Fort Lauderdale's pioneer and the Stranahan House

          

335 SE 6th Ave
Fort Lauderdale, Florida 33301
954-524-4736
http://stranahanhouse.org/

By Jane Feehan 

Fort Lauderdale pioneer Frank Stranahan first operated a small ferry (1893) that crossed the New River near the site of the 1836 Cooley Massacre. He must have seen potential in this rough Florida frontier, because he bought 10 acres a mile away where he operated the Stranahan New River Camp and Trading Post. 

His sign claimed its location as Fort Lauderdale. The settlement became the hub of commercial and social activity in the 1890s. Stranahan and his wife Ivy (Cromartie) moved into the new structure in 1901 (shown below) after their marriage in 1900.

The Stranahan House, sometimes referred to as the Pioneer House, still stands today - nearly swallowed up by the modern downtown Fort Lauderdale skyline.  It's open for tours but the best view of the house is by boat along the New River. That the house sits on prime real estate is underscored by the proximity of nearby million dollar plus condos and mansions.

Stranahan House 1901 
Florida State Archives

Below is an 1898 clipping from the Tropical Sun about Stranahan; his Fort Lauderdale activities earned an occasional mention in the publication. 

Fundraising is currently underway to renovate this house, the first structure in Fort Lauderdale.

Fort Lauderdale celebrated its first 100 years in 2011.

 Sources:

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

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

Palm Beach Breeze, 1898

Sun-Sentinel, May 1, 2024

Tags: Fort Lauderdale history, Frank Stranahan

Fort Lauderdale Pioneer Frank Stranahan's death

 

Stranahan House 1906
(replaced trading post in 1901)
 State Archives of Florida/Florida Memory

There’s a lot to be gleaned from the obituary for Fort Lauderdale pioneer Frank Stranahan. It provides a glimpse into local culture and history of the late 1920s. 

We read about a U.S. president, the movie business and the well-known Stranahan camp. Ill health was cited as the reason for suicide May 22, 1929 but that year's economic collapse severely affected Stranahan. Not until his widow, Ivy Stranahan, died in 1971 was the word suicide used again in reference to Frank's death.

Here’s some of the obituary text (capitalization as in the obituary):

Frank Stranahan, pioneer citizen of this section of the state, who founded the first trading post in Broward County, committed suicide by fashioning a weight about his waist and jumping into the New River. He was 63 and ill health was cited as the cause for the act.

President Grover Cleveland, and Joseph Jefferson, the actor; and Cory, the scientist and many other distinguished Americans used to fish and hunt at the Stranahan camp before the Florida East Coast railroad penetrated this far south.

A lover of children, Mr. Stranahan contributed during his life several large tracts of land for municipal parks. Stranahan play ground, Stranahan athletic field and Stranahan high school were his gifts to the city of Fort Lauderdale.

Mr. Stranahan leaped to his death just in front of his palatial residence, setting for numerous moving pictures and one of the show places of the lower east coast.

The body was recovered more than 25 feet of water by Bob Gordon and Mary Taul, high school students and members of the volunteer Red Cross life saving corps.

Businesses closed for Stranahan's funeral. Fort Lauderdale's "first citizen" lay in state May 24 at his home on the lawn under the Royal Palms he planted decades before.

See index or use search box for more posts on Frank Stranahan.
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Stranahan (1864-1929) is buried in historic Evergreen Cemetery next to wife Ivy Julia Cromartie Stranahan (1881-1971).

Fort Lauderdale News, May 23, 1929

Tags: Frank Stranahan, History of Fort Lauderdale, Fort Lauderdale history

Pioneer Frank Stranahan all business in romance

 

Stranahan House 1901 (replaced the original trading post)
State Archives of Florida /Florida Memory

Fort Lauderdale pioneer and trading post owner, Frank Stranahan (1865-1929) met Ivy Julia Cromartie, (1881-1971), a young teacher who had moved to his area from Lemon City (where Little Haiti is in Miami today) in 1899.

In an excerpt from a letter Frank wrote to Ivy (www.iamlasolas.com/pioneer-women-of-the-boulevard/) about their pending marriage in August 1900, it was more business than romance.

Wish to ask  you a question that I should have done a few days ago. I am getting the license. How do you wish your name to appear in it and age? I will see you Wednesday. This is the last letter that we will write to each other so will close with the last girl I kissed goodnight.

Frank

P.S. This has been written in a rush. Overlook the grammar.

Ivy served as the town's first teacher and contributed to the lives of local Seminoles through her foundation, Friends of the Seminoles.

See index or use search box for more posts on Frank Stranahan.

 ------ 

Frank Stranahan, born 1865, died by suicide in 1929:

https://janeshistorynook.blogspot.com/2021/01/fort-lauderdale-pioneer-frank.html

Sources: 

http://www.iamlasolas.com/pioneer-women-of-the-boulevard/

Florida International University, Historical Museum of Southern Florida

Tags: Fort Lauderdale history, Fort Lauderdale pioneers, Ivy Stranahan, Frank Stranahan, film researcher

A tradition begins: Fort Lauderdale's first party boat and its famous visitors

 

First Belonged to Charles Cory
 Florida State Archives

By Jane Feehan

It could be said that Fort Lauderdale’s first houseboat, the Wanderer, launched the city’s reputation as a party place, especially among boaters.

