Gulfstream Park: A tale of two starts in South Florida horse racing

Florida Derby 1969
Florida State Archives

Gulfstream Park

901 S. Federal Hwy

Hallandale, FL 33009

954-454-7000

https://www.gulfstreampark.com

By Jane Feehan

It’s hard to believe today’s popular Gulfstream Park launched with a false start in 1939.

Local newspapers drummed up enthusiasm about the new park constructed in only a few months before the February 1, 1939 opening. Builder-developer, 29-year-old John C. Horning of the Hollywood Jockey Club and a Miami resident, and architect Robert Law Weed of Coconut Grove, assured reporters that Gulfstream’s grandstand would be “without peer at any track in the nation.”  

The grandstand could seat 7,000. Its roof extended 86 feet toward the track and could withstand 175 mph winds. The lower end of the roof sloped 52 feet from the track and would provide cover for judges and reporters; a camera was installed above their seats. For well-heeled or connected patrons, 130 boxes 8 feet by 10 feet were installed for added seating comfort and privacy. 

The 200-acre racing park sat between U.S. 1 and the ocean. Most grandstand spectators would have a view of the Atlantic Ocean just blocks away. Gulfstream’s infield held lush gardens and two lakes connected by a canal. Australian pines were planted along a driveway and around the site. Forty acres of parking were expected to be full on opening day.

In fact, the  parking lot overflowed on opening day. The crowd, estimated between 18,000 and 20,000—the largest ever to attend a track opening in Florida—jammed highways and tore through Gulfstream’s fencing to gain entry. Norwegian figure skater and film star Sonja Henie was on hand to cut the ceremonial opening day ribbon. According to news accounts, the day was “brilliant.” Newsreel cameras captured the carnival atmosphere. The inaugural event was attended by locals, winter residents and an A-list of attendees that included politicians and legendary columnist Damon Runyan.

Opening day, mutuel gambling play totaled $224,287. On the fourth day, gambling play plunged to $81,922. The revenue stream could not maintain opening day flow. An expected armored truck failed to deliver $150,000 to bankroll operations. Gulfstream Park shuttered after four days. Horning’s financial backing failed to materialize; he could not come up with the cash to continue.

Various reasons for the track’s failure appeared in news accounts. One reason may have been trouble from competitors. Hialeah sat only 12 miles from Gulfstream Park and 25 miles from Tropical Park. A state probe into gambling did not confirm improprieties. Some pointed to Horning’s youth. It appeared he had “been taken.”  The young developer, who received high praise was now considered a “chump.” The park, once off to a record-breaking fast start, sank into bankruptcy a year later in February 1940. Wrong man, wrong time.

Gulfstream Park 1948
Florida State Archives

The right man with the right timing, James Donn, Sr., purchased dilapidated Gulfstream Park in 1944. He repaired the buildings and grandstands and installed escalators and elevators. Opening day Dec. 1, 1944 was attended by far fewer—about 5,000—than the first opening. The 1944 event was affected by World War II gas rationing and other wartime impositions, but Donn’s word to pay off the track’s debts was trusted. He predicted shortly after he bought it that Gulfstream Park would be among the best in the world. He delivered.

He was already owner of the successful Exotic Gardens Florists, the company that later designed the park’s gardens and the unforgettable horseshoe wreaths seen in the track’s Winner’s Circle. In 1952, he established what became a horse racing classic, the Florida Derby. 

Some of the track’s success can also be attributed to Donn’s wrangling from Hialeah its coveted mid-winter racing dates. It took 25 years but the Scotsman, who first came to Miami in 1915 on his honeymoon with bride Nellie, lived to see Gulfstream racing during the best days of Florida winters.

When James Donn, Sr. was asked what he did for a living, he would often tell strangers he was a florist. It could also be said he was the right man who came to Gulfstream’s rescue at the right time.

