Fort Lauderdale's first department store - Pioneer Department Store

By Jane Feehan 

Frank Stranahan’s New River trading post, opened in Fort Lauderdale in 1895, served as antecedent to the Pioneer Department Store.  Reporters established this lineage through Pioneer’s purchase of stock (or goods) of Oliver Brothers Company, a store started by Stranahan.

Pioneer,  “not merely a name but a description” was organized in 1922 or 1923 with $50,000 in capital (some reports indicate $100,000). It first operated on Brickell Avenue not far from the original trading post.

In 1925, another pioneer, Tom W. Bryan, sold a corner lot at Las Olas Boulevard and Osceola Avenue (later 1^st Avenue) to Pioneer for a reported $70,000. In August that year, Pioneer announced plans for a three-story structure on the lot with a construction price tag estimated to run nearly $112,000 (later claimed to cost $150,000). The architect listed was A. Ten Eyck of Atlanta and Miami; the builder was the Florida Building Company. Executives mentioned were Dr. J.A. Stanford, president; J.S. Hinton, vice president, and Lamar Thistlewaite, secretary/treasurer and store manager.

It was reported that thousands showed up for the opening May 13, 1926 “at the magnificent three-story, modern building.” Reporters and store executives claimed “a new epoch begins in the commercial history of Fort Lauderdale…”

The new and expanded Pioneer Department Store featured two Otis elevators, glass counter tops, mahogany fittings, five large display windows and a “Lampson Cash Tube to reach all floors.” 

About 50 employees served customers who shopped a variety of sections including men’s and boy’s wear, women’s dresses and underwear, a beauty salon (the Permanent Wave Shop), luggage, kitchenware and more.

Indeed, a new paradigm in shopping began in Fort Lauderdale—a mere 30 years after trading post days. Boom times in land sales and population growth of the 1920s drove innovation and demand right through the Great Hurricane of September 1926, months after the department store opened.

“Pioneer Department Store still stands,” their newspaper advertisements claimed less than two weeks after the storm. It was “a monument to faith built on public confidence.” By November 1926 the store was ready for Christmas sales of toys and gifts.

Pioneer weathered the hurricane but not the ensuing decline in the economy.

The store closed in 1939. By this decade there were new owners, Field and Company, with evolving plans. 

There was also new competition. Sears opened blocks away on Andrews Avenue in 1937. 

The Great Depression yet lingered. Pioneer’s claim of being “exclusive but not expensive” was not enough to keep the sales engines running.

 

Copyright © 2024. All rights reserved. Jane Feehan

Sources:

Fort Lauderdale Evening Sentinel, April 17, 1925

Fort Lauderdale Evening Sentinel, May 7, 1925

Fort Lauderdale News, Nov. 8, 1925

Fort Lauderdale Daily News, Aug. 6, 1925

Fort Lauderdale News, Feb. 4, 1926

Fort Lauderdale News, Feb. 22, 1926

Fort Lauderdale News, May 12, 1926

Fort Lauderdale News, May 13, 1926

Fort Lauderdale Daily News, Sept. 26, 1926

Fort Lauderdale News, Nov. 24, 1926

Fort Lauderdale News, Sept. 25, 1939

Fort Lauderdale News, Sept. 26, 1939

Fort Lauderdale News, July 15, 1939

Tags: Fort Lauderdale retail history, Pioneer Department Store, Fort Lauderdale in the 1920s, Fort Lauderdale in the 1930s, Frank Stranahan

All aboard the Orange Blossom Special to Florida - a movable hotel

 

Postcard 1939 - Orange Blossom Special
Public Domain

By Jane Feehan

Some called visitors to Florida during the 1920s “the sunshine seekers.” Many hoped to cash in on the booming Florida real estate market. Most arrived by train.

Travel by train was also booming. Solomon Davies Warfield (1859-1927), president of Seaboard Airline Railroad (SAL) envisioned a formula for success in the Sunshine State: join service from the west to the east coast of Florida, provide premier, luxury services, and publicize.

Service from New York to Florida was provided along the tracks of several rail companies. But it was the train, the Orange Blossom Special, that received high praise.

“Travelers have become so sensitive and particular that they flutter with indignation if they can’t have their bath and their barber, hothouse strawberries and other such luxuries while on the train,” wrote The Miami Herald in early 1926.

