Before Galt Mile condos, an amusement park?

 

Galt Mile 2023

By Jane Feehan

An amusement park was once proposed for a strip of land  owned by Arthur T. Galt. Known today as the Galt Ocean Mile or Galt Mile, it’s home to more than 28,400 residents. 

Members of the North Beach Improvement Association were shocked by an announcement made about the project in December 1949. A bad idea said J. H. Hansen, president of the civic group. He was surprised Arthur T. Galt endorsed the plan for a boardwalk, parking lot, concessions for food and other businesses, traditional fairground rides for kids and cabanas for adults. Aluminum cabanas were to be rented for “$2000 per 100-foot frontage” along a boardwalk for three-year terms. Noted Fort Lauderdale architect Clinton Gamble was already working on plans and construction was expected to soon start. 

The association wanted to change zoning for the beachside property to allow only construction of “high-type apartment buildings and hotels.” This would protect the property values of nearby residential areas. Land values involved more than zoning. The land fell within Oakland Park boundaries and the city wanted to annex the strip. Taxes on that land would be a boon to the city while maximizing Galt’s burden. But Fort Lauderdale had also wanted to annex. Galt preferred annexation by Fort Lauderdale; it was more prestigious. Lawsuits flew into 1951-52 over annexation and the amusement park plans receded into memory.

In 1928, when real estate investments took a steep decline due to the 1926 hurricane, Arthur T. Galt bought 4,000 acres bounded by Federal Highway east to the ocean, and from Fort Lauderdale to Pompano. He sold some of it to the Coral Ridge Development Company in the 1940s, retaining ownership of that one strip he thought so beautiful.

By 1953, things changed. Pressed by estate tax issues and reluctant to have his last remaining tract of land annexed by Oakland Park, Galt sold his oceanside parcel for more than $19 million to Joseph P. Taravella and James S. Hunt of Coral Ridge Properties. Fort Lauderdale annexed the area in 1955.

Before Galt sold to Taravella and Hunt, he visited Fort Lauderdale in 1952—the first time since he purchased the 4,000 acres and its coveted beach mile. He said he was impressed by how much Fort Lauderdale had grown. 

He must have had an idea about what that mile would be worth one day. During the Depression he continued to pay taxes on his Oakland Park/Fort Lauderdale property while foregoing those on his Chicago holdings—a much better idea than the beachside amusement park.

A lawyer, developer and philanthropist, Arthur T. Galt died at age 92 in 1968.

Copyright © 2023. All rights reserved. Jane Feehan

See index for more on Galt Mile History

Sources

Fort Lauderdale News, Dec. 2, 1949

Fort Lauderdale News, March 31, 1951

Fort Lauderdale News, June 14, 1951

Fort Lauderdale News, March 24, 1952

Chicago Tribune, Sept. 14, 1968

Tags: Galt Mile, Galt Ocean Mile, Arthur T. Galt, Fort Lauderdale history, 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

Copyright © 2018. All rights reserved. Jane Feehan

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

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

By Jane Feehan

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Copyright © 2013. All rights reserved. Jane Feehan.

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

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

Sources:

New York Times, Jan. 12, 1958

Fort Lauderdale New, Jan. 18, 1958

Fort Lauderdale News, Feb. 8, 1964

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

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 (use search box here for Countess Lauderdale). 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