The vessel (above in 1917) a refurbished Mississippi River packet boat with 12 bedrooms, several recreation rooms and a piano, was brought to the Stranahan New River Camp and Trading Post in 1896 by wealthy ornithologist, Charles B. Cory* (1857-1921).  Four years later, he purchased land near SW 15^th Street, dredged a canal for the Wanderer and continued to host the Stranahans and their camp visitors. Among guests were former President Grover Cleveland and actor Joe Jefferson.

Partying went on for days at a time. The tradition continued when Cory transferred ownership after he lost his fortune in 1906. Title to the Wanderer was transferred to a succession of owners, including Jefferson, until it was destroyed by the hurricane of 1926.

*Cory wrote Birds of Haiti, Birds of the Bahamas, Birds of the West Indies – and many more. He was also a golfer, competing in the 1904 Olympics. After he lost his fortune, he took a salaried position as curator of zoology for the Field Museum in Chicago where he remained for the rest of his life.

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Sources:

  1.Gillis, Susan. Fort Lauderdale, Venice of America. Charleston: Arcadia Publishing, 2004.

  2. Miami News, Jan. 3, 1925, p. 5.

 3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_B._Cory
  4. McIver, Stuart. Glimpses of South Florida History. Miami: Florida Flair Books, 1988. 



Tags: New River history, Fort Lauderdale history, Charles. B. Cory, Joe Jefferson, New River, party boat, Frank Stranahan

Stranahan Park: Of Indian burial mounds and shuffleboard

Shuffleboard 1946
Florida State Archives/Florida Memory

10 E. Broward Blvd.
Fort Lauderdale, FL 33301

By Jane Feehan

Shuffleboard, with roots traceable to 15th-century England, was big in Fort Lauderdale beginning in the 1930s, especially after Stranahan Park was carved out of land deeded to the city. It was the site of games hosted by the Fort Lauderdale Shuffleboard Club with members from more than 30 states. The park was reportedly built with dirt from Indian burial mounds. Stranahan Park was a "cypress swamp" deeded to the city by Frank Stranahan in the early 1900s. 

In 1928, it was reported that construction of a "novel game" was to be completed at the park and expected to draw a large crowd of players because so many watched its installation. A croquet court was also to be opened. Stranahan Park was already a popular spot with its concerts, checkers and chess tables, and busy horseshoe courts to "make it one of the most beautiful and useful parks along the East coast."

See index or use search box for more posts on Frank Stranahan.

 Today, the 1.6-acre park consists of a pavilion, benches and an open play area. 

https://www.parks.fortlauderdale.gov/Home/Components/FacilityDirectory/FacilityDirectory/175/1091

Sources:

Fort Lauderdale News Jan. 15, 1928

Miami News , March 10, 1934

Copyright © 2013., 2021 All rights reserved. Jane Feehan.

Tags: Fort Lauderdale shuffleboard club, Fort Lauderdale in the 1930s, Fort Lauderdale historian, Miami historian, Frank Stranahan

Two cousins, a stage line, and early Fort Lauderdale

By Jane Feehan

Ohioan Guy Irwin Metcalf (1866-1918) started up the first newspaper along the southeast coast of Florida, The Indian River News, in Melbourne in 1887. The legacy of this enterprising pioneer includes much more, including a connection to the founding of Fort Lauderdale.

Metcalf moved south to Juno with his family and renamed the paper The Tropical Sun in 1891. For a time, it was the only newspaper serving Floridians from Melbourne to the Upper Keys, most of which then was Dade County.  Metcalf sold the paper to the Model Land Co., owned by Henry Flagler, in 1902.

A community builder who saw potential in South Florida, Metcalf established a real estate company that built a rock road from Lantana to Lemon City (today the Little Haiti section of Miami). 

For travel on that road, completed in 1892, Metcalf started up a stage line of mule-pulled wagons – Bay Biscayne Stage line or Palmetto stage line - to make three trips a week from Lantana to Miami. 

The route included a stopover at a tent camp he set up at New River. The wagons did not cross New River, making the stage line the first transportation from Lantana to Miami entirely over land. Passengers and supplies were ferried across to waiting wagons. He hired his cousin Frank Stranahan, a Ohioan who was living in Melbourne at the time, to run the camp and its ferry at New River.

Stranahan expanded operations to include a trading post nearby and hung a sign there with the name “Fort Lauderdale” for its U.S. Postal Service designation. As a Fort Lauderdale pioneer, Stranahan served as its political, social and economic focal point for decades. (Lauderdale was Major William Lauderdale who came to fight the Seminoles in the 1830s.)

Each cousin contributed significantly to the South Florida story. In his short life, Metcalf also served as postmaster for West Palm Beach from 1913-1915 and as superintendent of schools for Palm Beach County. 

See index or use search box for more posts on Frank Stranahan.

Copyright © 2013. All rights reserved. Jane Feehan.

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Sources:

1. Lake Worth Pioneers’ Association

2.http://www.pbchistoryonline.org/page/the-miami-connection

3. McIver, Stuart. Glimpses of South Florida History. Miami: Florida Flair Books, 1988.

Tags: Frank Stranahan, Guy Irwin Metcalf, Fort Lauderdale history, early roads of South Florida, Palm Beach County history, Florida stage line, New River, historical researcher