The Orange Blossom Special operated as a “hotel on wheels” with maids, valets, manicurists, barber shops and hairdressers.  Also featured: a ladies’ observation car. Some Pullman cars used by SAL offered accommodations with bathtubs or showers. Service included bellhops (many Filipinos), and chef-inspired, fine dining in a car with paintings of orange blossom branches and other fruit on a background of gray paint.

Orange Blossom Special service officially connected the two coasts, terminating in West Palm Beach, January 28,1925 after a brief weather delay (reported The Miami News and The Miami Herald). Dates seem to vary on inaugural service depending on sources; accounts may have confused initial service to Miami in 1927. 

That first trip in 1925 involved six Pullman cars filled with representatives of Miami, including Coral Gables developer George E. Merrick, and West Palm Beach and SAL executives.

The Miami Tribune described the Orange Blossom Special as “one of America’s finest trains” traveling to and from New York in 35 hours with its trip through the Scenic Highlands {sic] of Central Florida. 

In August 1926, The Miami Herald reported the “Orange Blossom Special has become a famous train almost overnight.” 

Orange Blossom arrives in 
Miami 1927,
Florida State Archives

Whether by popular demand or seeking increased profits, Warfield arranged for the Orange Blossom Special to make its first through-trip from West Palm Beach to Miami on January 8, 1927. 

The train stopped in Fort Lauderdale that day for about 20 minutes. Mayor John Tidball greeted Governor John Martin, SAL’s Warfield and several hundred dignitaries at the train station off West Fourth Street. 

Big  crowds awaited the Orange Blossom Special in Miami: 15,000 residents were on hand at the Miami station and another 10,000 at Royal Palm Park, near the Seaboard Airline Railway office in the Lorraine Arcade on Southeast First Street.

Rail lines connecting
Orange Blossom Special (Florida State Archives) 1936

The winter-service only Orange Blossom Special hummed along for several decades. Service was suspended during World War II to accommodate military efforts. The train, originally a heavy steam-driven locomotive, was not fast. Nor was it economical to maintain with yearly interior and exterior painting. Travel times, however, improved to fewer more than 24 hours before its final trip April 13, 1953.

Today, the romance of the Orange Blosom Special lives through the lyrics and music of the bluegrass song by Ervin T. Rouse (1917-1981), the Orange Blossom Special (https://genius.com/Johnny-cash-orange-blossom-special-lyrics).  

Ride the train and lose those New York blues, to paraphrase the song. Contemporary lyrics might say “get to Florida any way you can to lose those New York, Chicago or Los Angeles blues."

 Copyright © 2024. All rights reserved. Jane Feehan.

Sources:

The Miami News, Dec. 30, 1924

The Miami News, April 25, 1925

The Miami Herald, Jan. 17, 1926

Miami Daily News, Jan. 24, 1925

The Miami Herald, Jan. 26, 1925

The Miami Tribune, March 17, 1926

The Miami Herald, Aug. 20, 1926

Fort Lauderdale Daily News, Dec. 7, 1926

The Miami Herald, Jan. 9, 1927

The Miami Herald, Oct. 21, 1941

CorridorRail.com

TransportationHistory.org

Wikipedia

Tags: Orange Blossom Special. Florida railways, Seaboard Airline Railroad, Seaboard Airline Railway, S, Davies Warfield, 

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

Progresso Plaza: a stroll through early Fort Lauderdale history

 

Progresso Plaza
901 Progresso Drive 

Dixie Highway

By Jane Feehan 

Those of us who grew up in Fort Lauderdale have driven frequently by that Spanish-tiled building on Dixie and NE 3^rd Avenue without a glance. Progresso Plaza has been so much a part of the city’s landscape that it remains unnoticed. It would, however, be missed if it disappeared. A trip into its past may cast a different perspective about its significance.

The story began during Fort Lauderdale’s first land boom of 1910-1911, when hopes for draining the nearby Everglades for farming superseded reality.  

Lots were sold sight unseen to people around the country who eyed quick profits. Promoters threw in free lots with an Everglades purchase of 10 acres. Those free lots sat in what became the Progresso area of the city. The boom proved to be a bust when Everglades draining attempts failed. Buyers, according to news accounts, also discovered the free lots were in a swampy area without a road (a road was built in 1914). They also found out the free lots were only 25 feet wide.

