned three Rolls Royce cars simultaneously
• Owned a Lockheed Vega aircraft piloted by world famous Clarence Chamberlain
• Given a 476 solid gold dinner service set by his sales team (stored in a Dania bank vault)
• Gave his wife a 31- carat diamond pendant and a 22 carat stone
• “Put out of business” by the Spanish Civil War

Frank Croissant died at his Fort Lauderdale home on Andrews Avenue December 5, 1956, of a brain hemorrhage. Left to his wife, his estate was worth about $10 million.

He was, indeed, a colorful character …

For more on Frank Croissant, see index: Fort Lauderdale communities, Fort Lauderdale neighborhoods 

Copyright © 2023. All rights reserved. Jane Feehan.

 Sources:

Fort Lauderdale News, Dec. 9, 1925

Fort Lauderdale News, Oct. 5, 1925

Fort Lauderdale News, May 22, 1926

Fort Lauderdale News, July 2, 1926

Fort Lauderdale News, Dec. 9, 1925

Fort Lauderdale News, Nov. 10, 1939

Fort Lauderdale News, Nov. 10, 1950

Fort Lauderdale News, Dec. 28, 1951

Fort Lauderdale News, Aug. 6, 1952

Fort Lauderdale News, Feb. 12, 1954

Fort Lauderdale News, Dec. 6, 1956

Fort Lauderdale News, Dec. 7, 1956

Fort Lauderdale News, Dec. 24, 1956

Tags: Fort Lauderdale neighborhoods, Croissant Park, Fort Lauderdale in the 1920s, Fort Lauderdale developers, history of Fort Lauderdale, Fort Lauderdale history, Fort Lauderdale communities

Edgar Gould, his island off Las Olas and a new page in Fort Lauderdale history

Plans drawn for development - 1940
Courtesy of Debbie Gould Tucker

By Jane Feehan

Edgar Davis Gould’s purchase of a swampy, mangrove-covered island off Las Olas Boulevard in March 1940 was reported as the largest single transaction in that area since the boom days of the 1920s. Created in 1925 with soil dredged from New River, the property had been held by Mr. and Ms. W.L. Mensendieck since 1935. The sales price was not revealed in news accounts.

Work began within 10 days after the contract was signed with installation of a water main by the city of Fort Lauderdale and immediate landscaping with royal palms. Gould planned 50 lots. He worked with other property owners and the city to widen and beautify the bridge to the area off 23^rd Avenue (an area now known as Seven Isles but at one time Lauderdale Isles). Fort Lauderdale News claimed, “development of Gould Island writes a new page in history of Fort Lauderdale’s growth.”

Gould also may have written a new page in sales history.

In May of 1941, the Fort Lauderdale News reported he had sold eight more lots than any agent selling off Las Olas. Gould had set a record: he sold 10 lots in 10 days. He made big waves after arriving in 1940, just months before the “island” purchase and launch of its development. Lots generally went for $4,000. Larger, waterfront lots sold for $17,500 in 1944. The island was completely developed by 1945.* A recent (2023) search of real estate listings there featured a house for sale for more than $31 million.

Some said Gould’s immediate sales success was a credit to his planning skills. Others would say his law degree from Harvard University in 1900 set his course. Though he practiced law in Boston, his birthplace, he changed careers after five years. He stepped into advertising in New York City and then served as manager and director of the Regal Shoe Company.

Granddaughter Debbie Gould Tucker, today a St. Augustine resident along with husband Bill Tucker, says the family isn’t quite sure why he left New Rochelle, New York but it may have been because his son (Debbie’s father) and namesake Edgar D. Gould II or “Bill” as he was called, was serving in the U.S. Navy in Fort Lauderdale where he also made his home.

The senior Gould’s move to Fort Lauderdale was a good one at the right time. His sales record, the newspaper reported, “establishes him as number one representative of the spirit, tempo and enterprise which has kept Fort Lauderdale in the van [guard] of the nation’s fastest-growing cities for the last decade.”

