Sunrise Junior High now Sunrise Middle: a brief history and a chuckle

Sunrise Middle School today

By Jane Feehan

Fort Lauderdale needed schools in the 1950s. The city led the state in population growth by the middle of that decade. Plans for Sunrise Junior High School materialized after Fort Lauderdale pioneer and realtor M.A. Hortt donated his property at 1750 N.E. 14 St., not far west of Federal Highway. 

In May 1956 the Broward County School Board awarded a construction contract to Miami’s J.S. Stephens and Sons for $563,735, lower than the estimated $600,000 to $800,000 for this new facility. Population growth was expected to continue at the same rate so at that May meeting the board also approved the cost of stockpiling lumber for 30-35 portable classrooms of a 100 portable classroom county-wide project.

Plans for the new Sunrise Junior High (sixth through eighth grades) included a large patio, larger than the one at the old Fort Lauderdale High School, 24 classrooms, a physical education building, library, “cafetorium,” a home economics room and an administration/music building.  About 500 students attending the Naval Air Station Junior High were expected to move to Sunrise Junior High when it was contracted for completion by Feb. 1, 1957. The school was designed for 750 students but 1,000 were expected to enroll.

Construction was behind by early October 1956. Only 35 percent was completed with 50 percent of the contracted time behind them. Sunrise Junior High did not open on time, but a month later, on March 4, 1957 with Mr. J.A. Wilkins as principal. Bus transportation was provided for students two miles beyond the school. 

In a board meeting back in January, 1956 members had asked for a report or feasibility study on avoiding early opening of county schools to cope with peak traffic and—get this one—from opening early on “cold, damp mornings” (in Florida?). Those possibilities did not materialize because, other than being unreasonable, it became moot. By August 1957, mere months after opening, Sunrise Junior High was busting at the seams (as were others). It operated split or double sessions as they awaited completion of 16 portable classrooms. The proposed late openings for cold, damp days and traffic morphed quickly into the need to get students at school (s) earlier.

Today, about 1,350 students attend Sunrise Middle School, a Montessori Magnet School. Baseball, basketball, golf, soccer, track and field are offered. There’s a pool on the expanded campus, but it’s not operated by Sunrise Middle School. The campus has grown. Sunrise Middle School is now painted in white with blue trim. And about its newspaper, for which I once served as assistant editor … it’s long gone.

Sunrise Middle today

Sources:

Fort Lauderdale News, Jan. 6, 1956
Fort Lauderdale News, May 26, 1956
Fort Lauderdale News, Oct. 4, 1956
Fort Lauderdale News, May 1, 1957
Fort Lauderdale News, Aug. 30, 1957
Sunrise Middle School Administration – thank you.

Tags: Fort Lauderdale middle schools, Broward County schools in the 1950s, Fort Lauderdale school history, Sunrise Middle School, Jane Feehan, Fort Lauderdale in the 1950s

Trailblazing Jolly Roger Hotel, Jayne Mansfield and an adventure

Jolly Roger, now Sea Club

By Jane Feehan

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

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

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

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

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

Jolly Roger now Sea Club

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


Sources:

Sun-Sentinel, Jan. 29, 2009

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

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

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

Sunrise Shopping Center
Florida State Archives/Erickson

By Jane Feehan

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

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

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

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

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

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

  

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

Creighton, his restaurant and other contributions to Fort Lauderdale history

Florida State Archives

By Jane Feehan

For a span of 30 years, beginning in the early 1950s, Creighton’s Restaurant was a familiar site on Sunrise Boulevard in Fort Lauderdale, near where the Galleria Mall sits today.

The posh restaurant, loaded with antiques and objets d’art, topped lists of places to celebrate special occasions. Its large sign, with “Home of the World's Best Apple Pie,” coaxed those unfamiliar with the place inside for a meal, if not to try the pie, which was actually quite good.

Florida State Archives

The restaurant was owned by Charlie Creighton, who died in 1991 at nearly 91. It wasn't his only interest. His restaurant legacy  includes: Johnson’s in Daytona Beach, Mammy’s Shanty in Atlanta and the Wedgewood Inn in St. Petersburg.

There was much more to Creighton than his restaurants.

In 1962, upon returning from a National Day of Prayer in Washington, DC, Creighton established a local day of prayer in what became the Fort Lauderdale Mayor’s Prayer Breakfast.