A second, more significant boom occurred in the mid-1920s. Many who owned free lots given them in the 1911 Everglades purchases sold these properties for $500-$12,000 in cash during 1925. House construction soon followed. Realtors advertised a four-bedroom house on one lot selling for $2,500. Two houses on one lot were offered for $2,350. The Progresso community grew rapidly. In 1926 the Fort Lauderdale Daily News claimed it was “the most densely populated and fastest growing section of the city.”

 Adding to interest in the new community was its location adjacent to the Florida East Coast Railroad tracks along Dixie Highway. Rumors abounded about Seaboard Air Line Company (not an aviation company) and their interest in a freight and passenger stop at Progresso. A new building could serve as a train station, a market – or a much-needed post office annex. Whatever the motivating factor, the city decided to build a post office annex and trading center, the Progresso Arcade.

A legal notice in June 1926 indicated the owner and builder of the arcade (at North Dixie and Avenue D) was Stetson Company. Its principals (J.V. Slaughter, president) were from Philadelphia, PA; they operated from an office in the Palm Court Arcade in Fort Lauderdale. Frederick C. Arnold from the George H. Gillespie office at the Palm Court Arcade served as architect. John R. Hogan was tapped as contractor and engineer for supervising construction. 

The Fort Lauderdale Daily News reported the arcade was completed by late June and the post office would be finished by July 17 (timing of the legal notice earlier in June remains curious).

 After a delay in receiving building supplies, the post office opened in August 1926 and was recognized as Fort Lauderdale’s first post office annex or substation.  The arcade was marketed as a community and trading center. The post office occupied 1,300 square feet, with 640 post boxes and $10,000 of equipment and parking—an unusual amenity at the time.                                             

The “Triangle building” as it was referred to, featured a triangle footprint with 265 feet of frontage on Dixie Highway, 180 feet of frontage on Twenty First Street, and 170 feet on Avenue D. The building was made of concrete and stucco with “ten [sic] modern apartments each with a kitchen, living room, dining room and bath to be rented by renters of the 10 stores.”  Design of the arcade reflected a 16^th-century motif with “three towers, a Cuban tile roof, arches supporting the arcade, a courtyard and dark-colored sidewalk …”

Other than the post office substation, tenants included Gordon Delicatessen, a Sunoco filling station, a hardware store, barber shop and fruit and vegetable market.

The Great Hurricane of 1926 occurred a month after the arcade opened. Most concrete structures, as this was, made it through the storm. Businesses were less resilient. By November 15 realtors were still seeking tenants for the apartments.

Fast forward only 23 years and the arcade had hit hard times. The building was condemned in 1949, but realtor H.S. Ratliff bought the building and, according to the Sun-Sentinel, rented the 10 apartments at boarding-house low prices and opened a few retail spaces to artists. The building was sold again in 1979 to Bill Capozzi who renovated it. The Progresso Arcade or Plaza (by this time) was vandalized and sold again. A subsequent owner, Julio A. Ruiz restored the building and earned recognition with a 1986 Community Appearance Award. The stepson of Ruiz, Tony Ropiza, purchased Progresso Plaza in late November 1986, reportedly hoping to open a Spanish restaurant. 

Today, the Progresso Plaza (about 6,100 square feet) is owned by Urban North LLC of Fort Lauderdale. According to property records, the building is either "designated a historic resource or in a historic district."

Hospitality entrepeneur Brian Parenteau, owns and operates the Patio Bar and Pizza at the plaza.

I spoke to a tenant recently who told me Progresso Plaza is now a “busy place.” She said there are four bars, a few hair salons, her tanning salon and a few pottery or ceramics studios. Parking in a rear lot is easy. A walk through this historic building provides a view of authentic architectural elements of the 1920s. Its history reflects that of Fort Lauderdale.

The patio at Patio Bar and Pizza

 

Copyright © 2023. All rights reserved. Jane Feehan.