Gould Castle and widened bridge circa 1940
Courtesy of Debbie Gould Tucker

He built one of the first homes on Gould Island in 1941 on Del Mar Drive. The architect was Carlos B. Schoeppl and the builder was Richardson Construction, Debbie’s uncle. He landscaped the home with a circular tower (thus its name, Gould’s Castle) with a Victory V and with two royal palms on either side as “sentinels” (see photo). It was dressed up with planted “Legion of Honor marigolds,” a fitting acknowledgment of World War II efforts.  

Advertisements for the island highlighted 97.5-foot frontage on lots that were already graded to street level in a community just two or three minutes to the beach and three or four minutes “to town.” One ad closed with encouragement to “call your broker or Mr. Gould at his home at 1621.”

Gould’s real estate endeavors included the purchase of Donaldson Apartments from the Donaldson estate in 1943 for $45,000.  It was the largest real estate transaction of the week prior to Dec. 11. 

The building featured 10 large apartments and a penthouse (it remains today as a renamed boutique hotel behind the Sheraton at 300 N. Birch Rd.). This is what Debbie Gould Tucker remembers fondly of grandfather’s Fort Lauderdale legacy.

“We spent summer days there, just off the beach, with a clear view of the Intracoastal,” Debbie recollects. “During the winter, visitors—family friends—came from New Rochelle for three months. My grandmother Lalia, Edgar’s wife, lived there with her sister after he died.”

Gould died Jan. 28, 1945, at age 70 just a few years after moving to Fort Lauderdale. He left a big legacy in a short time including his son, Bill, who went into local yacht sales, granddaughter Debbie, and her three siblings, Patty, Billy and Eddie, all born in Fort Lauderdale. They are also related to the Slayton family (auto sales). Bill Gould’s children grew up near the Las Olas Isles, but Debbie often drove—well, nearly flew—over today's seven bridges connecting the streets of Gould Island for fun (as a few of us did as highschoolers).  Her husband, Bill Tucker, is related to Verne Tucker who contributed a column in the Fort Lauderdale News, Sun Strokes, a chuckle maker.

A chat with most anyone born in Fort Lauderdale during the 1940s or 50s tends to weave a map of family connections with contributions to our history. 

This, the way we used to be …

Copyright © 2023. All rights reserved. Jane Feehan

 -----

*Today, Seven Isles is home to about 1,100 residents in 315 households on nine streets:

Aqua Vista Boulevard

Barcelona Drive

Castilla Isle

Del Mar Place

De Sota Drive

De Sota Terrace

Pelican Isle

Sea Island Drive

Seven Isles Drive

 

 

Sources:

Fort Lauderdale News, March 1, 1940

Fort Lauderdale News, March 18, 1940

Fort Lauderdale News, May 7, 1940

Fort Lauderdale News, Sept. 6, 1940

Fort Lauderdale News, March 9, 1941

Fort Lauderdale News, April 27, 1941

Fort Lauderdale News, May 25, 1941

Fort Lauderdale News, Sept. 14, 1941

Fort Lauderdale News, Aug. 4, 1941

Fort Lauderdale News, Nov. 2, 1941

Fort Lauderdale News, Aug. 25, 1943

Fort Lauderdale News, Dec. 11, 1943

Fort Lauderdale News, Feb. 2, 1944

Fort Lauderdale News, Jan. 29, 1945

Tags: Fort Lauderdale history, history of Fort Lauderdale, Seven Isles, Fort Lauderdale communities, Edgar D. Gould, Debbie Gould Tucker

Fort Lauderdale's Harbor Beach: exclusive then and now

 

Harbor Beach circa 1980
Florida State Archives/Florida Memory/Steinmetz

By Jane Feehan

According to some news accounts, the first Fort Lauderdale development after the boom years of the 1920s was Harbor Beach.

The Harbor Beach Company, formed by George W. English, purchased land south of the U.S. Coast Station in 1940 from Fort Lauderdale pioneer Tom M. Bryan for $1000 per acre for 200 acres.

