Sailboat Bend, Fort Lauderdale's only neighborhood deemed a historic district

 

 By Jane Feehan

Fort Lauderdale’s Sailboat Bend, once known as the “West Side,” was designated a historic district in 1992. It is the first neighborhood in the city so deemed.

The historic area sits within an area bounded by the F.E.C. Railway tracks on its east, Broward Boulevard on its north, and by the New River on the south and west. It’s accessible just a block or two beyond the Broward Center for the Performing Arts at 201 SW Fifth Avenue or via Sunrise Boulevard near the historic 11th Avenue Bridge. A sign indicates its boundary.

Sailboats give rise to thoughts about travel and adventure or simplicity and leisurely living. Those notions were probably held in varying degrees by sailing enthusiasts (“many young married couples”) who found their way to Fort Lauderdale during the early 1940s and moored their boats along the most extreme bend in the New River. It was during those years that the area was first referred to as Sailboat Bend. The city Commission confirmed it as a subdivision in 1945.

Sailboat Bend’s history reaches back centuries before its subdivision days.

It is thought Tequesta Indians lived there centuries ago—long before the Seminoles arrived in South Florida during the late 1700s. Artifacts of Indian inhabitants reportedly have been found there.

Some say the area was the site of the first fort built during the Second Seminole War (1835-42) by Major William Lauderdale, for whom the city is named. It is also written that the neighborhood is where the Cooley (or Colee) family was massacred in 1835—not at the now-named Colee Hammock Park at 1500 Brickell Drive (south fork of the New River). Their massacre may have been cause for Lauderdale's deployment to the New River area.

During the 20th century, the project to drain the Everglades, promoted by Governor Napoleon Bonaparte Broward (1905-1909), began in Sailboat Bend with the staging of dredging equipment for construction of two canals. Fort Lauderdale is often referred to as “Gateway to the Everglades,” thus a reasonable point of entry for the drainage project.

Not all the area known as Sailboat Bend falls within the historic district.

Society pages in the newspapers during the 1940s referred to parties on some of the boats and the comings and goings of notables who docked at the bend during the winter. This non-historic area currently lies in the center of the toniest part of downtown Fort Lauderdale.

Proximity to downtown and the beauty of the river was not lost on those who sought profits selling lots along the bend in 1945. A group of owner-realtors, including resident Wen Mulligan, advertised "28 lots along the bend at Southwest 5th Avenue and Southwest 5th Street for $42,000 for sale ... easy terms." Given the crazy high prices of the 1920s in Fort Lauderdale, that price rings cheap if it was for all the lots.

In 1963 a prescient if not lucky developer wanted 600 feet to be vacated at the bend to make way for six high-rise buildings with 1,500 apartments. The proposal was nixed then, but today the same area, just outside the historic neighborhood, is the site of several spectacular buildings with hundreds of rental and condo units.

The historic Sailboat Bend is worth a drive through and a stop at its waterfront park. It presents a mix of old bungalows with a few (very few) grand homes along the river. Manicured lawns are not a feature of this neighborhood. Some of the streets may remind one of older sections of New Orleans with overgrown shrubs, vines and indigenous trees. A house of French Provincial design was described when purchased about 35 years ago, so impressions of similarity to New Orleans stand reasonable.

Sailboat Bend residents have objected, to no avail, to the number of social agencies built on the nearby Broward Boulevard perimeter of their neighborhood: a Salvation Army homeless shelter, an alcohol rehab facility, the Broward School Board and other agencies. A drive through Sailboat Bend streets seems worlds away.

About 2,200-2,800 residents reside in historic Sailboat Bend. The ordinance designating its historic status is reviewed every 10 years.

It’s not only worth a look, Sailboat Bend also deserves preservation of the city's largest collection of historic homes. 

Below: Aerial view- New River 1929

Florida State Archives/Hoit

*********

Copyright © 2024. All rights reserved. Jane Feehan.

Sources:

City of Fort Lauderdale

Fort Lauderdale Daily News, Sept. 30, 1942

Fort Lauderdale Daily News, Oct. 19, 1942

Fort Lauderdale Daily News, Aug. 19, 1943

Fort Lauderdale Daily News, July 14, 1945

Fort Lauderdale Daily News, Oct. 17, 1945

Fort Lauderdale Daily News, Nov. 1, 1945

Fort Lauderdale News, Sept. 4, 1963

Fort Lauderdale News, Oct. 25, 1963

Fort Lauderdale News, Aug. 16, 1987

South Florida Sun-Sentinel, Jan. 8, 1988

South Florida Sun-Sentinel, Jan. 29, 1989

South Florida Sun-Sentinel, June 25, 1990

Tags: Historic Neighborhoods in Fort Lauderdale, Fort Lauderdale in the 1940s, Fort Lauderdale history, Fort Lauderdale neighborhoods