Sources:

Fort Lauderdale Daily News Oct 27, 1925

Fort Lauderdale Daily News July 20, 1925

Fort Lauderdale Daily News July 21, 1925

Fort Lauderdale Daily News June 9, 1926

Fort Lauderdale Daily News, June 13, 1926

Fort Lauderdale Daily News, June 27, 1926

Fort Lauderdale Daily News, July 31, 1926

Fort Lauderdale Daily News, Aug. 17, 1926

Sun-Sentinel, Nov. 5, 1986

Sun-Sentinel, May 22, 1994

Tags: History of Fort Lauderdale, Fort Lauderdale history, Frederick C Arnold, Progresso Arcade, Progresso Plaza

The Idlewyld story - Hortt converts swamp to top-tier real estate

 

By Jane Feehan

The history of Fort Lauderdale’s Idlewyld neighborhood reflects the story of Fort Lauderdale’s M.A. Hortt. A former streetcar conductor and gold prospector from Utah, “Al” Hortt came to Fort Lauderdale in 1910. Possibilities for wealth generation were far greater here than in the desert.

The city saw its first land boom in 1910, when, according to Hortt, it claimed only 121 residents. As he wrote in his biography, Gold Coast Pioneer, he arrived when Fort Lauderdale was just a “wide spot” in the road. Not for long. News spread “up north” about Fort Lauderdale’s real estate. The early boom proved to be an early bust but Hortt’s roster of subsequent land deals (and travel escapades), could spin heads. The focus here, however, is Idlewyld.

Hortt and business partner Bob Dye bought a piece of swampy land in 1921 that spanned from the Las Olas bridge (opened 1917) to the “intersection of New River Sound” and beyond. They envisioned a subdivision on part of it but needed a developer with money. Hortt was familiar with Miami developer Carl Fisher’s success in converting Miami Beach's water-logged land into desirable real estate; he wanted to apply the same method in Fort Lauderdale.   

According to Hortt, he took a beach walk near Las Olas where he met visitor Tom Stillwell. Stillwell was looking for a real estate opportunity and the garrulous broker had just the deal: if Stillwell could put up $50,000, they could create a company with $100,000 of land and cash assets; Stillwell would get a 50 percent share. 

To convince the visitor about development possibilities, Hortt took him to Miami Beach to view Fisher’s projects. Stillwell was sold on the development idea for Fort Lauderdale and brought in three partners from Indiana. The New River Development Company was formed in 1921 and dredging of the Intracoastal and New River Sound began. Dredging would provide the soil to build up the swampy tract.

The name Idlewyld was chosen and its land platted. Streets, sidewalks, water mains and electric lines were installed after dredging.

To buoy its appeal, coconut palms were planted along its streets. However, for months only a few lots sold. They lowered prices and gave lots to the investors for building homes. The Indiana partners pooled resources and built one house. The company also offered to give away 10 lots for house construction. By year’s end, only four houses were built; the town experienced a real estate slowdown. 

Intracoastal view,
with Las Olas Bridge at left

As is often said today, the best time to advertise is during an economic slump. Savvy Hortt suggested he would handle advertising if a deal could be made with the partners. He wanted a 25 percent commission on sales of all lots. Prices would depend on location and would run $2,500 to $5,000. The New River Development Company approved and the first advertisement went to the Miami Herald.

One article in the Miami Herald reported that a promotion of the subdivision would include free transportation from Miami, dinners and a river trip. An ad in the same paper beckoned visitors to buy a lot in “Fort Lauderdale’s sub-division deluxe with people you’ll be glad to have for neighbors: men of wealth and social standing and a-1 character.”

The advertising campaign proved to be a success.  Hortt claimed in his book that he and Dye sold every lot “in less than one week,” and each for the price originally agreed upon. Success led to plans for a $250,000 hotel in Idlewyld. Promised to be “bigger and better than any yet planned” the hotel was expected to sit on six lots and open in one year.

The Idlewyld neighborhood gained attention. Hortt built his home there. In 1925, while on one of his many trips, he was offered $60,000 for that house. Upon his return he upped the price to $75,000 (a steep price then) and sold it to businesswoman Helen Brooks Smith. The sale made local headlines.

Less than a year later, the aftermath of the 1926 hurricane brought the South Florida real estate boom to a halt.  It’s interesting to note that during the storm, the U.S. Coast Guard’s houseboat station, Moccasin, was lifted from its mooring and thrown across the waterway near Idlewyld. The Coast Guard took up temporary quarters in the “deluxe” subdivision in two houses donated by W.C. Kyle until they could re-establish their base.

Hortt remained solvent and developed several neighborhoods such as Beverly Heights. He was recognized for guiding Fort Lauderdale’s recovery from the storm. He served as mayor and commissioner of Fort Lauderdale and then bought large tracts of land in Pompano Beach, where he died (750 Ocean Blvd.) in 1958 at 77.

