Riviera Isles off Las Olas - brisk sales, a hotel and a hard landing after the Great Hurricane

 

Riviera Isles 1996, State Archives of Florida

By Jane Feehan

To some, Fort Lauderdale is known as a modern Venice. Finger islands bordered by canals off Las Olas Boulevard gently suggest images of that beautiful city in Italy. The area was the vision of early Fort Lauderdale developer W.F. Morang who began the dredging process during the early 1920s.

Where he left off other developers continued. One of those islands, Idlewyld, adjacent to the Las Olas Bridge, was successfully developed in 1924-25 by pioneer M.A. Hortt, his business partner Bob Dye and new man in town, Thomas Stilwell.

Encouraged by the success of Idlewyld, Stilwell headed the Fort Lauderdale Riparian Company and bought a few parcels of land near that project. His company placed 270 lots for sale in March 1925 in what became Riviera Isles: Flamingo Drive, Solar Isle Drive and Isle of Palms Drive or Southeast 25^th Avenue. Lots were priced from $4,000 to $15,000. Every lot offered a waterfront vista, newspaper ads declared.

All 270 lots, according to the Fort Lauderdale Daily News in May 1925, were sold in less than two months. Resales ensued. One real estate speculator advertised a cash offer for three lots in Riviera Isles.

With $1.4 million in total sales of those lots, work began on dredging. They pumped two feet of sand onto the Riviera finger islands to raise each to the level Idlewyld sat—five feet above the high tide mark. They then installed roads, lighting and other infrastructure.

Perhaps the most interesting chapter in the Riviera Isles story was the one about Hotel Riviera or Riviera Hotel. With an estimated cost of $500,000, the 200-room guest accommodation was to be constructed in the Dalmatian style of architecture with small bricks and dome-like roofs featured in Romanesque churches. The ornate structure would face Las Olas Boulevard and its Sunset Lake. The hotel was expected to open October 1, 1926.  

What wasn’t expected was the Great Hurricane of September 1926. Stilwell and his company tried to regain financial footing in the months and few years that followed. Hotel plans never reached fruition. Properties throughout town were auctioned off to pay taxes during the late 1920s and into the 1930s. The real estate boom went bust.

By the 1940s a few Riviera Isles houses built in the slow years sold for $21,000 to about $40,000. A building and development boom followed in the 1950s with very little slowdown since.

Houses today in this exclusive area (most all the Las Olas isles) run as high as $20,000,000, or more. Let’s hope these land-filled islands with their beautiful homes survive a Cat 5 hurricane; some predict they won’t.  

Sources:

Hortt, M.A., Gold Coast Pioneer. New York: Exposition Press, 1955.

Fort Lauderdale Daily News, March 19, 1925

Fort Lauderdale Daily News, May 20, 1925

Fort Lauderdale Daily News, June 2, 1925

Fort Lauderdale Daily News, Aug. 12, 1925

For Lauderdale Daily News, Oct. 31, 1925

Fort Lauderdale Daily News, Nov. 21, 1925

Fort Lauderdale Daily News, Feb. 23, 1927

Fort Lauderdale Daily News, April 20, 1928

Fort Lauderdale Daily News, June 25, 1930

Tags: Fort Lauderdale in the 1920s, Las Olas Boulevard, Las Olas isles, Riviera Isles, Fort Lauderdale communities

Fort Lauderdale's Las Olas bridge, the Dwight L. Rogers Memorial Causeway

 

Las Olas bridge view from Idlewyld neighborhood 2024

By Jane Feehan

Fort Lauderdale’s population grew from 17,996 in 1940 to 36,328 residents in 1950*. Along with this expansion came infrastructure woes. Newspapers pointed to several traffic bottlenecks including at the bridge built in 1917 from Las Olas to the beach. It was time for a new structure to ease traffic snarls.

A permit was applied for by the state’s road department from the U.S Department of the Army in January 1956. By May that year, bids were solicited for a new four-lane bridge. Final decision was made on a bid for $1.5 million for a span of 1,095 feet. It would sit at 24.7 feet in a closed position above high-tide waters. Separate bids went out for the east and west approaches to the new structure and included two five-foot sidewalks for less than $20,000. A channel would be cut through a small island in the Intracoastal for the structure (the entire island was eventually removed).