                                                                                
Charles Creighton had many business interests. He helped found Holy Cross Hospital, opened the Sunrise Shopping Center (now the Galleria Mall) and developed property on Miami's Brickell Avenue.

For his restaurant and what he brought to the business table and to the city, Charlie Creighton occupies a significant place in the chronicles of Fort Lauderdale's history. 

Copyright © 2020. All rights reserved. Jane Feehan.

Sources:

Miami News, Dec. 3, 1955
Sun-Sentinel, March 27, 1991

Tags: Creighton's Restaurant, Charlie Creighton, Fort Lauderdale history

________________________________

Tags: Fort Lauderdale restaurant history, Charlie Creighton, Florida history, Fort Lauderdale history, Florida film researcher

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

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

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

By Jane Feehan 

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

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

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

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

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

Sources:

Fort Lauderdale News, Oct. 1, 1957

Fort Lauderdale News, Oct. 19, 1957

Fort Lauderdale News, Oct. 26, 1957

Fort Lauderdale News, April 13, 1958

Fort Lauderdale News, March 28, 1959

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

Muriel’s Exotic Jade House, that cigar and Jade Beach

By Jane Feehan

Muriel’s Exotic Jade House was quite the nightspot in its day. Sitting off A-1-A in Lauderdale-by-the-Sea, the Jade House featured tunes of the Gay 90s—that’s 1890s—and a one-item menu of prime rib. But people  frequented the club to see Muriel Window Turnley in her feathered hats playing piano and singing under a large umbrella adorned in Christmas bells and lights.

Muriel

Quite the character, Muriel hailed from Burlingame, Kansas, where she had her start in vaudeville with a stage appearance at three months. In 1910, she officially joined vaudeville theater in signing with the American Music Hall in New York. Three years later, she became a Ziegfeld girl, featured by Flo Ziegfeld in a single act in his Follies review as the Peacock Girl. Muriel also performed in the Orpheum and Keith circuits in those days. She performed with Will Rogers, Al Jolson, Sophie Tucker, Jimmy Dorsey and other high-profile entertainers of the era. Muriel also flirted with opera singing, she  told friends, as a protégé of opera great Maria (she probably meant Luisa) Tetrazzini.

Muriel played in London—Drury Lane and the Victoria Palace—where she claimed to have introduced the song “Till we meet again.” She later told friends she became an ambulance driver in London, one of the first women to do so in World War I, transporting wounded soldiers returning from France in a “touring car borrowed from Herbert Hoover.” This can’t be confirmed, nor can her claim the Muriel Cigar was named for her.

What can be certain is Muriel opened her Exotic Jade House in 1953 where she was seen with her giant Macaw, Sophie. Known for her generosity and as a soft touch for those in trouble, she invited fans
over 60 to be her guest for dinner at her 65^th birthday in 1956. In 1958, she joined a highly-publicized neighborhood fight to quell the noisy underage drinking parties on Jade Beach, across the street from her club. Jade Beach partying was later depicted in the 1961 movie, "Where the Boys Are."

She made one album and after years of wishing for a national network television spot, appeared on the Michael Douglas Show a few months before her death. The popular entertainer died Aug. 29, 1965 in Fort Lauderdale’s Holy Cross Hospital after an appendectomy, or ruptured appendix, depending on the account. Muriel Inetta Turnley, married three times (Robert Emmet Keene, Arthur Hanford and Howard Turnley) is entombed at the Lauderdale Memorial Gardens Mausoleum, where her mother Catherine I. Window* lies.

And the Jade House? After closing and reopening a number of times, it finally shuttered as Mitchie’s Steak House in 1970 to make way for a townhouse development. Muriel's was a tough act to follow. Copyright Jane Feehan 2018.

 ------

*Catherine I. Window joined daughter Muriel in Pompano in 1954 or 55, where she died in 1961 at age 90.

Sources:

Fort Lauderdale News, Dec. 13, 1953

Fort Lauderdale News, Jan.6, 1954

Fort Lauderdale News, Feb. 5, 1956

Fort Lauderdale News, April 11, 1958

Fort Lauderdale News, March 2, 1961

Fort Lauderdale News, Aug 30, 1965

Fort Lauderdale News, Oct. 31, 1965

Fort Lauderdale News, Nov. 23, 1966

Fort Lauderdale News, Oct. 25, 1968

Fort Lauderdale News, Sept 5, 1970



Tags: Fort Lauderdale history, Fort Lauderdale clubs, Fort Lauderdale restaurants of the 1960s, Fort Lauderdale entertainers, history of Fort Lauderdale

The first hotel on Fort Lauderdale's Galt Mile?