And Idlewyld? It remains one of the city’s most beautiful neighborhoods with many of the original houses replaced with multi-lot sized homes selling for millions (as of this post, 17 on the market). The Riviera Isles/Idlewyld area is home to 508 residents. 

Hortt’s legacy includes not only his sales record of early city communities but his recognition of waterside locations in boosting real estate values. Many who came to Fort Lauderdale in the early 1900s thought real estate fortunes were to be found in agricultural land to the west. Hortt knew better.

Copyright © 2023. All rights reserved. Jane Feehan

Sources:

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

Miami Herald, Jan. 20, 1924

Miami Herald, Feb. 20, 1924

Fort Lauderdale News, Feb. 25, 1925

Fort Lauderdale News, April 17, 1925

Fort Lauderdale News, Nov. 13, 1925

Fort Lauderdale News, Nov. 16, 1926

Fort Lauderdale News, June 20, 1926

Fort Lauderdale News, March 1, 1952

Fort Lauderdale News, April 15, 1958

Tags: Idlewyld neighborhood, M.A. Hortt, Fort Lauderdale history, Fort Lauderdale communities, history of Fort Lauderdale, Fort Lauderdale in the 1920s, Jane Feehan

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 the 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

Lumber schooners delivered what railroads could not to Fort Lauderdale

 

Abandoned lumber schooners, Miami 1926
State Archives of Florida

By Jane Feehan

 “A new era in water transportation for Fort Lauderdale” was heralded in 1925 with the arrival of schooners delivering lumber. The Florida East Coast Railway could not meet the delivery demands of the city’s construction boom; ships expanded its logistics.

To supplement rail efforts, schooners were pulled out of storage or quickly constructed as “lighters” to move lumber, other building materials, plumbing supplies or furniture from Charleston, Savannah, Jacksonville and other east coast ports. They traveled by ocean or inland waterway. Ships brought what the railroad could not.  It wasn’t necessarily the easiest solution.

In November 1925, the 73-foot Spanish schooner Padro Garcia hit electric wires strung across New River, causing city outages until Southern Utility Company came to the rescue. About 4,500 volts lit up and damaged the ship’s anchor chain and other metal parts. The crew of eight along with a tabby cat and brindle bulldog were rescued. So were 80 tons of expensive 100-year-old Spanish tiles.

Storms wrecked a few ocean-going schooners off the Florida coast (crews were all saved). When they arrived at the harbor of Fort Lauderdale, some ships encountered problems navigating the sand bar blocking Lake Mabel, which was not cleared and opened as a port until 1928 (later Port Everglades). Other schooners coming down the waterway needed power boat or tugboat assistance moving through Tarpon Bend on the way to city docks.

Ships also carried cargo to the Las Olas Sound in the Idlewyld area. In December 1925, the largest schooner to arrive in Fort Lauderdale, the 215-foot Richmond with its nine-foot draft, was temporarily grounded in 7.5 feet of water while trying to reach the sound. It carried 320,000 feet of lumber, but the crew had to offload 130,000 feet to raft ashore; it was bound for Broward Lumber Company who picked up the valuable wood near the Las Olas Bridge. (Opened in 1924, the company advertised its motto: “We invented service in Fort Lauderdale.”)

The three-masted Richmond, sailing from Savannah, stopped in Fort Lauderdale on August 25, 1926, just weeks before the devastating September hurricane. The ship had been temporarily sidelined by a storm near Jacksonville and carried 300 tons of Long Island gravel. The cargo was used for repair from another hurricane and construction of the city’s waterworks, including its sewers. Little did they know that Fort Lauderdale would soon need other recovery supplies.

Mills and Mills, the company that owned the Richmond, established offices at the Sunset Building on Andrews Avenue. They hoped the schooner would be making a Fort Lauderdale stop every three weeks. They anticipated that Fort Lauderdale would be developed into “one of the finest seaports in Florida.”

Mills and Mills was right about Fort Lauderdale’s status as a seaport. Nature and economics proved them wrong about the viability of lumber schooners. After the Great Hurricane of 1926, South Florida boom days turned into an economic retreat. 

Many schooners were abandoned, especially in Miami (see photo above) where there was far more dockage at Bayfront. But the reason to abandon wasn’t necessarily the devastating hurricane; seldom was there a return cargo. Most abandoned schooners were destined for lumber salvage.