Development commenced with permitting for infrastructure, and a wall, gate and “field office” designed by Miami architect Russell T. Pancoast (grandson of Miami Beach developer John A. Collins the same of Collins Avenue).

The first 73 lots were presented for sale by the Harbor Beach Co. in January 1942. The development was advertised as Fort Lauderdale’s newest oceanfront real estate development, the “only restricted residential beach property in South Florida.” 

Other ads claimed the building requirements provided for “substantial though not necessarily pretentious homes” with sweeping vistas of the ocean, a lake (near today’s Lago Mar) and the Intracoastal. Some inland waterway lots would accommodate 110-foot boat dockage. 

An entrance to the new neighborhood was built as an extension of Atlantic Avenue (now A1A) but the development would be isolated from traffic. Lot prices were not available in early ads, but by 1945 some lots started at $4,200. In 1946 prices rose to $4500 (as comparison, lots in Croissant Park sold for about $1,000). 

Plans were in place by the mid-1940s for a private beach club (today’s Surf Club). All 73 lots in the initial “unit” were sold by 1946 when another unit (number of those lots unknown to this writer) were placed on the market. It was followed by a third unit in the 1950s. Sales must have been fairly brisk by the mid-1950s; lots then generally started at $10,000.

One house went on the market in 1955 for $37,500 with three bedrooms, two baths and maid’s quarters. Today, the walled community is home to 592 residents (according to niche.com). Singer/actor David Cassidy (The Partridge Family) once called the community home until his death in 2010. His house was placed on sale later that year for $3.9 million.

Houses today (2022) range from about $4 million to nearly $24 million. It remains one of the city’s most exclusive neighborhoods but is not immune to Fort Lauderdale’s super-charged development woes. Residents complain about difficulties exiting the community to merge onto jammed A1A during certain times of the day or when the bridge at the 17th Street Causeway opens for boat traffic.

Copyright © 2020, 2022. All rights reserved. Jane Feehan.

Sources:

Weidling, Philip and Burghard, August. Checkered Sunshine. Gainesville: University of Florida Press, 1966.

Fort Lauderdale News, Dec. 18, 1941

Fort Lauderdale News, Sept. 25, 1945

Fort Lauderdale News, Jan. 17, 1942

Fort Lauderdale News Jan. 31, 1946

Fort Lauderdale News, Feb. 19, 1946

Fort Lauderdale News, Oct. 15, 1947

Fort Lauderdale News, Dec. 9, 1955

Fort Lauderdale News, Feb. 3, 1955

Realtor.com

For current demographics, see:

https://www.niche.com/places-to-live/n/harbor-beach-fort-lauderdale-fl/

Tags: Fort Lauderdale communities, Fort Lauderdale developments, Fort Lauderdale in the 1940s, Fort Lauderdale history, history of Fort Lauderdale, Fort Lauderdale architects

Developers Haft-Gaines in 1970s Fort Lauderdale: Bay Colony, Imperial Point, Inverrary and ...

 

By Jane Feehan

New condominium and rental projects overtaking the Fort Lauderdale landscape like a bad dream calls for a look back to the 1970s. That decade witnessed a tremendous growth surge.

Haft-Gaines, led by University of North Carolina classmates Burt Haft and Jack Gaines were at the helm of several high-profile developments in Fort Lauderdale and later in Palm Beach County. According to news accounts they ventured to Fort Lauderdale after reading a Kiplinger Letter about Florida’s opportunities.

Gaines said in a 1970 interview that they started building houses in Pompano and Boca Raton. They soon turned their attention to Fort Lauderdale where they developed Imperial Point followed by The Landings in the 1960s and Bay Colony in 1970.

If you think things are crazy now, note they charged an admission fee just to see models of Bay Colony, touted then as the most expensive sub-division in the U.S. with prices of $200,000 to $600,000. (News accounts indicated deposed President of Nicaragua, Anastasio Somoza, was interested in a property at 100 Bay Colony Lane).