For current day Gulfstream Park, visit: https://www.gulfstreampark.com

Sources:

Miami News, Feb. 1, 1939

Miami Herald, Feb. 1, 1939

Miami Herald, Feb. 2, 1939

Miami News, Feb. 7, 1939

Miami Herald, Feb. 7, 1939

Miami Herald, April 23, 1939

Miami Herald, Feb. 4, 1940

Miami News, Feb. 15, 1940

Miami News, Dec. 1, 1944

Miami Herald, July 12, 1972

Tags: Florida sports history, thoroughbred racing, horse racing, Hallandale history, Robert Law Weed, Jack C. Horning, architect, Exotic Gardens

Hallandale: a farming legacy transitions to upscale beach life

 

General store or restaurant in Hallandale 1921
Florida State Archives

By Jane Feehan

Hallandale, a mostly rural community from the late 1800s until the 1960s, was first laid out in 1898. Henry Flagler extended his Florida East Coast railway from St. Augustine to Miami after a series of damaging Florida freezes from 1894-1896 left South Florida relatively unscathed.

Flagler’s business model, as with other railways across the nation at the time, included developing and populating communities along the line. Rev. Bengt Magnus Halland of Burlington, Iowa was recruited by Flagler’s company to promote settlement in an area south of Fort Lauderdale. Halland, a Swedish immigrant, had already helped develop communities along rail lines in the Midwest.

Florida East Coast Rail Depot in Hallandale 1922
Florida State Archives

The settlement was first referred to as Halland, but the U.S. Postal Service, according to some accounts, probably added the “dale” to distinguish it from a town named Holland on Florida’s west coast. History claims the town was named after the Reverend’s son, Luther Halland. Swedes from the North and among those immigrating from Sweden were encouraged to settle in Halland’s community (ethnic settlements along Florida’s rail lines were a common occurrence).

Flyers or announcements in Swedish described farming opportunities awaiting them in the settlement— a place where “10,000 acres of good lands will raise profitable crops within a two-mile radius of Hallandale.”  It was reported the land would support a wide variety of crops including tomatoes, corn, Irish potatoes, sweet potatoes, lettuce, celery, cabbage and strawberries ... and maybe pineapples. In 1912, the railway in Hallandale was claimed to be one of the heaviest shipping points along the [rail] line.

By 1921, the small town was home to 500 residents, four general stores, a school and packing house. The Flava Fruit Company, which owned groves 12 miles south in Miami and acreage in Hallandale set out to develop the town. 

They promoted the sale of 115 lots along Dixie Highway  known as Flava Park, a sub-division of the community. They also planned a wide boulevard from the ocean to the East Coast Canal. In 1921, the Flava Inn opened featuring a Sunday fried chicken dinner for $1.50. 

They sold their subdivision in 1923 and continued similar activities in Miami. Development of this farming town did not capture the same attention nor dynamic as did Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Boca Raton and Palm Beach.

Gulfstream park
Florida State Archives 

Hollywood annexed Hallandale in 1926. Residents petitioned to secede from Hollywood and were granted to do so in 1927. By that year, 1,500 called Hallandale home. The town reincorporated in 1947 as the City of Hallandale  (eighth municipality of Broward County) and transitioned to the name Hallandale Beach in 1999. Shedding its rural character, Hallandale Beach is now lined with shoulder-to-shoulder multi-million-dollar beachside condominiums. Today, one of  the  hottest real estate markets in South Florida, Hallandale is also the home of Gulfstream Park.

For more on Hallandale Beach, see: https://www.cohb.org/ and https://hallandalebeachchamber.org/

The city also offers some interesting mob and gambling history of the 1940s; For more, see:

https://janeshistorynook.blogspot.com/2013/04/meyer-lansky-buys-colonial-inn-from-lou.html

https://janeshistorynook.blogspot.com/2013/02/colonial-inn-east-us-gambling-mecca-in.html

 Sources:

Miami News, May 17, 1912

Miami Herald, March 3, 1921

Miami Herald, April 20, 1921

Miami Herald, July 7, 1921

Fort Lauderdale News, Jan. 17, 1926

Miami News, Feb. 19, 1927

Miami News, March 6, 1927

Miami News, May 15, 1927

Florida Journal, Broward Legacy, Vol. 20: Adams, William R

Tags: Hallandale history, Broward County history

Meyer Lansky buys Colonial Inn from Lou Walters - 1945

Colonial Inn, circa 1946.  Courtesy of Broward County Historical Commission

By Jane Feehan

The purchase of the Colonial Inn* in Hallandale for $80,000 topped the week’s real estate transactions reported by the Fort Lauderdale Daily News, June 9, 1945.