Copyright © 2023. All rights reserved. Jane Feehan

  Sources:

Miami Tribune, Nov. 30, 1924

Fort Lauderdale News, June 18, 1925

Fort Lauderdale News, Oct. 13, 1925

Fort Lauderdale News, Nov. 3, 1925

Fort Lauderdale News, Nov. 4, 1925

Fort Lauderdale News, March 6, 1926

Fort Lauderdale News Aug. 26, 1926

Miami Herald, March 24, 1926

Tags: Fort Lauderdale history, history of Fort Lauderdale, transportation history, Fort Lauderdale in the 1920s

Fort Lauderdale and the seasonal sweep of the city broom

By Jane Feehan

Fort Lauderdale was image conscious from its earliest days. Preparing for winter season visitors with clean-up squads was a common sight during the 1920s. “The entire city could feel the sweep of the city broom.”

Squads also cleaned up for school openings and baseball games. Beautification efforts included planting and removal of weeds, sand spurs and palmettos. It wasn’t always about beautification and weeds and trash. Fort Lauderdale’s Board of Health cleared vegetation to mitigate mosquito breeding.

Cleaning vacant lots and clearing the banks of waterways produced some amusing results. Stories about the removal and cutting down of thick undergrowth pull back the curtain on days before the city’s high-velocity development. In 1928 teams cleared weeds and other vegetative matter between Las Olas and south to the Casino Pool for visitors and local beachgoers. New River and Las Olas beach were considered two of “the city’s greatest assets.”

City teams also cleaned up the Rio Vista neighborhood. Thanks to the crew's work, residents reportedly could see across the river [New River] for the first time as well as its boat traffic. It was also noted that the owners of an apartment building “in a certain section of the city” adjacent to New River said the clean-up squad made “the lovely stream visible.” As a result, the owners raised rents “on the strength of the proximity to the water.”

In a West Las Olas neighborhood, a clean-up crew discovered sidewalks the “public has almost forgotten.”  A nearby vacant lot cleanup produced discarded mattresses, automobiles, city sewer piping and live dynamite that had been buried on the spot for two years.  

Stranahan Field underwent some critical clean up in 1925 that minimized excuses for errors and improved its image. Baseballs hit to the outfield were frequently lost in high grass and weeds. Cutting down the vegetation produced a “first class ball field.”  

Ross Clark, Board of Health president, said they could not clean up the entire city. “People are going to have get involved in the “cleanup cause” if we are to be absolutely pure and undefiled.”  A cleanup week was designated by the city in 1936 to foster public participation in clean up activities.

We’re still not, nor could ever be, "absolutely pure and undefiled," but people get involved today by volunteering for waterway and beach cleanups. The city has relegated lot clearing to property owners and trash pickup services.

Copyright © 2023. All rights reserved. Jane Feehan

Sources:

Fort Lauderdale News, June 24, 1925

Fort Lauderdale News, Sept. 6, 1928

Fort Lauderdale News, Oct. 12, 1928

Fort Lauderdale News, Dec. 15, 1928

Fort Lauderdale News, Nov. 1, 1930

Fort Lauderdale News, Sept. 9, 1931

Fort Lauderdale News, Dec. 14, 1936

Tags: Fort Lauderdale history, Fort Lauderdale in the 1920s, Fort Lauderdale in the 1930s

Sunset Theatre: Fort Lauderdale's early theater, a link to its WWII hero, Sandy Nininger and ...

 

Sunset Theatre (vertical sign) next to the
 taller Sweet Building
1939 - Looking north on Andrews
Florida State Archives/Florida Memory/Romer

 

Postcard depiction of Sunset Theatre next to
Sweet Building
Florida State Archives/Florida Memory

 

Sunset Theatre
313 South Andrews Ave., Fort Lauderdale

By Jane Feehan

Entertainment in the United States shifted from live performances to a hybrid that included film in the 1920s. Early Fort Lauderdale was no exception to the shift.

The Sunset Theatre, by some accounts, opened in 1922—just 11 years after the city was established. Located at 313 South Andrews Avenue (and later adjacent to the Sweet Building that went up next door), the theater housed more than 750 seats. It served as a popular place for live concerts, vaudeville acts, musical benefits, meetings and events for the Lion’s Club, Woman’s Club and other civic groups.