Though steel for the new structure began to arrive in 1957, builders soon faced a short-lived shortage. Limited supplies resulted from a nationwide post war building boom. Despite the delay, the bridge was finished five weeks early in August 1958 for $1.2 million.

Bridge opens in 1958,
State Archives of Florida

Discussions about a garage versus a surface parking lot ran concurrently with bridge construction. Some wanted a multi-use garage with offices and retail at ground level and an area dedicated to recreational activities on the roof. The city settled on a surface lot on the bridge’s east side. (The garage concept re-emerged in subsequent decades resulting in the structure at Seabreeze and Las Olas that opened in 2018 and was completed in 2020 for about $21 million).

The old bridge remained in use until the new one was completed in 1958. The Las Olas bridge opened August 26, 1958. A formal dedication was held September 6, 1958. Public officials were on hand including a group aboard a yacht owned by Bernie Castro of Castro (convertible sofa). Music was provided by the Fort Lauderdale High School Band. The widow of U.S. Representative Dwight L. Rogers for whom the bridge was named, cut the ribbon and pulled a lever to raise the bridge as part of the ceremony.

How many times have we crossed that bridge—and others—bearing the name of an official or notable resident without knowing it’s the official designation of the bridge?

Naming background

Florida Department of Transportation’s designation of certain roads, bridges or other transportation facilities is a “long-standing practice in Florida.” A designation must be made according to statutory requirements and procedures. FDOT pays costs related to signage (as of 2011). Dwight Laing Rogers (1886-1954) moved to Fort Lauderdale in 1925 and served as United States Representative (D-FL) four terms 1945-1954.

The Dwight L. Rogers Memorial Causeway includes the bridge approaches and bridge. Most refer to it as the Las Olas bridge. Now you know where this memorial causeway sits.

Bridge update

The bridge underwent significant rehabilitation in 2013 for about $9 million (some sources report $5.8 million).

Copyright © 2025. All rights reserved. Jane Feehan

 Sources:

 *George, Paul S. Meeting the Challenges of Growth: Road and Bridge Building in Post WWII Fort Lauderdale. Broward Legacy.

Florida Department of Transportation

Fort Lauderdale News, Jan. 12, 1956

Fort Lauderdale News, April 1, 1956

The Miami Herald, July 18, 1957

The Miami Herald, Oct. 31, 1957

The Miami Herald, Dec. 5, 1957

Fort Lauderdale News, Aug. 16, 1958

Fort Lauderdale News, Aug. 26, 1958

The Miami Herald, Sept. 7, 1958

The Miami Herald, Sept. 22, 1958

Tags: Las Olas bridge, Fort Lauderdale in the 1950s, Rep. Dwight Laing Rogers

 

The Idlewyld story - Hortt converts swamp to top-tier real estate

 

By Jane Feehan

The history of Fort Lauderdale’s Idlewyld neighborhood reflects the story of Fort Lauderdale’s M.A. Hortt. A former streetcar conductor and gold prospector from Utah, “Al” Hortt came to Fort Lauderdale in 1910. Possibilities for wealth generation were far greater here than in the desert.

The city saw its first land boom in 1910, when, according to Hortt, it claimed only 121 residents. As he wrote in his biography, Gold Coast Pioneer, he arrived when Fort Lauderdale was just a “wide spot” in the road. Not for long. News spread “up north” about Fort Lauderdale’s real estate. The early boom proved to be an early bust but Hortt’s roster of subsequent land deals (and travel escapades), could spin heads. The focus here, however, is Idlewyld.

Hortt and business partner Bob Dye bought a piece of swampy land in 1921 that spanned from the Las Olas bridge (opened 1917) to the “intersection of New River Sound” and beyond. They envisioned a subdivision on part of it but needed a developer with money. Hortt was familiar with Miami developer Carl Fisher’s success in converting Miami Beach's water-logged land into desirable real estate; he wanted to apply the same method in Fort Lauderdale.   

According to Hortt, he took a beach walk near Las Olas where he met visitor Tom Stilwell. Stilwell was looking for a real estate opportunity and the garrulous broker had just the deal: if Stilwell could put up $50,000, they could create a company with $100,000 of land and cash assets; Stilwell would get a 50 percent share. 