Gaines had California on his mind. Not for developments but for inspiration. He wanted to bring California to Florida. He brought Richard Leitch and Associates of Newport, California to work magic on 1,000 acres off West Oakland Park Boulevard. Waterfalls, lakes, small, sculpted hills served as the backdrop of this new community of apartments, condos and houses. 

This showstopper was Inverrary, a $500 million development opened in 1970. It was also the site of 21 tennis courts, three golf courses and a 14-room townhouse for Jackie Gleason overlooking a lake. (For more use search for Gleason.) They reached $1 million in sales within days of launching the development. Haft-Gaines, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Fuqua Industries by 1970, moved their office from Imperial Point to Inverrary. That's where the action and headlines reigned.

The community generated headlines for years about real estate, golf tournaments and more.

One of those headlines was a White House ceremony in 1973 where First Lady Pat Nixon gave the Haft-Gaines company the “first-place-in-nation” award among private firms for beautification efforts along a highway; that was for Inverarry, where waterfalls mark its entrance and lakes dot its landscape. Company Comptroller Chuck Tilbrook accepted the award on behalf of Haft-Gaines.

The company later developed Frenchmen’s Creek, an exclusive community in Palm Beach Gardens. Jack Gaines died in 2004 at Juno Beach; Burt Haft died in 2020 in Aventura. They set the standards for Florida developments and understood the dynamic of real estate where “creating an emotionality” played a key role in buying a house.

Copyright © 2022 All rights reserved. Jane Feehan

Sources:

Fort Lauderdale News, Jan. 10, 1970
Fort Lauderdale News, Jan. 31, 1970
Fort Lauderdale News, Oct. 10, 1970
Fort Lauderdale News, Feb. 20, 1971
Fort Lauderdale News, May 5, 1973
www.greensboro.com
Legacy.com

Tags: Fort Lauderdale developers, Inverrary, The Landings, Haft-Gaines, Bay Colony, Fort Lauderdale history, Fort Lauderdale communities, Fort Lauderdale neighborhoods

Sea Ranch Lakes: A reluctant buyer, a hotel and an exclusive community

By Jane Feehan

Robert Hayes Gore purchased The Fort Lauderdale News in 1929, one of many of his purchases that helped define today’s Fort Lauderdale. 

By 1930, he reportedly owned a portfolio of 32 properties; most were downtown. It was said he wanted to make Fort Lauderdale one of the most beautiful cities along Florida’s east coast.

During the Great Depression plenty of land became available to serve as foundation for some of Gore’s dreams.

Realtor Lovick Miller wanted to sell oceanfront property north of Lauderdale-by-the Sea, known as the Ausherman tract. C.C. Ausherman was the first president of Fort Lauderdale’s Realty Board (1929); he bought that land during the boom days before 1926. Some say he turned down an offer of $1 million for the tract during the good times. Good choice, bad timing. In 1928 or 29 he sold it to another Fort Lauderdale pioneer, John Lochrie. 

Lochrie wanted to sell, perhaps for tax reasons, and Miller had just the right prospect for the purchase: R.H. Gore.

Except Gore did not want it, even at the low price of $25,000. The tract was too far north of his downtown home, businesses and other properties. Miller told Gore he could make at least $100,000 on the land. Reportedly enticed, Gore bought the property. Great choice, perfect timing. The 45 acres (reported but doesn’t ring correct) with 1,800 feet of ocean front, became the site of the Sea Ranch Hotel and Cabana Club, and later part of the Sea Ranch Lakes community (where more acreage was purchased).

Gore and family opened the Sea Ranch Cabana Club in 1939. Initially a membership organization, the club offered 20 cabanas, each with dressing rooms and other amenities, and a dining room with bar overlooking the ocean. The seaside club opened to the public soon after. Reciprocal comforts were available to guests of the Governors’ Club downtown Fort Lauderdale, which Gore also owned. 