The building the theater occupied was once owned by early Fort Lauderdale developer M. A. Hortt. Rental office space there was offered through classified advertisements of the time. No doubt it was a popular place from which to operate a business. The theater was a high-profile operation and everyone knew where it was; why not open a real estate or medical office at the same address?

When The Ten Commandments, Cecil B. DeMille’s blockbuster with a cast and extras of 5,000 was presented at the theater in 1925 (about two years before the first “talkies”), Fort Lauderdale over-capacity crowds were turned away for both the afternoon and evening showings. The turnout was a testament to both the popularity of the Sunset and wild interest in film. 

Early movies were accompanied by live orchestras. The Fort Lauderdale theater provided its own Sunset Theatre Orchestra, but The Ten Commandments came with its traveling “orchestra of 20 men.” Ticket prices for other live performances and movies went for 50 cents to two dollars. I could not find ticket prices for a movie, but chances are the 10-25-cent movies came decades later when musicians’ pay was not a factor.

There is an interesting side note for those who know of the first awardee of the Medal of Honor of World War II, local hero Alexander (“Sandy”) R. Nininger, Jr. (Use search box)

His father, A.R. Nininger, was tapped as manager of the Sunset Theatre in 1928 and oversaw its transition to talking film. Recruited from Ocala where he managed the Publix-Saenger-Sparks Theaters (for Publix film connection, use search box: "about-that-name-publix-and-its-link".

Nininger senior was quite the promoter of the Sunset enterprise; he frequently invited a variety of guests to attend shows for free, such as the Boy Scouts and other civic organizations for which he was mentioned frequently in the Fort Lauderdale News. He also promoted amateur acts from the theater to broadcast on radio. (Nininger senior accepted his son’s Medal of Honor in Tampa in February 1942.)

Some sources indicate Sunset Theatre ceased operations in 1953, though ads for movie schedules were published into early 1954. Business details remain murky, but the theater emerged in 1954 as the Sunrise Art Theatre offering plays, foreign films and a temporary venue for the Little Theater. The building closed in the 1970s.

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

Sources:

Fort Lauderdale News, Jan. 15, 1925

Fort Lauderdale News, Feb. 24, 1925

Fort Lauderdale News, May 21, 1928

Fort Lauderdale News, Oct. 10, 1928

Fort Lauderdale News, Jun 24, 1933

Fort Lauderdale News, Oct. 20, 1954

Tampa Tribune, Feb. 11, 1942

Gainesville Times, Oct. 1, 2021

CinemaTreasures.org

Tags: About Fort Lauderdale, Fort Lauderdale movie theaters, Fort Lauderdale in the 1920s, Fort Lauderdale theater, Fort Lauderdale history

Fort Lauderdale tourist accommodations in the 1920s

Dresden Hotel on the New River
circa 1920
Florida State Archives

Fort Lauderdale has come a long way in the hospitality industry since the 1920s. This photo made front page of the Fort Lauderdale Herald, March 3, 1922.

Fort Lauderdale was beginning to appreciate its tourists, especially after the Las Olas bridge and causeway to the beach opened in 1917. Hotels and apartments are listed from top left to right, second row left to right, etc.

Hotel Broward, the first tourist hotel in Broward County, lies center, number 5. Most of the buildings listed in the photo were not on the beach. 

1. Gilbert Hotel
2. Smith Apartments
3. Dresden Apartments
4. Wallace Apartments
5. Hotel Broward
6. Palms Hotel
7. Shippey House
8. New River Hotel
9. Las Olas Inn (beach side)






 

Wallace Apartments 1917 Las Olas
Florida State Archives/Florida Memory

Hotel Broward  circa 1920
Florida State Archives/Florida Memory

Smith Guest House circa 1920
Florida State Archives/Florida Memory

Las Olas Inn at the beach, circa 1920
Florida State Archives/Florida Memory

Copyright © 2022 All rights reserved. Jane Feehan

Tags: Fort Lauderdale history, history of Fort Lauderdale, Fort Lauderdale in the 1920s

Fort Lauderdale: from plow and trowel to beach towel

Fort Lauderdale Beach

 

By Jane Feehan

Settlers first came to Fort Lauderdale with farming in mind. It was the Everglades they set their hopes on; its rich dark muck was a farmer’s dream—if the Everglades could be drained.