To convince the visitor about development possibilities, Hortt took him to Miami Beach to view Fisher’s projects. Stilwell was sold on the development idea for Fort Lauderdale and brought in three partners from Indiana. The New River Development Company was formed in 1921 and dredging of the Intracoastal and New River Sound began. Dredging would provide the soil to build up the swampy tract.

The name Idlewyld was chosen and its land platted. Streets, sidewalks, water mains and electric lines were installed after dredging.

To buoy its appeal, coconut palms were planted along its streets. However, for months only a few lots sold. They lowered prices and gave lots to the investors for building homes. The Indiana partners pooled resources and built one house. The company also offered to give away 10 lots for house construction. By year’s end, only four houses were built; the town experienced a real estate slowdown. 

Intracoastal view,
with Las Olas Bridge at left

As is often said today, the best time to advertise is during an economic slump. Savvy Hortt suggested he would handle advertising if a deal could be made with the partners. He wanted a 25 percent commission on sales of all lots. Prices would depend on location and would run $2,500 to $5,000. The New River Development Company approved and the first advertisement went to the Miami Herald.

One article in the Miami Herald reported that a promotion of the subdivision would include free transportation from Miami, dinners and a river trip. An ad in the same paper beckoned visitors to buy a lot in “Fort Lauderdale’s sub-division deluxe with people you’ll be glad to have for neighbors: men of wealth and social standing and a-1 character.”

The advertising campaign proved to be a success.  Hortt claimed in his book that he and Dye sold every lot “in less than one week,” and each for the price originally agreed upon. Success led to plans for a $250,000 hotel in Idlewyld. Promised to be “bigger and better than any yet planned” the hotel was expected to sit on six lots and open in one year.

The Idlewyld neighborhood gained attention. Hortt built his home there. In 1925, while on one of his many trips, he was offered $60,000 for that house. Upon his return he upped the price to $75,000 (a steep price then) and sold it to businesswoman Helen Brooks Smith. The sale made local headlines.

Less than a year later, the aftermath of the 1926 hurricane brought the South Florida real estate boom to a halt.  It’s interesting to note that during the storm, the U.S. Coast Guard’s houseboat station, Moccasin, was lifted from its mooring and thrown across the waterway near Idlewyld. The Coast Guard took up temporary quarters in the “deluxe” subdivision in two houses donated by W.C. Kyle until they could re-establish their base.

Hortt remained solvent and developed several neighborhoods such as Beverly Heights. He was recognized for guiding Fort Lauderdale’s recovery from the storm. He served as mayor and commissioner of Fort Lauderdale and then bought large tracts of land in Pompano Beach, where he died (750 Ocean Blvd.) in 1958 at 77.

And Idlewyld? It remains one of the city’s most beautiful neighborhoods with many of the original houses replaced with multi-lot sized homes selling for millions (as of this post, 17 on the market). The Riviera Isles/Idlewyld area is home to 508 residents. 

Hortt’s legacy includes not only his sales record of early city communities but his recognition of waterside locations in boosting real estate values. Many who came to Fort Lauderdale in the early 1900s thought real estate fortunes were to be found in agricultural land to the west. Hortt knew better.

Copyright © 2023. All rights reserved. Jane Feehan

Sources:

Hortt, M.A., Gold Coast Pioneer. New York: Exposition Press, 1955.

Miami Herald, Jan. 20, 1924

Miami Herald, Feb. 20, 1924

Fort Lauderdale News, Feb. 25, 1925

Fort Lauderdale News, April 17, 1925

Fort Lauderdale News, Nov. 13, 1925

Fort Lauderdale News, Nov. 16, 1926

Fort Lauderdale News, June 20, 1926

Fort Lauderdale News, March 1, 1952

Fort Lauderdale News, April 15, 1958

Tags: Idlewyld neighborhood, M.A. Hortt, Fort Lauderdale history, Fort Lauderdale communities, history of Fort Lauderdale, Fort Lauderdale in the 1920s, Jane Feehan, Las Olas Boulevard,

A tunnel under Fort Lauderdale's Intracoastal at Las Olas, a short-lived idea ... until now

Florida State Archives

By Jane Feehan

Many know about Fort Lauderdale’s Henry E. Kinney Tunnel* along US Highway 1 (Federal Highway), under the New River. A controversial subject for two decades, it was finally completed in 1960. But not many know – or remember – that a second tunnel was proposed for the city in 1951.