Meyer Lansky (1902-1983), an organized crime figure, bought the property from Louis E. “Lou” Walters. The Colonial Inn, near Gulfstream Park, was closed from 1941 until Walters opened it December 22, 1944. The inn operated for five days. Walters, father of today’s TV personality Barbara Walters, was a night club “impresario,” with clubs and shows in Las Vegas and New York City (He died in 1977.) After closing the Colonial Inn, Walters took his night club show to the Cabaret Restaurant in Miami Beach. He was the original operator of the Latin Quarter on Palm Island in Miami Beach and the famed Latin Quarter in New York City.

Lansky was also known for “dabbling” in the nightclub biz. The Fort Lauderdale Daily News noted his affiliations with nightclubs in Broward County and reported “future plans for operating the Inn await Lansky’s return from New York City.”

Those future plans were probably known to many. Lansky, long affiliated with mobsters Bugsy Siegel and Lucky Luciano, was expanding his gambling operations in Florida and Las Vegas, and later to Cuba. He opened the Colonial Inn December 1945. The Inn became a profitable, posh East Coast gambling establishment. It was closed by the government in 1948. For more on the demise of the club, and Meyer Lansky, search labels at right.

* Not to be confused with the Colonial Inn on Motel Row.

For more on the Colonial Inn, see:

https://janeshistorynook.blogspot.com/2013/02/colonial-inn-east-us-gambling-mecca-in.html

Lansky Gambles on Cuba:

https://janeshistorynook.blogspot.com/2015/10/hotel-havana-riviera-meyer-lansky.html

Copyright © 2012. All rights reserved. Jane Feehan.

Tags: Hallandale history, Broward County history, Meyer Lansky, Colonial Inn in Hallandale, South Florida gambling history, Broward County in the 1940s, Lou Walters , Florida mob history, 
film researcher, Jane Feehan
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Colonial Inn - east U.S. gambling hub in the 1940s

By Jane Feehan

Opened in Hallandale (a few miles south of Fort Lauderdale) in December, 1945, Colonial Inn* was one of the plushest gambling spots in the eastern United States. Gambling wasn’t legal but Broward County officials turned a blind eye on the operation as it drew in millions of dollars for its owners.

Gangsters thought to have been involved in its operations included Joe Adonis, Meyer Lansky, Vincent “Jimmy Blue Eyes” Alo and perhaps, Frank Costello (Kefauver Committee Hearings Interim Report #3, 1951). “Gambling Baron” Mert Wertheimer operated the place when it first opened and later moved to Las Vegas to oversee the popular Riverside Hotel Casino in Las Vegas.

During its short life as a casino, the Colonial Inn, which was located near today's Gulfsream Park, hosted big-name floor shows. Some of the entertainers included Carmen Miranda who headlined weekly for $11,000 with comedian Joe E. Lewis as master of ceremonies for $6,500 a week (Miami News, Feb. 13, 1948).

Fort Lauderdale’s Dwight Rogers Jr., Florida’s assistant state attorney 1948-1952, closed casino operations in 1948. The inn later served as a television studio and was then sold for conversion into a hotel in 1951 (Miami News, Jul. 30, 1951, p. 14). Copyright © 2012. All rights reserved. Jane Feehan.

* This is NOT the Colonial Inn of Motel Row in North Miami - no connection.

Meyer Lansky buys Colonial Inn, see:
http://janeshistorynook.blogspot.com/2013/04/meyer-lansky-buys-colonial-inn-from-lou.html


For information about Sheriff Walter Clark and gambling in Broward County during the 1940s, see: https://janeshistorynook.blogspot.com/2020/09/sheriff-walter-clark-broward-gambling.html

See index for more on Lansky.

Tags: Miami gambling in the 1940s, casinos in Miami Beach in the 1940s, Meyer Lansky, Hallandale history