Galt area 1950s
State Archives/ of  Florida/
Florida Memory

By Jane Feehan

The mile-long strip of land known as the Galt Mile was sold in 1953 by Arthur T. Galt for $19 million to James S. Hunt and Stephen A. Calder, heralding the first development phase of that area. The first hotel to go up on this golden mile was the Beach Club Hotel.

The Beach Club, first an exclusive private club along the beach at Oakland Park Boulevard, was purchased in July 1956 by Eugene Ballard and L. Bert Stephens, owners/managers of the Lago Mar Hotel. 

Ben Chavez Construction connected the old Beach Club building to a new, 150-room (some accounts say 200-room) wing. The Chanticleer cocktail lounge in the old building and the new, outdoor Carousel Bar, shuffleboard courts and saltwater pool were included in hotel offerings when it opened Dec. 22, 1956.

Its “tropical architecture” motif served as backdrop to an array of civic club meetings, a busy calendar of winter season parties and year-round memberships to its pool and roster of family activities. In May 1957, five months after opening, the Beach Club Hotel hosted the Mrs. America contest for 10 days.

And there was the Woody Woodbury connection. 

The popular Fort Lauderdale entertainer is often remembered for his appearances at other hotels along Fort Lauderdale beach, including the Bahama Hotel, but he appeared (and ran things) at the Lulubelle Room at the Beach Club Hotel for 10 years, his longest run anywhere. 

Woodbury’s last show at the Lulubelle was July 21, 1984 where he bid farewell to about 200 fans—the B.I.T.O.A. club or “Booze is the Only Answer” club. Many thought he would soon move to California, but he remained in the Fort Lauderdale area (Plantation).

Woody re-appeared months later at the Rum Room at the Galt Ocean Mile Hotel and elsewhere in Fort Lauderdale and other cities before he actually called it quits.

The opening of the Beach Club was soon followed by the Galt Ocean Mile Hotel in 1957. But, by the mid-1980s, both were shuttered to make way for new projects—for what I call the second development phase for the Galt, the condominium era. A 500-room Hilton Hotel was proposed for the Beach Club Hotel site but made some on the city’s zoning board nervous about potential traffic problems (they should see Fort Lauderdale now, where traffic problems no longer matter). After several years of lying vacant, the old Beach Club site was developed into two 27-story towers of L’Hermitage Condominium.

Today's beach access next to the
site of
Beach Club Hotel 
Oakland Park and A1A

For more on Galt Mile hotels, see 

https://janeshistorynook.blogspot.com/2013/05/galt-mile-jewels-in-1950s-ocean-manor.html

Sources:

Fort Lauderdale News, Oct. 27, 1956

Fort Lauderdale News, Dec. 20, 1956

Fort Lauderdale News, May 2, 1957

Fort Lauderdale News, Dec. 19, 1975

Fort Lauderdale News, July 24, 1984

Fort Lauderdale News, March 29, 1985



Tags: Beach Club Hotel, Galt Ocean Mile, Woody Woodbury, B.I.T.O.A. club, Fort Lauderdale history

Sears story in Fort Lauderdale didn't begin with Searstown

Andrews Avenue 1939
Florida State Archives/ Florida Memory

By Jane Feehan

Sears, Roebuck and Company, founded in 1886, has had its ups and downs over the years. The largest retailer in the United States until 1989, it now occasionally announces store closings.  Fort Lauderdale residents wonder if Searstown on Federal Highway at Sunrise will be shutting its doors. Now they know. In January 2022  the landmark department store announced it is closed after 66 years. 

Few know the history of Sears in Fort Lauderdale; it did not begin with Searstown.

Sears opened its first Fort Lauderdale store Jan. 7, 1937 at 101 S. Andrews Ave. Mayor Lewis Moore (in office 1937-39) officiated at the event along with Chamber of Commerce President J.D. Camp. A reported 2,000 residents “thronged” to the 19,000 sq. foot store. With plenty of product lines to choose from, the store also operated an automotive department offering free tire and battery servicing to those who purchased the products at Sears. Opening day was so busy Store Manager E.E. Carroll summoned additional help to assist at registers and in the aisles.