The Sea Ranch Hotel was added in 1940, remodeled in 1949 and provided more than 60 rooms. Also added were the Hayloft Bar and additional dining facilities. A stable with horses for riding was also part of the remodeling project. The hotel’s guest list included the rich and famous, including Rita Hayworth and her new husband, Aly Khan (m. 1949-1953).

And then came the community of Sea Ranch Lakes, part of the original Gore purchase, where he eventually lived.

Named for the oceanside hotel and two fresh-water lakes on the property, the walled community underwent development in 1956. Its 210 lots bordered the Intracoastal Waterway and circled the lakes. 

Lots in those days were sold for $10,500 to $36,000. Advertisements lauded the community as “exclusive, secure and private.” It remains so today with its gatehouse and homes priced in the millions. Officially organized as a village, Sea Ranch Lakes population is estimated at 600.

The hotel’s history, which included a popular dinner theater operated by Brian C. Smith (b. 1940- d. 2010) ended in the early 1980s when the property was sold to make way for the Sea Ranch Lakes Condominiums selling at $660K-$900,000 at this writing.  And so it goes, condo madness.

Copyright © 2022 All rights reserved. Jane Feehan

For more on R.H. Gore, see: index

Sources:

Fort Lauderdale News, March 8, 1930

Fort Lauderdale News, Dec. 1, 1930

Fort Lauderdale News, Dec. 23, 1939

Fort Lauderdale News, Sept. 3, 1940

Fort Lauderdale News, Dec. 28, 1940

Fort Lauderdale News, Nov. 12, 1949

Fort Lauderdale News, April 13, 1954

Fort Lauderdale News, Dec. 15, 1956

Tags: History of Fort Lauderdale, R.H. Gore, Sea Ranch Lakes history, Fort Lauderdale history

Filmmaker D.W. Griffith and the Lauderdale Harbors land "purchase"

 

Griffith 1907/ Creative Commons

By Jane Feehan

This started out as a piece about famous filmmaker David Wark Griffith (1875-1948*) and his property purchase in Lauderdale Harbors in 1925. It evolved into something a bit different.

D.W. Griffith had directed scenes for a few movies in Fort Lauderdale from 1919-1923 (Idol Dancer, Love Flower, and The White Rose). He praised the area for its jungle-like unspoiled beauty in 1919. But on a return trip, Griffith became disenchanted with the new seawalls installed along the New River and moved some of his filmmaking to a studio in Hialeah, west of Miami. In 1920 Griffith told a reporter that he did not think he would move operations from California to Florida, though Florida had “inducements.” D.W. Griffith was not only a director of singular filmmaking talents but a polite and tactful man of his time.

So, I was surprised to see a story in the Fort Lauderdale Herald dated Nov. 30, 1925 that Griffith had purchased a block of lots in Lauderdale Harbors, a subdivision being developed and promoted by W.F. Morang and Son. The neighborhood sits on the west side of today’s Intracoastal, north of SE 15th Street. The sale to the film director was reportedly handled by C.P Weidling, described as co-founder of the city’s first law firm, first publisher of the Fort Lauderdale Herald and one-time representative in the Florida House of Representatives.

Griffith, wrote the reporter, had traveled to Tallahassee to have Weidling handle the transaction. Weidling hinted the filmmaker bought a block of lots to build a movie studio. Griffith, said Weidling, liked it here and was going to spend the winter in Fort Lauderdale. The article proffered that Griffith described the land next to the Las Olas Inn (today A1A and Las Olas) as “the most beautiful on the East Coast and the New River was the most beautiful [river] in the world.”

Griffith may or may not have said that. What was true was Fort Lauderdale was booming. Morang was developing and dredging canals in Rio Vista Isles, Lauderdale-by-the-Sea, the Seven Bridges area off Las Olas Boulevard and other nearby sites. One report from the Morang sales office claimed daily average lots sales of $150,000 … with opening day kicking off with $750K in business. On Nov. 7, the developer reported a sale of one block of lots for $500k to a “syndicate of 10 men,” a record for a single land purchase in a subdivision.