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

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*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

Bahia Mar: "more business, publicity to Fort Lauderdale than any other man-made attraction"

 

Bahia Mar circa 1960s,
Florida State Archives/Florida Memory

Bahia Mar
801 Seabreeze Boulevard
Fort Lauderdale, FL 33316

By Jane Feehan

The following about Bahia Mar does not serve as an historical account of the business transactions that have shaped it over the years, though some will be mentioned. In 1949, the Miami News claimed Bahia Mar was the only land in Broward County that had not been privately owned; that may explain its complicated history.

Some would say its history began in the 1870s.

The United States government built a string of five Houses of Refuge in 1876 in Florida from Cape Florida to the Indian River to provide shelter for the shipwrecked. One refuge, New River House No. 4 was moved in 1891 from its first site near Hugh Birch State Park (Bonnet House) to the beach across from today’s Bahia Mar where the third Fort Lauderdale was built.

The United States Coast Guard operated from the site, a gathering place for social activities into the early 1900s. It served as Coast Guard Station No. 6 during World War I. From the inland waterway—today’s Bahia Mar—the base played an active role in World War II defense activities in South Florida. 

After the war in 1946, the federal government declared the site as surplus, placing it in the public domain.

Bahia Mar 1951
Florida State Archives/
Florida Memory

The city of Fort Lauderdale purchased the property for $600,000 but did not have enough funds for its development.

Private investors, led by Ohioan and developer William E. Schantz* raised funds to build a yacht basin that opened in December 1949. It offered 450 boat slips, shopping, a restaurant with cocktail lounge (Patricia Murphy’s Candlelight Restaurant did not open there until 1959) and 650 parking spaces.

Newspapers lauded the $2.5 million project. Some claimed the marina, with “three miles of docks," brought more publicity, recognition and business "than any other man-made attraction” to Fort Lauderdale. It led to declaration by city boosters that Fort Lauderdale was the “yachting capital of the world.” One news account reported Bahia Mar was the first yacht basin in the nation to be listed on Coast Guard navigation charts.

Not long after opening, the developers declared bankruptcy and the site reverted to the city. The city leased it back to the private sector in 1959 (yes, it’s complicated). Since 1959, Bahia Mar has served as home to the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show featuring some of the most spectacular luxury yachts seen anywhere. 

About 100,000 pay to see the display in late October, early November each year. Today the yacht basin holds 250 boat slips (some land now operated by the adjacent International Swimming Hall of Fame houses 40 slips), the Double Tree Hotel, yacht brokers, shopping and restaurants and other amenities.

Bahia Mar now faces a major transition. Value of the 38.65-acre Bahia Mar property is estimated (in 2022) at $256 million as Fort Lauderdale oceanfront land has fallen piece by piece to developers. The city signed an initial 50-year lease in 2022 with Jimmy and Kenny Tate of Rahn Bahia Mar Hotel. It could be extended another 50 years (status of this arrangement unclear).Their $1 billion plan for Bahia Mar includes, at this point, replacing the current 296-room hotel with a new one and building condos and commercial space. Developers plan to share revenue with the city derived from operations (hotel, marina, condos).

Plans were approved by the city  commission in 2023 for a hotel and three condo towers as controversy swirls around the project's scope.

Resident support is mixed. Some fear the project’s impact on beach traffic and its impact on the boat show; others welcome the needed revamp. Stay tuned …

  Copyright © 2022. All rights reserved. Jane Feehan.

Bahia Mar 1968
Florida State Archives/ Florida Memory

Sources:

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

Gillis, Susan. Fort Lauderdale: The Venice of America. Charleston: Acadia Publishing, 2004.

Fort Lauderdale News, March 7, 1949

Miami News, Sept 1, 1949

Fort Lauderdale News, Dec. 3, 1949

Fort Lauderdale News, April 10, 1955

New York Daily News, Jan. 27, 1957

New York Daily News, June 15, 1958

Sun-Sentinel, March 30, 2022

Real Deal, April 6, 2022

https://www.marinalife.com/marina?slug=bahia-mar-resort-and-yachting-center

https://bahiamaryachtingcenter.com/?utm_source=gmb&utm_medium=yext

For more on William E. Schantz* use search box

Copyright © 2022 All rights reserved. Jane Feehan

Tags: Bahia Mar Marina, Fort Lauderdale in the 1940s, Fort Lauderdale in the 1950s, yachting capital of the world. Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show, Fort Lauderdale history

Broward County Defenses in WWII: of rationing and volunteering

By Jane Feehan

The focus of  Broward County war relief efforts for England shifted to defense activities after Pearl Harbor. Three weeks after that attack the Broward County Defense Council, comprised of councils in Dania, Davie, Fort Lauderdale, Hallandale, Hollywood and Oakland Park, reported its efforts.

