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| Hillsboro Inlet and bridge 1953 Florida State Archive/Florida Memory |
By Jane Feehan
Hillsboro Beach sits astride A1A for about three miles, the only road through this small town of nearly 2,000 residents. Most today know it for the picturesque lighthouse at Hillsboro Inlet and by its current-day reference as “Millionaire’s Mile.”
The town’s history, though somewhat scarce, offers some
interesting tidbits. It was once referred to as Hillsborough in deference to the
Earl of Hillsborough, a large Florida land grant recipient of the King of England when
Florida was an English possession 1763-1783. Hillsboro seemed to have
attracted pirates during these years, spawning speculation treasure was buried there.
In 1920 or so, 25 men teamed up to excavate the area in hopes of finding something
valuable. If they found anything, they kept quiet about it.
In 1895, the state sold this piece of the barrier island for
75 cents an acre to private owners. Newspapers intermittently wrote “Hillsboro”
by the early 1900s. Some accounts claim the area was settled between 1922-1925 but
it was probably unofficially well before that.
Reefs off this area grounded many a ship. The solution: a lighthouse. There were 17 futile requests for a lighthouse before the federal government approved, financed ($90k) and placed one into service in 1907.
Meanwhile, in Coconut Grove, the Lake Placid School for Young Men was operating until Miami set out to annex the town. Taxes would have been prohibitive for the school with annexation, so teacher (and Yale grad) H.L Malcolm decided it was a good time to move the school north.
He purchased property
in the Hillsboro inlet area for $33,000 in 1922 from Harry Kelcy. The new Lake
Placid School opened there in 1924 and students were ferried across the inlet for
classes. But its doors shut after only one term; there were not “enough rich
boys” to make this (and other private Florida schools) profitable.
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| Hillsboro Club 1930 Florida State Archives |
Malcolm had other plans. He realized that parents visiting students often lingered in the area to enjoy the climate, beach and fishing, so he opened the Hillsboro Club in 1925. Many of the school’s attendees and families returned to the hotel for years.
Advertisements for the “loveliest estate on the beach” offered
“regular daily meals” for $1.50-$2 a plate. The hotel provided 50 rooms on the
American Plan with rates as low as $35 daily. Also advertised were the hotel’s tennis,
croquet, swimming, boating and location in the "town closest to the Gulf Stream." News accounts claim famous visitors to the hotel included President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Katherine Hepburn, Bing Crosby and
Perry Ellis.
Malcolm sold the hotel and its 15-acre campus in 1959 to developers who ran into
hard times. Members decided to purchase the hotel from them in the 1960s. Today its
members number at around 700. About 300 have summer access for approximately
$3000 (as of 2008). The Club now offers 146 rooms.
The Town of Hillsboro Beach was incorporated in 1947. The Hillsboro Inlet Bridge was built in 1927 and replaced with a modernized bascule bridge in 1966 (renovated in 2015).
As of this writing, the most expensive house in Broward County was sold recently for $42.5 million along the Hillsboro Mile; it is one of about 50 private residences in Hillsboro Beach. (Condos sit at the town's northern end.)
On a personal note, I was fortunate to once cover their town government meetings for the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. They were the only such meetings conducted during the day, a plus after covering so many at night in other area towns and cities.
Sources:
Fort Lauderdale News, April 27, 1925
Fort Lauderdale News,
Oct. 31, 1925
Fort Lauderdale News, Apr. 27, 1955
South Florida Sun-Sentinel, July 28, 2008
https://www.townofhillsborobeach.com/252/About-Hillsboro-Beach
www.newpelican.com/articles/captains-of-industry-helped-create-hillsboro-beach/