To promote interest in developing farmlands in 1911-1912, city pioneers and Board of Trade delegates traveled to nearby cities by train with a large banner advertising Fort Lauderdale as Gateway to the Everglades. The message: “Our little town is the gateway that leads not only to the Everglades but to success.”

A variety of promotions were used to entice settlers into farm life. In 1911, The Everglades Land Sales Company advertised a "celebration" or exhibition to show off a swamp plow, the Buckeye Traction Pulverizer. A successful tool in Louisiana, it was sure to be in Florida. It could plow 10 acres a day at $3 per acre unlike the “old way” at $6 per acre. Prospective land–and plow—buyers were directed to Fort Lauderdale where they could take a boat to the South Canal and to the company’s experimental farm. It was expected to “attract a large number of people.” (No follow up on this claim.)

In 1922, even though hopes waned about draining the Everglades, the Carmichael Development Company touted Fort Lauderdale as the “Key City to the East Coast of Tomorrow.” The community it was promoting, Placidena, did not sit in the Everglades but in town (today a city subdivision).

Everglades postcard 1935
Florida State Archives

Advertisements shifted away from Everglades by the mid-1920s. Draining exploits failed; Mother Nature prevailed. Messaging was different.

Seaboard Holding Company ads elevated new reasons for moving to Fort Lauderdale while lowering prominence of the Everglades:

• It is on the ocean
• It is on Dixie Highway
• It is below the frostline
• It is at the Everglades
• It is 26 miles north of Miami
• It is 41 miles south of Palm Beach
• The FEC (Florida East Coast Railway)
• The Seaboard Air Line Railway is coming through (airline here refers to shortest rail route)
• The New River is 90 feet deep, right in the city
• It has churches, schools, banks, hotels, golf courses, fishing, bathing, boating and a wonderful climate all year round.

Today, most are moving here for many of the reasons above but even more important, to get away from other states. Many will be unhappy residents during summers when weather is not wonderful but might feel at home with the congested roads and ubiquitous high rise condos.

Fort Lauderdale 2021

For more on draining the Everglades see index or use search box.

Copyright © 2022 All rights reserved. Jane Feehan

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Sources:

Miami Daily Metropolis, Jan. 23, 1911

Miami Daily Metropolis, July 19, 1911

Miami Herald, Dec. 30, 1922

Miami Herald, April 7, 1926

Tags: Gateway to the Everglades, Fort Lauderdale development, Everglades farming, Fort Lauderdale land sales, Fort Lauderdale history

First lifeguards on Fort Lauderdale's beach in ...

 

Fort Lauderdale lifeguard station 1974
Florida State Archives

By Jane Feehan

The first bridge to Fort Lauderdale's barrier island and its beach (at Las Olas) was built in 1917. Sun bathers and swimmers soon followed. But it wasn't until August 1926 that "civic groups" asked the city commission for lifeguards at the popular bathing spot.

"Since large crowds gathered each day ... the city should do everything possible to increase attractiveness of the beach."

Swimmers,
 Las Olas beach 1917
Florida State Archives

They asked for one lifeguard at all times during the day, and two present during busy hours. The civic leaders also asked for a pontooon and other boat, a "pulmotor," be available for their use.

It came to be. The first Fort Lauderdale beach lifeguard reported Dec. 1, 1926 at 1:30 pm. Two guards would be on hand thereafter for Sundays and holidays A Red Cross medical tent was provided that day for a Red Cross safety drill.

Today a well-trained athletic group, the Fort Lauderdale Beach Patrol, now Fort Lauderdale Ocean Rescue, provides a valuable lifesaving service to the city’s residents and visitors. 

Enjoy a glance at different lifeguard stations through the years. These "towers" have come a long, long way in sophistication.

 

Lifeguard station - unknown Florida location, 1965
Florida State Archives

Lifeguard tower Vero Beach, 1969
Florida State Archives

Lifeguard stations Fort Lauderdale 2023

Fort Lauderdale 2023

Copyright © 2021. All rights reserved. Jane Feehan

Sources:

Fort Lauderdale News, Aug. 17, 1926

Fort Lauderdale News, Nov. 28, 1926

 

Tags:

 Fort Lauderdale Beach, lifeguards, Fort Lauderdale Beach Patrol, Fort Lauderdale history