An air raid warden system neared completion with issuing more than 350 warden identification cards to volunteers.

Broward County residents were advised not to be alarmed by sudden power shut downs. Warnings of practice blackouts would be announced by newspapers and radio.

Avenger aircraft WWII
State of Florida Archives

Students in their last semester would be eligible for diplomas if they entered the armed services and their work deemed meeting set standards.

A resolution to pay expenses for architect Clinton Gamble to attend a course on building protection at the University of Florida was passed by the county.  Gamble would then return to Broward and supervise air precaution work on school buildings.

Taxi and truck owners in the county were urged to register their vehicles with the council. Also, all private car owners were asked to register their vehicles if they volunteered to support the war effort with their cars.

Ex-service men and former police officers formed an auxiliary unit under direction of Sheriff Walter Clark. His office was  "crowded to capacity with patriots offering their time and resources to observe and track down illegal activities when paid officers were occupied with other duties."

The Broward Defense Council was also involved in rationing of products and supplies during WWII. A national ban on the sale of tires went into effect December 11, 1941. Soon after safety boards were established in Broward County and throughout the country to handle rationing of tires. Rubber for tires was imported from areas in the Pacific occupied by or in conflict with Japan and its allies. Rubber was needed to manufacture truck tires for military vehicles.

Other rationed items included gasoline, canned goods, sugar, meat, dairy products--and a list expanded so frequently that some asked "when are they going to ration the rationing?" Rationing was necessary to feed and support US troops and to help produce military goods. 

Copyright © 2022 All rights reserved. Jane Feehan

Tags: Broward County in WWII, Fort Lauderdale in WWII, Fort Lauderdale in the 1940s, Fort Lauderdale history, Broward County history

___________

Sources:

Fort Lauderdale Daily News Dec. 19, 1941

Fort Lauderdale Daily News, Dec. 28, 1941

Fort Lauderdale Daily News, Jan 8, 1943

Fort Lauderdale Daily News, Jan. 21, 1943

Fort Lauderdale Daily News, Feb. 17, 1943

Tags: Fort Lauderdale in the 1940s, WWII in Broward County, Fort Lauderdale during World War II, film research. Rationing, Fort Lauderdale history, Broward County history, Fort Lauderdale in WWII

Fort Lauderdale draft in World War II

By Jane Feehan

A notice posted in the Fort Lauderdale Times (Apr. 22, 1942) about where men ages 45-65 would --not could--register for noncombatant service reveals much about those times. Men 18-45 were eligible for immediate induction.

Many who winced about the draft during the Vietnam era were not aware of draftee ages during World War II. It’s also interesting to note the separation of races for registration; the armed forces were not integrated until 1948 under President Harry Truman.

A notice of the day reads:

For District 1: Central High School in Fort Lauderdale  – white [Fort Lauderdale High]; Pompano High School in Pompano – white; City Hall in Deerfield – white

Negroes will register at the Pompano colored school and at the Fort Lauderdale colored school.

U.S. military ages over the years have varied: average age of a soldier during World War II was 26.5;  the average age during the Vietnam era was 19. The average age of today’s soldier has been reported anywhere from 19-30.  Since many are more educated, hold more college degrees than those of the past, they are, most likely, older than 19. The average age today may not yet be officially published. 

Tags: South Florida during WWII,  WWII draft in Florida, U.S soldier's ages, Fort Lauderdale during World War II, film researcher, history of Fort Lauderdale

Lauderdale Beach Hotel: 1930s, in WWII ... and what remains today

Lauderdale Beach Hotel
circa 1937
Florida State Archives

By Jane Feehan

Built in 1937, the Lauderdale Beach Hotel was one of the two largest hotels in Broward County when the U.S. entered World War II (the other was the Tradewinds Hotel).  The 500-room Lauderdale Beach Hotel, the Tradewinds, the Edmar apartments and adjacent beach were taken over by the U.S. Navy August 1, 1943. They were used as a navy radar training school until the winter of 1945 when they were released to civilian trade.

Fusion of old/new

Today, only the front part of the Lauderdale Beach Hotel remains, occupied by a cafe and attached via a garage to the upscale Las Olas Club condominium. The hotel with its distinct architecture, a vestige of the 1930s art deco or art moderne style was partially rescued by preservationists when condo developers bought the property. A condition of development was to leave the distinctive facade of the old structure intact.