Sears’ business continued to expand in the growing city. In 1955 the new Searstown opened at 901 N. Federal Hwy where it entered memories of current long-time residents. The transition day between the closing of the store on South Andrews and the opening on Federal was the first business day Sears had closed in the 18 years it had been in Fort Lauderdale.

Searstown, touted as having plenty of parking--and always had--was anchor store to a collection of 15 other businesses by 1958: grocer Piggly Wiggly (second largest in the center), Billet Doux Card Shop, Stevens Bakery, Dr. Harold S. Doubleday, optometrist, Pribbles Jewelry, Searstown Beauty Salon, Chat-N-Nibble Sandwich Shop, Deluxe Barber Shop, Monty’s 5 & 10, Gift Box, Broward Drug and Surgical Supply, the Religious Shop, Dr. William Migden, physician and surgeon, and Town Properties Realty.

By 1958, Searstown was upgraded in the Sears roster of highest revenue producers to number 75 out of its top 122 stores. I wonder how it ranks today … 

Update:

Sun-Sentinel Nov 7, 2023

Denver-based Aimco announces plans to develop three mixed-use towers on the property. 

As of early 2024, the property has been cleared.

Oct. 15, 2018 national story on Sears bankruptcy filing.
 http://www.sun-sentinel.com/business/ct-biz-sears-bankruptcy-20181015-story.html

Update: Sun-Sentinel 5/14/23

Plans uncertain for closed Searstown. RK Centers has already bought/sold the property. Another developer, Aimco, has proposed tamed down version of the first: 797 apts instead of 954, three towers instead of four but city doesn't like it. Not spectacular enough. Dubbed 901 North, the new plan presents no "gravitas" as city entrance. ( JF note: Now Mayor T is worried about traffic impact. Now, he's worried. Others worry about lack of infrastructure to support it ... now they're worried). Anyway, nothing for 2023 project start. 

Searstown closed January 2022 to make way for a $400 million mixed use project of apartments (condos?), offices and retail space by RK Developers. The project is expected to begin mid 2023. Get ready for even more traffic nightmares.

https://www.sun-sentinel.com/local/broward/fort-lauderdale/fl-ne-fort-lauderdale-searstown-closes-20220122-koppuu6pcjfpjakv5t2qdmmjba-story.html

Update January 2024:

Searstown completely torn down.

Sources:

Fort Lauderdale News, Jan. 6, 1937

Fort Lauderdale News, Jan. 7, 1937

Fort Lauderdale News, Aug. 10, 1958

Tags: Fort Lauderdale history, History of Fort Lauderdale, Florida retail history, South Florida history, Broward County history, About Fort Lauderdale

Jane Feehan

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

Fort Lauderdale Beach 1967
Florida State Archives

By Jane Feehan

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

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

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

There’s more. Much more.

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

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

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

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

Parker Playhouse before
2020-2021 renovations

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

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

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

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

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

Sources:

New York Times, Nov. 15, 1959

Pittsburgh Press, Nov. 25, 1966

Palm Beach Daily News, Feb. 22, 1984

New York Times, Feb. 6, 1967

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

Lustron House: Solution to post WWII housing comes to Fort Lauderdale

Lustron house in Fort Lauderdale

By Jane Feehan


A housing shortage affected the nation—and South Florida—after World War II. Among the reasons was pent up demand and a dearth of building materials.

California Lustron house

Carl G. Strandlund, then 48, set out to remedy the problem with his idea for a prefabricated house. He launched Lustron Corporation in 1947 with $1,000 jointly invested with his wife, some other private capital and a loan of about $37.5 million from the federal government. It was a controversial loan because of its risk, one that had many detractors in Washington, but the housing need, as defined by President Harry S. Truman, was critical. Strandlund, an engineer, put up his patent for his prefab house as collateral.

Strandlund’s plan was to build 150 a day or a total of 17,500 houses in a plant in Columbus, Ohio with thousands of employees. Lustron Corp. built about 2,500 units, which were delivered as kits. Walls, ceilings and roofs were made of porcelain-enameled steel. Plumbing fixtures were constructed of enamel. The automotive and aircraft industries provided the templates for wiring and lighting. The houses were low maintenance, simple structures of one or two bedrooms but they had low curb appeal.