But no sale involved Griffith. On Dec. 8 the director denied he purchased the Lauderdale Harbors land. In a telegram sent to The Miami Herald he said though he did not buy the Lauderdale Harbors property as reported by the Associated Press, he would tour Florida to “ascertain its possibilities for that purpose [a movie studio] as no one believes more than I in Florida’s tremendous possibilities.” I did not find denial of his land purchase in the Fort Lauderdale News.

The hurricane of 1926 halted real estate sales and destroyed hopes for developing Fort Lauderdale and South Florida. The Great Depression hit the United States a few years later but Fort Lauderdale and Florida bounced back in the late 1940s and 1950s. Today, Lauderdale Harbors claims its place as one of the city’s most desirable neighborhoods where homes now sell for $850,000 to $33 million.

The story about the land sale to D.W. Griffith ... was it a high hope or a sales promotion?

For more on Griffith, including his perilous sea adventure off Fort Lauderdale, see index.
______
*Griffith died financially destitute and is buried in Crestwood, Kentucky where his grave is cared for by an organization of fans.

Tags Fort Lauderdale in the 1920s, Fort Lauderdale communities, Fort Lauderdale neighborhoods,
D.W. Griffith, David Wark Griffith, Lauderdale Harbors, Fort Lauderdale history



Sources:

Miami Herald, Nov. 12, 1920
Fort Lauderdale Daily News, July 24, 1925
Fort Lauderdale Daily News July 30, 1925
Fort Lauderdale Daily News, Nov. 7, 1925
Fort Lauderdale Daily News, Dec. 1, 1925
Fort Lauderdale Daily News Nov. 30, 1925
Miami Herald, Dec. 8, 1925

Lauderdale Manors and the 1950s boom ... of square dances and midwesterners

By Jane Feehan

Fort Lauderdale grew significantly during its second real estate boom.  Work began in February, 1950 on a ‘huge new development” - Lauderdale Manors - in the northwest section of the city. The first permits for Lauderdale Manors that year were issued for 15 houses on the 1500 and 1600 blocks of NW 11^th Street. The dwellings were to cost $7,000 a piece. 

The development, which originally took up one fourth of the old mile-square Chateau Park subdivision of the 1920s, was platted without any through streets. After the first real estate bubble burst in the 1920s, mortgage holders for the five or six houses built in Chateau Park came to pick up the pieces. According to builders of those first few homes, the mortgage people found things to be so bad that even the houses had been stolen. 

The more successful attempt of 1950 included houses planned on courts that ran east and west, a unique footprint at the time. The entire project was platted from NW 10^th Place to NW 14^th Court and from 15^th to 20^th Avenue where hundreds of houses were eventually built. The footprint expanded to about 24th Street (perhaps beyond) by the mid 1950s.

In 1955, other builders bought lots for new homes, expanding the Lauderdale Manors neighborhood. The Albert Construction Company built between 19th and 24th streets. As a sales promotion, they held free community square dances with free prizes. The builder collected names of attendees from dance ticket stubs and contacted them later about houses for sale for under $6,000. No doubt this marketing promotion appealed to the many midwesterners flocking to Fort Lauderdale at that time. 

Later in 1955 ads for resales appeared for a variety of houses in Lauderdale Manors, including a three bedroom, one and a half bath (CBS construction) house for $11,250 furnished or $10,500 unfurnished with a down payment of $2,500.

It's unlikely square dances would appeal to today's home buyer in Lauderdale Manors; the demographics and dances have changed. And prices in 2024? Closer to $500,000 ... 

For more on Fort Lauderdale in the 1950s, see index.

Copyright © 2024 All rights reserved. Jane Feehan

________

Sources:

Fort Lauderdale Daily News, Feb. 4, 1950.

Fort Lauderdale News, Jan. 22, 1955

Fort Lauderdale News, Oct. 7, 1955.

Tags: Fort Lauderdale neighborhoods, Fort Lauderdale history, Fort Lauderdale in the 1950s, film researcher, Fort Lauderdale communities

The last of Fort Lauderdale's Las Olas isles to be developed was ...