The Las Olas Club was built behind and attached to the old Lauderdale Beach Hotel in 2007. Condos there range from $799,000 to $3.9 million (about $540 a square foot) – quite a change for the old Fort Lauderdale landmark, site of so many special occasions, conventions and vacations since 1937.

Copyright © 2019, 2021, 2024. All rights reserved. Jane Feehan
________________

Sources:

Miami News, Aug. 19, 1945

Miami News, May 18, 1943

http://blogsouthflorida.com/south-florida-oceanfront-condos/Las-Olas-Beach-Club

Tags: Fort Lauderdale history, Fort Lauderdale hotel history, Fort Lauderdale in WWII, Fort Lauderdale in the 1930s, Fort Lauderdale in the 1940s

Fort Lauderdale's Beachgoer Stats 1940s

 

Fort Lauderdale Beach 1944
Florida State Archive/Florida Memory

By Jane Feehan

During the 1940s it was easier to capture and publicize the number of Fort Lauderdale beach goers than it might be today. 

A report published by the Fort Lauderdale Daily News (June 5, 1945) from Porter Reynolds, supervisor of Parks and Recreation for the city, indicated the following for the month of May, 1945:

26,723 persons used the beach with a daily average of 863

9,177 swimmers, including military personnel, used the Las Olas Casino Pool

6,131 people used the lockers at the Casino pool

408 people used the municipal tennis courts

2,168 used the city’s shuffleboard courts




Tags: Fort Lauderdale Beach, Fort Lauderdale history

Fort Lauderdale's lion-breeding pit (think Gateway)

Clyde Beatty at his Fort Lauderdale Jungle Zoo, circa 1945
Florida State Archives/Florida Memory

By Jane Feehan

The site of present-day Gateway Shopping Center, where Sunrise Blvd. and U.S. 1 merge, was once a rock pit and breeding spot for lions. The McKillop-Hutton company launched operations here in 1936 to raise big cats and other animals for circuses and the zoo trade.

Celebrated animal trainer, circus owner, and one time big-game hunter Clyde Beatty (1903-1965), purchased the pit and its lions from McKillop-Hutton in 1939. Clyde Beatty’s Jungle Zoo opened on the site; it proved to be a popular South Florida attraction. Beatty, who started out in the circus business cleaning cages and holding pens, often hosted local school kids eager to see big cats and other animals. A children's zoo, an addition to the original footprint, featured baby animals born and raised at his zoo.

The roaring of lions, and monkeys escaping into homes of the adjacent Victoria Park neighborhood eventually forced reluctant city officials to use zoning ordinances to close operations in 1945.

In a Fort Lauderdale City Commission meeting held in February 1945, it was determined the zoo, "an eye sore" violated sanitary requirements. Another ordinance was written prohibiting the raising or housing of wild animals within city limits. Sixty Victoria Park residents on hand for the meeting, loudly cheered approval of the ordinanaces that were to close that chapter of Fort Lauderdale history. Beatty, who wrote The Big Cage, which was also a film released in 1933, was not at the meeting to defend himself and his $125,000 investment.

The Gateway Shopping Center was developed over the old rock pit in 1950. (See index for Gateway)


Copyright ©2010, 2020 Jane Feehan. All rights reserved.

Clyde Beatty at his Fort Lauderdale Jungle Zoo, circa 1945
Florida State Archives/Florida Memory

Sources:
Fort Lauderdale Daily News, Nov. 24, 1941
Fort Lauderdale Daily News, Feb. 26, 1945
Weidling and Burghard. Checkered Sunshine. Gainesville: University of Florida Press, 1966
Internet Movie Database - www.imdb.org
Circus History – www.circushistory.org




Tags: Lions, Clyde Beatty, Fort Lauderdale in the 1940s, Gateway Shopping Center, Fort Lauderdale history

Fort Lauderdale counts how many hotels, schools, churches and banks in 1941?

Fort Lauderdale circa 1940
Florida State Archives/Florida Memories

The Fort Lauderdale Daily News (November 24, 1941, a few weeks before Pearl Harbor) printed an ad with the following facts about the city:

Apartments - 210 buildings, 1,100 units
Banks - 3
Churches - 20 representing 16 denominations
Climate - 76.0 degrees yearly mean temperature
Hotels - 34 buildings, 2014 rooms
Office Buildings - 14
Population - Permanent, 17,996; Winter, 45,000
Public Parks - 8
Schools - Public, 6 elementary; 2 junior and senior high schools; 2 private day; 3 parochial; 1 boarding, 1 Black school (public); 2 business colleges; 2 art schools.