Lustron Corporation declared bankruptcy in February 1950. There were production delays and lack of a distribution strategy. Also, little thought went into community or site planning. But a few were sent to Florida, with the largest number to Sarasota. 

Records indicate there was one located at 110 Hendricks Isle in Fort Lauderdale. One remains in this city, the Alfred and Olive Thorpe Lustron House, at 1001 NE 2nd Street (see Broward link below for photo). It was entered into the National Register of Historic Places in 2007. A Lustron house in Boca Raton is recorded as demolished. One may still exist on Biscayne Boulevard in Miami and another is listed as being on 59th Street near the Miami International Airport.

The largest assembly (60) of Lustron houses, was at the U.S. Marine military base in Quantico, VA. Information and history about the low-maintenance units is still being researched and compiled by the Lustron Preservation Organization (www.lustronpreservation.org). Some estimate that 2,000 still exist, a testimony to their structural integrity. Copyright © 2015. All rights reserved. Jane Feehan.


Sources:

* Fetters, Thomas A. Lustron Home: The History of a Postwar Prefabricated Housing Experiment. McFarland and    Company. Jefferson, NC: 2002

*Lodi News-Sentinel, March 26, 1948

*Miami News, Jan. 13, 1951

* lustronpreservation.org

* www.broward.org/History/NationalRegister/Pages/AlfredandOliveThorpeLustronHouse.aspx

* Wikipedia

Tags: history of Fort Lauderdale, Fort Lauderdale history, SOFLA home construction history

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

Bob Gill's Escape Hotel and his other Fort Lauderdale landmarks ...

Fort Lauderdale Beach 1949
Florida State Archives/Florida Memory

By Jane Feehan

News that the long-closed Escape Hotel  opened as the Gale Hotel, later the Kimpton,  sparked memories about the remarkable man who founded a hotel chain that stretched from the Bahamas to Tampa.

Chicago-born George “Bob” Gill came to Fort Lauderdale after World War II. He started out with his father building houses. A post-war dearth of hotel rooms in the growing city probably informed his decision to venture into the hotel business.

It proved to be an endeavor with significant impact on Fort Lauderdale history and one that unleashed Gill’s marketing genius. The Escape Hotel, the first on Fort Lauderdale beach to feature a pool and to remain operating year-round, opened its doors on New Year’s Eve 1949.   

By 1960, Gill had built the Jolly Roger, the iconic Yankee Clipper (with a bar facing the pool interior that features underwater shows today) and the Yankee Trader. Then he bought the historic British Colonial Hotel (built 1901) in Nassau, Bahamas. During spring 1960, the Gill Hotel chain purchased the 400-room Hillsboro Hotel in downtown Tampa. 

Gill had a knack for marketing. He brought travel agents from around the nation to visit his hotels in Fort Lauderdale. He also knew how to court Floridians. Gill hosted a well-publicized junket from Fort Lauderdale to Tampa in June, 1961.  He chartered a Mackey Airlines DC-3 to bring 25 Fort Lauderdale movers and shakers to participate in the debut of the new Gaslight Room at the Hillsboro Hotel. His guest list included Yankee Clipper manager Tom Brown, attorney Bill Leonard, and WFTL sales manager Bob Peggs. On the plane, they were entertained by a guitarist and served a champagne breakfast by seven “modern-day Floradora girls.”  The partiers returned 24 hours later decked out with dark glasses and more baggage under their eyes than they carried in hand.

Bob Gill died at 93 in 2009. His hotels were sold and became properties of Sheraton, the Hilton and other hotel companies. He probably would have been happy to hear that another chapter, though bittersweet, lies ahead for the Escape Hotel. Operating as the Tiffany House, an assisted living facility in the 1980s, the Escape property lay vacant for years under several owners. Some plans included a large condo to replace the historic hotel, but  it was renovated opened as the Gale Hotel, adjacent to the Gale Residences.  It is now a Kimpton property, the Kimpton Shoreland. 

Renovated as the Kimpton Hotel

Copyright © 2013, 2020. All rights reserved. Jane Feehan.

For more on the Yankee Clipper, see:

https://janeshistorynook.blogspot.com/2020/11/yankee-clipper-hotel-still-sails-in.html

For more on the Jolly Roger, see:

https://janeshistorynook.blogspot.com/2020/07/trailblazing-jolly-roger-hotel-jaynes.html

--------

Sources:

Ocala Star Banner, April 3, 1960

Miami News, June 25, 1961

Sun-Sentinel, Feb. 26, 2009

Sun-Sentinel, Sept. 22, 2013

Tags: Fort Lauderdale hotels, Fort Lauderdale history, historical researcher, 

A Sunday afternoon ride to Melrose Park ...