Las Olas canals 1961
Archives of the State of Florida/Rubel, A. 1961

By Jane Feehan 

In October 1957, about 150 Fort Lauderdale area realtors boarded the Jungle Queen III for a presentation and cruise to the last of the “Las Olas district” isles to be developed. Most who consider what would be the last of those manmade isles would typically assign it to the Las Olas Boulevard area.

In fact, this last developed isle was Sunrise Key (formerly Wells Island) at the intersection of NE 19^th Avenue and NE 6^th Court. It sat along the Middle River, directly north of Nurmi Drive and about 1,000 ft. from the Intracoastal Waterway. A bridge was built for the new development over the Karen Canal at that intersection (some will remember the Karen Club Apartments, now Gateway Terrace Apartments nearby). The key was comprised of separated islands that were filled in for a road, royal palms, utilities and 82 lots.  

Purchased by Eastern Properties from St. Luke’s Presbyterian Hospital Chicago, the 35-acre key was connected at that time to Hendricks Isle; the two keys were separated by dredging during development of this new community, soon to be site of “$100,000-class” homes, a hefty price in the late 1950s.

Eastern Properties promoted this project in 1957 by offering an all-expenses paid trip to Cuba or Nassau (or equivalent) to each buyer of a lot sold through October that year. By March 1959, 35 of the 82 lots had been sold. Development of Sunrise Key was completed late 1959. The first completed dwelling (1959), designed by John O’Neill, was a 5,000 sq. ft. home with three bedrooms and five bathrooms.

Before Sunrise Key, Eastern Properties, headed by Charles Hoy, A.T. Manno and R.L. Gordon, developed Lake Estates and Golf Estates in Fort Lauderdale. By that time, they had also developed Eastern Shores in North Miami Beach and several communities in Clearwater and St. Petersburg on Florida’s west coast.

Sources:

Fort Lauderdale News, Oct. 1, 1957

Fort Lauderdale News, Oct. 19, 1957

Fort Lauderdale News, Oct. 26, 1957

Fort Lauderdale News, April 13, 1958

Fort Lauderdale News, March 28, 1959

Tags: Fort Lauderdale in the 1950s, Las Olas isles, manmade islands, Fort Lauderdale developments, Jane Feehan, Fort Lauderdale history

A Sunday afternoon ride to Melrose Park ...

Fort Lauderdale beach 

By Jane Feehan 

While Miami made headlines during the 1950s for its growth in tourism and housing construction, people were discovering Fort Lauderdale. News about Fort Lauderdale’s shopping centers, hotels and subdivisions found its way into New York and Miami papers. 

One reporter suggested a Sunday ride to look at a booming area west of town. A large yellow sign at Broward Boulevard and Florida Avenue, east of State Road 7, beckoned prospective buyers to one of Fort Lauderdale’s fastest growing subdivisions: Melrose Park. It did not have a park, and would not have one until the mid-1990s, but buyers were lining up to plunk down their money on one of those cookie-cutter, easy-living, Florida-style houses people were talking about “up North.”

A property search reveals that the first house in Melrose Park probably went up in 1950. Miami realtor Ted King started building there in 1952 or 53. By 1954, he made real estate news with his construction activities in Melrose Park.

King built many houses there, including one “attractively designed” home at the corner of Florida Avenue and Campus Circle. 

The three-bedroom, two bath house on a lot 80 feet by 100 feet was constructed with an attached carport. Terrazzo floors were standard those years as well as aluminum jalousie windows. King installed a 25,000 BTU wall heater in the home and a “bar”  or counter separating kitchen and living room. The house’s one linen closet was in the “big bathroom.” Going price: $13,600. Demand for homes in the neighborhood drove prices up a bit; King built another nearby and upgraded it to 1,450 square feet and $15,500.

Construction continued in Melrose Park until at least 1970. Once a census-designated place in Broward County, Melrose Park was annexed by Fort Lauderdale in 2002. By that time, the community’s population had grown to more than 7,100. In 2013 houses were appraised $66,000 -$299,000. Today, many houses sell there for more than than $500,000.