In the same issue a story about about local waterways provided the following information:

Two hundred miles of waterways within the city limits, 57 bridges, and 30 big-game charter fishing guide boats tied up in New River. Last winter 600 yachts were tied uBep in snug anchorage in New River, which runs through both business and residential sections of the city.

Before that decade ended, newcomers were confronted with a housing shortage in Fort Lauderdale and throughout South Florida. The word was out about what a great place this was to live. And today? With nearly 200,000 residents, choked roads, sky-high real estate prices and towering condos, the city has lost its charm but serves as refuge for those leaving less desirable places "up North."



Tags: Fort Lauderdale history, Fort Lauderdale in 1941, Fort Lauderdale before WWII, Fort Lauderdale at WWII, Florida history, Fort Lauderdale in the 40s, Fort Lauderdale in the 1940s, 

Arrests for bicycle sirens in Fort Lauderdale?

Posted by Jane Feehan

Kids have always managed to find mischief. These days arrest-worthy shenanigans may be computer, drug or gun-related. During the mid-1940s in Fort Lauderdale, law enforcement was concerned about kids on bicycles.

Bikes weren't causing problems; it was the sirens youngsters mounted on them that sounded like ambulances, fire trucks and police cars.

The Fort Lauderdale Daily News found the problem noteworthy enough to publish a brief front-page story about it June 5, 1945 when law enforcement announced an initiative to do away with sirens.

"Owners of bicycles with sirens will be arrested," said Police Chief R.A. Addison.  He warned the public that sirens were to be used  only by emergency vehicles and police cars.

"I don't like to arrest a bunch of kids," said Addison, "but these unauthorized sirens cause too much trouble."

Those halcyon days ...

Fee-based license tags were required for bicycles in the 1940s and into the 1960s. In 1945, 2,608 bike tags were purchased for about a dollar each at local police stations or schools. By August of the following year, sales slumped to 1,138. By the early 1960s, tags were issued for $10 for two years. Today, registration is required but there is no fee. The Fort Lauderdale Police Department recently reported nearly 2,400 bicycles have been stolen over the last five years; that number does not include thefts of unregistered bicycles. 

And ... there have been no published reports of arrests for nuisance bicycle sirens, no doubt a short-lived fad.

Tags: Fort Lauderdale in the 1940s, Fort Lauderdale crime in the 1940s, Fort Lauderdale history, Fort Lauderdale history

Sources:

 Fort Lauderdale Daily News, June 5, 1945

Fort Lauderdale News, July 26, 1946

Fort Lauderdale Daily News, Aug. 20, 1946

Fort Lauderdale Daily News, Feb. 18, 1950

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

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

By Jane Feehan 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sources:

Fort Lauderdale News, Jan. 4, 1948.

Fort Lauderdale News, Oct. 18, 1951

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

End of WWII brings Burdine's Department Store to Fort Lauderdale

Burdines 1973
Florida State Archives/Florida Memory

By Jane Feehan 

Retired Confederate army officer William Burdine and his partner, Henry Payne, opened their store in Bartow, FL in 1897 as a dry goods establishment. Some accounts indicate the store opened its doors in downtown Miami in 1898.; it operated as W.M. Burdine & Sons. By 1912 it became a department store and grew in synch with Florida's development in the decades to follow.

Burdine's expanded its South Florida presence with a Fort Lauderdale store in 1947. It was the retailer's third branch and was known by that time as Burdine’s Department Store. According to the Miami News, it was one of the first new department stores completed in the United States after the end of World War II.

Located at South Andrews and S.W. 2nd Street (site of the old city hall) The four-story building occupied eight lots with a build out of 48,775 square feet. It was constructed on a foundation suitable for eight floors but opened with three sales floors and another of mixed use. The new Burdine's was completely air conditioned. 

Local news reported other features that were sure to appeal to shoppers:

Atop the building was a 25-bell carillon which plays music at frequent intervals and strikes the time each half hour. Prominent carilloneurs will be invited to play during the Christmas season.

More than 80 percent of the store’s 150 employees are residents of Fort Lauderdale or vicinity. ‘We believe home-town men and women can do a better job selling,’ said Manager Russell Jones.

All employees have completed an intensive two-week course of instruction in Burdine’s sales methods and customer relations, with a particular indoctrination in their departments.

Burdine’s merged with Federated Department Stores, which owned Macy's, in 1956. That helped fund much of its growth throughout Florida, including additional SOFLA stores. The downtown Fort Lauderdale store was shuttered in 1980. In 2003, Burdine’s transitioned to the Macy’s brand. According to the Miami Herald, the Burdine's name officially met its end in 2005. 