Fort Lauderdale beach today

By Jane Feehan 

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

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

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

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

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

I wonder what happened to that large yellow sign …

Copyright © 2013. All rights reserved. Jane Feehan.

Sources:

Broward County Appraiser’s Office

Miami News, Feb. 7, 1954

U.S. Census

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

Since 1955, tourism-based economy no drawback for Fort Lauderdale incomes

 

Fort Lauderdale today

By Jane Feehan

In 1955 family incomes in Fort Lauderdale were well above the Florida average and considerably ahead of the same level for families in the South Atlantic states.

Of the 9,750 counted families in the city, 49.2 percent had spendable incomes (after taxes) over $4,000. The Florida average was 36.5 percent; for South Atlantic states it was 41.4 percent.  Further, it was determined that 23.6 percent of the city's total had incomes in the $6,000 range or above (as stated by the 1955 Consumer Markets Annual Report).

That was a big change from the year before, when 62 percent of Fort Lauderdale families had spendable incomes under $4,000; for Broward County, it was 63.5 percent. The percentage of families with incomes above $7,000 was 12.7; it was 12 percent for the county.

Today, statistics are compiled in different ways by different entities. The U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of Economic Analysis states that per capita personal income in the Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Pompano area in 2011 was $43,072.  

Below is data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis reflecting per capita  income, not seasonally adjusted, for Miami, Fort Lauderdale and Pompano in one graph, and another for the U.S.  A Miami, Fort Lauderdale and Pompano compilation was not available for per capita personal income before 1969, nor was one available for personal disposable income. The point of these graphs? Fort Lauderdale has kept up with  national averages even though it has long been a tourism-based economy. Copyright © 2013. All rights reserved. Jane Feehan.

 

Data for Miami, Fort Lauderdale and Pompano

Data for United States

Tags: Fort Lauderdale in the 1950s, personal per capita income Fort Lauderdale, Miami and Pompano, historical researcher

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

By Jane Feehan

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Copyright © 2013. All rights reserved. Jane Feehan.

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

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

Sources:

New York Times, Jan. 12, 1958

Fort Lauderdale New, Jan. 18, 1958

Fort Lauderdale News, Feb. 8, 1964

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

Fort Lauderdale's Galt Mile - Who was Arthur T. Galt?

Galt Mile 2019

By Jane Feehan

Most who live in or have visited Fort Lauderdale know of the Galt Mile - that strip of land along the beach between Oakland Park and Commercial boulevards with shoulder-to-shoulder, high-rise condos blocking the ocean view.  But for whom is it named?  

Chicagoan Arthur T. Galt, son of Fort Lauderdale pioneer Hugh Taylor Birch’s law partner, bought 8,000 acres of land during the 1920s in the city. He sold it soon after to the American British Improvement Society (see: https://janeshistorynook.blogspot.com/2021/01/countess-lauderdale-and-floranda-club.html). When the company went bust in 1928, Galt took the property back. He sold most of it in the 1940s to Coral Ridge Properties. That land includes acreage now part of Oakland Park and Fort Lauderdale’s Coral Ridge.

But Galt held on to one last parcel, one mile along the beach.  He didn’t want to see his beautiful land turned into a housing development. By 1953, things changed. Pressed by estate tax issues, and reluctant to have his last remaining tract of land annexed by Oakland Park (he preferred annexation by the more prestigious Fort Lauderdale), Galt sold his ocean side parcel to Coral Ridge Properties partners Joseph P. Taravella and James S. Hunt. The hefty sales price of $19,389,000, made it the “single most expensive land purchase in U.S. history at that time.”

The Galt Mile, developed in the 1960s and 70s, though one of the swankiest parts of the city, stands as cautionary reminder about over-development. 

Copyright © 2013. All rights reserved. Jane Feehan.

________

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

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

Miami News, Apr. 23 1960

Fort Lauderdale News, March 24, 1952

Tags: Fort Lauderdale history, Fort Lauderdale real estate history, Jane Feehan, Arthur T. Galt, 
Coral Ridge Properties, Fort Lauderdale in the 1960s, film research