I wonder what happened to that large yellow sign …

Copyright © 2013, 2024. All rights reserved. Jane Feehan.

Sources:

Broward County Appraiser’s Office

Miami News, Feb. 7, 1954

U.S. Census

Tags: Fort Lauderdale subdivisions, Fort Lauderdale during the 1950s, Melrose Park, Fort Lauderdale history 

Galt Mile jewels in the 1950s: Ocean Manor, Galt Ocean Mile Hotel and ...

By Jane Feehan

By 1958, building on the Galt Mile was well underway; it was a dream of developers James S. Hunt and Stephen A. Calder. The mile-long strip of land was sold by Arthur T. Galt* in 1953 for more than $19 million - three times the price that Spain received for the entire state of Florida. Two hotels were opened in the late 1950s and three others were under construction.

The $4 million, 250-room Galt Ocean Mile Hotel opened Dec.19 1957. The New York Times touted it as the largest, most luxurious hotel in the Fort Lauderdale area. Its architecture and furnishings were a blend of American luxury and old English and Bahamian themes set off with old brick, Honduras mahogany paneling, brass and marble. Outdoor lighting was provided by antique street lamps from Copenhagen. Bahamian greens and blues provided backdrop for Florida-themed paintings. Large picture windows in the lounge area and dining room looked out upon the area’s largest private beach.

The five-story hotel was built in a U-shape that hugged an Olympic-size pool, a dining terrace with a dance floor and a bar. Accommodations ranged from single rooms, efficiencies, and studio apartments, to one-bedroom luxury apartments – all with balconies. A parking lot was built for 250 cars, something unheard of in the city until then. Fort Lauderdale was abuzz about the hotel's lounge with telephones at each table, a stock market ticker tape and unique display of dancing waters in the lobby. (Summer rates ran $42.70 per person single occupancy, $30.70 per person double occupancy.) 

The Galt Ocean Mile Hotel was neighbor to luxury. Other buildings and new construction included:

• The adjacent Beach Club, built in 1954 as a private club, according to The New York Times, later was turned into a hotel. It had 200 rooms, including apartments with full kitchens.

• The $3 million Ocean Manor, south of the Galt Ocean Mile Hotel and Beach Club, was built as a co-op and hotel with 84 apartments (about $19,000 to $63,000 with yearly rental fees, an unusual financial arrangement) and 102 hotel rooms. The Starlight roof supper club topped the building. Johnny Carson later called the Ocean Manor home when he was in town.**

• The nearby Edgewater Arms was, at sixteen stories, the tallest among the new Galt Mile buildings. It was also a co-operative and consisted of 88 apartments ranging from $21,400 to $47,900. Its maintenance charges ranged from $75 to $125 monthly.

The strip's access road, then called Galt Drive, parallel to A1A north of Oakland Park, was still under construction in 1958.

The Galt Ocean Mile Hotel and The Beach Club were torn down in the early 1980s to make room for a two-building luxury high-rise condominium. The Edgewater Arms and Ocean Manor remain. Aggressive condo building along the Galt Mile occurred during the 1970s. Today, ocean waters off this strip of land is home to some of the most pristine reefs of South Florida. 

Copyright © 2013. All rights reserved. Jane Feehan.

* For more about Arthur T. Galt and the Galt Mile, see:
 http://janeshistorynook.blogspot.com/2013/02/fort-lauderdales-galt-mile-who-was.html

** For more on Johnny Carson in Fort Lauderdale, see:
http://janeshistorynook.blogspot.com/2013/05/drury-introduces-johnny-carson-to-fort.html 

Sources:

New York Times, Jan. 12, 1958

Fort Lauderdale New, Jan. 18, 1958

Fort Lauderdale News, Feb. 8, 1964

Tags: Fort Lauderdale history, Galt Ocean Mile history, Fort Lauderdale during the 1950s, historical researcher, film researcher