The ad above is from the Miami News, May 25, 1928. Ahhh, those prices: Women's hats $4; men's neckties $1; boys' fine shirts ...79 cents.

Burdines 1926 Miami downtown
Florida State Archives/Florida Memory

Sources:

Miami News, May 25, 1928

Miami News, Oct. 31, 1947

https://flashbackmiami.com/2016/05/24/burdines-the-florida-store/

Tags: Fort Lauderdale history, Florida retail history, Fort Lauderdale in the 1940s, history of  Fort Lauderdale

Fort Lauderdale Tarpons - Minor League Baseball, city pastime, Westside Park and ...

Before Westside Park, Stranahan Field, Fort Lauderdale High School
 State Archives of Florida

By Jane Feehan

Fort Lauderdale was fully engaged in baseball, the National Pastime*, by 1913. That’s when pioneer Frank Stranahan donated and cleared land for the sport. The Tarpons, later acknowledged as the “representative team” of the city, played its first game July 4 that year against Stuart at the new Stranahan Field.

The city upped its endorsement of baseball as a community pastime in 1925 by designating $15,000 for construction of Municipal Field, later known as Westside Park. Located off Northwest 4^th Street, the four-acre park included a concrete grandstand for 600 spectators with concession stands to sell sandwiches and soft drinks. Lauded as perhaps the finest in the state, the park included dressing rooms and showers below the grandstand to serve home and away teams. Baseball stories and stats filled sports pages of the day, so a press box in the grandstand hosted assigned reporters and photographers. Bleachers were added after opening day, July 19, 1925.

As master of ceremonies at 3:30 that afternoon, Fort Lauderdale Mayor Will Reed proudly led the Tarpons from the dugout onto the field under rain-threatened skies. About 600 eager fans filled the grandstand. It was time for the team, managed by “Pop” Lewis, to “cross bats” with the Coconut Grove team, nicknamed the Schulzmen and managed by “Rabbit” Schulz.

Skies opened up after a few innings, soaking the field and equipment; the game was called but soon resumed. In the bottom of the ninth inning, the Tarpons lost to Coconut Grove 6-3, the first of a four-game loosing streak. According to the Fort Lauderdale News sports reporter Howard Babb, the “team lost after many innings of disturbed playing.”

The Tarpons, a Minor League Baseball team played in the Florida State League in 1928 when its teams included the Fort Meyers Palms, Clearwater Pelicans, West Palm Beach Sheriffs, the Sanford Celeryfeds, the Tampa Smokers and a list of others with just as interesting names. The Tarpons, affiliated with the Pittsburg Pirates, also played for the Florida East Coast League from 1940 to 1942. They won a championship in 1940. The roster of teams in the FECL included the Miami Beach Flamingos, the Miami Wahoos and the Fort Pierce Bombers.

The Fort Lauderdale Tarpons folded in 1942 due to financial difficulties and World War II concerns, but its demise did not spell the end of the city’s affiliation with baseball. Fort Lauderdale hosted spring training for the Boston Braves in 1946 (see https://janeshistorynook.blogspot.com/2020/07/boston-braves-first-mlb-team-in-fort.html) and the New York Yankees for a few years beginning in 1962 (see https://janeshistorynook.blogspot.com/2020/06/yankees-come-to-fort-lauderdale-in-1962.html)

Westside Park closed in 1957. Today, it is the site of the Fort Lauderdale Police Department Headquarters.

* The term  "National Pastime" was linked to baseball as early as 1856 in news stories.

Sources:

Miami Herald, July 18, 1921

Lineup for park's opening day, Jul. 19, 1925

Fort Lauderdale News, July 20,1925

Fort Lauderdale News, July 20, 1928

Fort Lauderdale News, April 26, 1942

Wikipedia

 Tags: Minor League Baseball, Fort Lauderdale baseball, National pastime, Fort Lauderdale history

Fort Lauderdale's first restaurant, first tamales and top character

By Jane Feehan

One story, a true one about early Fort Lauderdale, often crosses my mind as a terrific opening scene of a movie. A dog walks into a lunch stand. With an air of purpose, he trots behind seated customers who appear amused but not surprised to see this frequent visitor. 

Duke the dog finds a vacant spot at the counter where he drops a nickel from his mouth. The owner of the town’s first restaurant takes the nickel as payment for two hamburgers. He wraps the food in paper; Duke gently picks up the order to deliver to his master, baseball player and animal trainer, Joe Atchinson.*

The story is as colorful as that of the restaurant’s owner Ed Caruth, by then a fixture at the city’s Tarpon baseball games where he sold soda and hot dogs. Kids knew him as “Uncle Ed.”

