Lauderdale-by-the-Sea's Anglin Fishing pier, once longest in Broward County

 

Anglin Fishing Pier
2 Commercial Blvd.
Lauderdale-By-The-Sea, FL 33308
954-491-9403
For more information on Broward County Piers
https://www.saltchef.com/catch_fish/FL/Broward/fishing_piers.html

Update: See web cam for Hurricane Nicole damage to Anglin's Pier (11/10/2022)

https://www.discoverlbts.com/live-beach-webcam/

By Jane Feehan

Lauderdale-By-The-Sea pioneer Melvin Anglin built Anglin (some now say Anglin's) Fishing Pier in 1941. No fisherman, Anglin was encouraged by his son, Tom, to build the structure to attract tourists to the small town north of Fort Lauderdale.

The original pier, made of wood, jutted out past the shoreline 800 feet into the water, over the first reef. Anglers cast their lines off its 100-foot-wide T at the farthest end. In those days, the cost to visit or fish from the pier was 10 cents. The wooden structure was rebuilt by the Anglins at least three times when hurricanes broke it apart. After a destructive storm, the family would salvage its wood planks anywhere from 10th Street in Fort Lauderdale north to Sea Ranch Lakes to begin construction anew.

Real estate agents Everett Sorensen and Frank Myatt (son of Lord’s Realty owner Ann Lord) bought the pier, not the land, with a 99-year lease in 1962. They rebuilt it with concrete pilings, extending its length to 876 feet. Anglin Fishing Pier (the name remained) reopened Nov. 22, 1963, the day President Kennedy was assassinated, according to Sorensen when he was interviewed in 2004.

After damage from Hurricane Irma in 2017 and Hurricane Nicole in 2022, the pier has been closed. Current (2024) owner Spiro Marchelos said repairs will begin in 2025.  Before storm damage, Anglin Fishing Pier had been extended to 900 feet. A large gap defines its current problems. A cafe operates on part of the structure during the day.

Dania Beach states its pier is 900 feet long. Deerfield Beach claims its pier is 976 feet in length and Pompano says its pier is about 876 feet. See https://www.saltchef.com/catch_fish/FL/Broward/fishing_piers.html.

Florida State Archives
/Florida Memory 1996

Copyright © 2012, 2021, 2024 All rights reserved. Jane Feehan. 

Copyright © 2021, 2022, 2024. All rights reserved. Jane Feehan

Sources:

Richard, Candace. Seventy-Three Years By The Sea. Lauderdale by the Sea: Town of of Lauderdale-By-The-Sea, 2000.

Miami News, Jan. 29, 1963

Sun-Sentinel, Jan. 3, 2002

Sun-Sentinel, Nov. 7, 2024

Tags: History of Lauderdale-by-the-Sea, Lauderdale-by-the-Sea history, Broward County fishing piers

Commercial Boulevard Bridge to Lauderdale-By-The-Sea once scorned, now vital

 

Commercial Boulevard Bridge
Florida State Archives/Dept of Commerce

By Jane Feehan


The beach town of Lauderdale-By-The-Sea, and particularly Mayor Gil Colnot, long resisted the building of the Commercial Boulevard bridge in the early 1960s. Colnot embraced “No bridge” as a plank in his winning 1958 election platform.*

A municipality of about 1,300 in 1960, Lauderdale-By-The-Sea held itself as the quintessentially small all-American town, insulated by its location east of the Intracoastal north of its much larger neighbor, Fort Lauderdale. A bridge would bring life-altering unwanted traffic.

But the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) moved forward with construction of a million-dollar bridge in 1964 (estimated $2 M at completion). Commercial Boulevard was a major east-west thoroughfare; the bridge was necessary. It was dedicated October 16, 1965 and opened to traffic a few days later; the impact was immediate and significant.

The number of visitors increased four-fold. Traffic jammed through the town. By 1970 FDOT counted 22,000 vehicles passing through Lauderdale-By-The-Sea in 24 hours. 

Records in 2010 revealed 37,500 drove through daily and by 2018 traffic was up to 42,000 daily. More than 56,000 are expected through its streets by 2027. For years there were no parking meters. Now, “bring quarters” or credit card may be a visitor’s mantra; pay to park is ubiquitous.

Tourists came, population grew - about 6,800 permanent residents by 2019 - as it did elsewhere in Broward County and business thrived.

The 350.4-foot-long bridge is classified today as in overall fair condition (superstructure and substructure).


Copyright © 2020. All rights reserved. Jane Feehan.


_________
* Colnot held the mayoral seat for 20 years.


Sources:
Richard, Candace. Seventy-Three Years By The Sea. LBTS: The Community Church of Lauderdale-By-The-Sea (2000).
Fort Lauderdale News, Oct. 17, 1965
www.Bridgehunter.com

Tags: Lauderdale-By-The-Sea history, bridges in South Florida, growth of South Florida in the 1960s, Lauderdale-By-the-Sea in the 1960s, film researcher, Fort Lauderdale history

Lauderdale-by-the-Sea: incorporated twice and elects Florida's first female mayor

Anglin's Pier, Lauderdale-by-the-Sea

By Jane Feehan

Billed as a seaside sub-division, Lauderdale-by-the-Sea was originally platted by William F. Morang in 1924. He bought the property with $10 down, $250 in revenue stamps and a $50,000 mortgage from Henry S. Moody and John C. Gregory.

By 1925, zenith of Florida boom times, Morang’s advertisements for Lauderdale-by-the-Sea were promising increased lot prices. In 1927, the town elected its first mayor, Melvin Anglin. The boom soon went bust, Morang defaulted on mortgage payments, and the town’s charter was revoked by the state in 1933. It wasn’t until Nov. 30, 1947 that Lauderdale-by-the-Sea was again incorporated. Margaret Linardy was elected mayor of the new town, making her the first woman mayor in the state.

A few words about Morang:  A better self promoter than developer, he announced the building of two hotels in Fort Lauderdale in 1925. Headlines claimed the hotels, one dubbed as “The Morang,” would cost about $1.5 million each. Construction was to start within 60 days; it didn’t. Morang also began developing Nurmi Isles off Las Olas; he didn’t complete that project either. He had more success developing the land for Fort Lauderdale's Rio Vista. Morang left South Florida at the end of the boom, but returned in 1936 to sell 200 Rio Vista lots in a less-than-enthusiastic market. He made a final Fort Lauderdale exit soon after.

Copyright © 2020. All rights reserved. Jane Feehan.

_____

Sources:

Miami News, Nov. 28, 1924, p. 31

Miami News, Nov. 7, 1925, p. 38.

Miami News, March 2, 1926 p. 53

Weidling, Philip and Burghard, August. Checkered Sunshine. Gainnesville: University of Florida Press: 1966

Richard. Candice. Seventy-Three Years By The Sea. Lauderdale-by-the-Sea: Community Church of Lauderdale-by-the-Sea: 2000.

Tags: Florida history, Lauderdale-by-the-Sea history, WF Morang and Son, Florida in the 1920s.