A  proposal for a second tunnel, one to go under the Intracoastal off East Las Oas Boulevard, had been toyed with once before and was cast aside. But estimated revenues from the proposed New River project revived thoughts about the second tunnel as part of the Broward County traffic improvement program. Traffic was becoming a monumental problem in growing Fort Lauderdale during the 1950s. 

Looking east on Las Olas

State Representatives John Burwell and Ted David from Broward County were probably influential in turning down that plan. They were more focused on starting work on the bridge at SE 17^th Street.

It would be hard to imagine Fort Lauderdale without the beautiful vista of the waterway provided by the Las Olas Bridge today.  

Meanwhile, the tunnel built by  Boring Co. has problems in Las Vegas:

https://www.newsweek.com/elon-musks-las-vegas-loop-tunnel-concerns-riders-afraid-getting-trapped-underground-1667164

Update: Oct. 31, 2021: The Boring Co. submits a 29-page report on the proposed tunnel project: 

https://www.sun-sentinel.com/local/broward/fort-lauderdale/fl-ne-tunnel-beach-fort-lauderdale-details-20211031-5gcg7miffbgttkp3wcdnnyek5u-story.html?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Don%27t%20Miss&utm_content=5601635685349#nws=true

Update: July 7, 2021 The city of Fort Lauderdale approves bid from Elon Musk's Boring Company for a tunnel from downtown to A1A: https://www.sun-sentinel.com/local/broward/fort-lauderdale/fl-ne-tunnel-to-beach-fort-lauderdale-20210707-vtv5p3xhr5f73jjae73ar3za2u-story.html

Update: April 11, 2021 - Elon Musk is in talks with the city to make such a tunnel a reality - by 2022.

https://www.sun-sentinel.com/local/broward/fort-lauderdale/fl-ne-tunnel-beach-ss-prem-20210411-u7msh76e6nclzijeapyz4npzza-story.html

Copyright © 2019. All rights reserved. Jane Feehan.

*See index for more on the Henry E. Kinney Tunnel.

Source:   Miami Daily News, Dec. 20, 1951

    

    
                                                                                            

Florida State Archives

Tags: Fort Lauderdale history, Fort Lauderdale tunnel, Fort Lauderdale in the 1950s, film researcher

Las Olas Boulevard opens to Fort Lauderdale beach, its future

Las Olas Boulevard, circa 1930
Florida State Archives/Romer

By Jane Feehan

Thanks to the foresight of Fort Lauderdale founders Frank Stranahan, Tom Bryan and others who formed the Las Olas Bridge Company in 1915, the thick mangrove swamp to the east of downtown was paved and bridged to the beach by January 1917. 

The project expanded  the town’s boundaries and recreational opportunities while broadening its economic base.

Newspapers during the following decades reflect the hopes and dreams for the Las Olas area, today part of Fort Lauderdale’s central business district and, on its east end, site of the famous residential finger islands and canals that earned the city’s designation, “Venice of America.” Real  estate investor Charlie Rodes started dredging the canals according to a method first used, he claimed, in Venice, Italy.

Another early project to create “made” land in the area described in one news story was probably that of M.A Hortt and Robert Dye who, after seeing the success of developer Carl Fisher in Miami Beach with land fill, created Idlewyld, a beautiful residential neighborhood off Las Olas Boulevard:

Captain Seth Perkins of Miami is engaged in pumping 2,500 cubic yards of sand and silt on a tract of 111 acres of tide lands along the New River, between Fort Lauderdale town and Las Olas beach. This made land fill will be converted into suburban home sites. (“Glimpses of Florida,” Miami News, July 15, 1920)

In 1934, during the tough Depression years, Civil Works Administration (CWA) projects helped make Las Olas a picturesque boulevard:

Due to the dredging … and to CWA activities in the city, the Las Olas causeway, leading to Fort Lauderdale beach, has undergone a complete transformation. … tied in with city-wide CWA projects, was the planting of 180 coconut palms … on the causeway. These have been placed 10 feet apart and in a few years will transform this causeway park into a coconut grove. (“Las Olas Span is Transformed,” Miami News, March 10, 1934)

Other sources:

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

Copyright © 2013. All rights reserved. Jane Feehan

Tags: Fort Lauderdale history, Florida history, Las Olas Boulevard history, early Fort Lauderdale days, Fort Lauderdale tourism, film researcher,  historical research