No one knows when he first came to town, but Caruth was here, according to late historian Philip Weidling, when the notorious Ashley Gang was still robbing banks in South Florida (1915-1924). He opened the first restaurant (there was one other, a diner, but open only in winter). Caruth opened on Brickell Avenue and named it the Hungry Man’s Friend.
(Years later this address transitioned to the site of the famed political hub, Brown’s Restaurant).

Caruth, known for his long black mustache and for using a large multi-purpose knife to flip burgers (new to the American palate then), slice buns, swat roaches and trim his ‘stache, was well-liked by all but seemingly restless. Sometime in 1918 or the year before, he ventured to Pascagoula, MS where he cooked at a hotel restaurant near a large shipyard. By October 1918, he returned to Florida because, as he told a Miami newspaper, “influenza was everywhere.”

Caruth also looked into prospects at Lake Worth where it was booming. But he reappeared in Fort Lauderdale afterward where he opened Ed’s Lunch Stand (or Ed's Place) on Wall Street. Newspaper accounts indicate he was busy at the stand in 1930. By that time everyone in town knew Ed and he knew all. Many delighted in telling stories about the popular eatery, including the time someone asked for half a scrambled egg and he cooked up a half dozen. Business was brisk and everyone expected him to continue to do well. He did, until the Great Depression, when he was forced to close the restaurant.

Ever enterprising, Caruth converted a baby buggy into a cart he painted red and included a sign, “Hot Tamales.” Those were probably the city's first. Refusing tips, he made and sold tamales along the New River waterfront until rationing policies of World War II made meat a scarcity. By then, he could barely walk. It was reported in 1946 that he had moved to Miami to live with relatives; that move could have been well before that. The trail and the timeline, always sketchy, ends there but not before the Caruth name and character was known throughout the city.

In 1959, a story in the Fort Lauderdale News suggested the city’s history included five top characters:
1. Charlie Swaggerty
2. Larry Crabtree
3. Ed Caruth
4. Commodore Brook
5. Sam Drake

Who would be Fort Lauderdale’s top five characters today?

*Atchinson, a catcher, also a successful animal trainer, wound up in the movie biz in Hollywood, CA. More on him in another story …

Sources:

Burghard, A. and Weidling, P. Checkered Sunshine.University of Florida Press, Gainesville: 1966
Miami Metropolis, Oct. 23, 1918
Fort Lauderdale News, July 14, 1930
Fort Lauderdale News Sept. 20, 1932
Fort Lauderdale News, Dec. 20, 1938
Fort Lauderdale News, Aug 14, 1946
Fort Lauderdale News, Oct. 7, 1946
Fort Lauderdale News, Feb. 22, 1955
Fort Lauderdale News, Aug. 28, 1959

Tags: Fort Lauderdale history, Fort Lauderdale characters, Fort Lauderdale restaurants, influenza

Fighting polio with a ban on visitors from Fort Lauderdale, DDT spray and ...

Unidentified Florida twins with polio 1960
Florida State Archives/Florida Memory

By Jane Feehan

With world news abuzz about the COVID19 pandemic and polio cases appearing recently in Syria, Pakistan and Afghanistan,  it might be interesting to revisit the polio epidemic in the 1940s and 1950s in Fort Lauderdale. Below are bits and pieces that appeared in newspapers of those decades.

In 1946, North Carolina banned visitors from Fort Lauderdale for a few weeks out of fear hundreds of children visiting summer camps from the city would bring the polio virus with them. It had been a normal year for polio cases in North Carolina with about 19 cases reported. The ban had an economic impact on rail travel.

Sanitation workers sprayed DDT in alleys and garbage cans behind restaurants in Fort Lauderdale. Garbage trucks were followed by trucks with the deadly spray. Workers complained of sores and other skin problems after they were exposed daily to DDT. The Fort Lauderdale Caterers Association announced plans to underwrite spraying of the entire city.

Polio cases with fatalities declined in 1949 in Fort Lauderdale, and rose in 1952 with a total of 77 cases. But the city, as Florida, was hit hard in 1953 and 1954. About 57,000 and 36,000 cases were reported respectively nation-wide, making those years among the worst of polio epidemics in the U.S. since it first appeared in 1894 in this country.

An outbreak occurred in northwest Fort Lauderdale in 1954 with 65 cases. About 2,000 mothers and children lined up at the public health building to receive gamma globulin immunizations. More than 200 were turned away when they ran out of supplies. Fort Lauderdale reported a total of 95 cases that year. The Salk vaccine was made available later in 1954 and was successful in qwelling the epidemic in Florida and across of the nation.

D-Day vet, Robert Q. “Whitey" Garrigus, Jr., who survived the Normandy invasion in 1944 as part of the 507th parachute regiment and subsequently spent one year in a German prison camp, fell victim to bulbar polio in Fort Lauderdale. The former Miami High football star died July 5, 1954 at Variety Children’s hospital after being stricken by the disease at his home at 1500 NW 11 Place.

After Jonas Salk’s polio vaccine was developed and used successfully at schools during the 1954 epidemic, cases dropped dramatically in Fort Lauderdale and across the nation.

The last U.S. case occurring naturally, i.e., not via the vaccine, was in 1979. A case was reported in Fort Lauderdale in 1996 that may have resulted from the vaccine.

Rotary Club International has embraced the mission of wiping out polio around the globe. According to its website, the last case of wild poliovirus in the Americas occurred in 1991, and by 1994, the Western Hemisphere became polio-free. Copyright © 2015. All rights reserved. Jane Feehan.

Sources:

Miami News, June 16, 1946

Miami News, Jan. 11, 1949

Miami News, Oct. 13, 1952

St. Petersburg Times, July 2, 1954

Miami News, July 6, 1954

Miami News, July 18, 1954

Palm Beach Post, May 14, 1955

Ocala Star Banner May 15, 1955

Palm Beach Post, May 9, 1970

Fort Lauderdale Daily News, July 3, 1996

Tags: polio, Fort Lauderdale historian, Miami historian

Mackey Airlines, its colorful founder ... and Fort Lauderdale

Mackey 1972 destinations -
 Florida State Archives/Florida Memory

By Jane Feehan

Fort Lauderdale’s Mackey Airlines played a leading role in the South Florida aviation scene from 1946 when it was established as Mackey Air Transport, a charter airline, to 1967 when it merged with Eastern Airlines.  

Founder Joseph Creighton Mackey started up four airlines, including Mackey International operating 1969-1981. His life and career resembles a film script.

Convair CV-240 -
one type flown by Mackey Air

Mackey (1909-1982) was known as a circus barnstormer or aerial stuntman before he served in the USAF during World War II, reaching rank of colonel. Before the U.S. entered the fighting, Mackey was recruited as a ferry pilot for the Canadian war effort. In 1941 he was pilot and sole survivor of an air crash in Newfoundland. Three died on their way to England Feb. 21, including 49-year-old Dr. Sir Frederick Grant Banting who co-discovered insulin as a treatment for diabetes.

In 1943, Colonel Mackey served as commander of the First Foreign Transport Group that flew for the Fireball Express, touted then as the world’s longest, fastest air freight line. Mackey and crew operated four-engine giant C-54 transport planes from Miami to India. The  Fireball Express crew told Miami News reporters that they made the 28,000-mile round trip in “as quickly as six days, 10 hours and 15 minutes.” One year after the freight line started, it logged nearly 7,000,000 miles with only two fatalities.

After the war, Mackey returned to Fort Lauderdale where he had lived on Sunset Drive since 1937. He launched Mackey Air Transport in 1946 (it transitioned to Mackey Airlines in 1953) with routes from Fort Lauderdale, Miami and West Palm Beach to the Caribbean and Cuba.  His Fort Lauderdale-based air carrier became one of only three in the U.S., including Pan Am, to earn a government certification as an International Airline.

After Eastern Airlines bought Mackey routes in 1967 for $19 million, the colonel started up Mackey International Airlines (1969). Its Fort Lauderdale headquarters was bombed in 1977 by a Cuban exile group who objected to Mackey’s vice president meeting with the Cuban government to re-establish air routes. As a result, the airline withdrew from negotiations. Mackey International Airlines closed its doors in 1981.

Joseph Mackey was inducted into the Aviation Hall of Fame six months before he died at his Flamingo Road home near Davie in 1982. Copyright © 2014. All rights reserved. Jane Feehan.

For a post about Fort Lauderdale's first aviator, Merle Fogg,  see:

https://janeshistorynook.blogspot.com/2020/12/merle-fogg-fort-lauderdales-first.html

Sources:

Miami News, Feb. 15, 1982

Miami News, Nov. 12, 1944

Miami News, Feb. 25, 1941

http://www.historynet.com/erroll-boyd-world-war-i-combat-pilot-and-aviation-daredevil.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Arx_Fortis/Mackey#cite_note-0

       

Tags: Fort Lauderdale aviators, Fort Lauderdale history, Florida airlines, Joseph Creighton Mackey, Mackey Airlines, film researcher