Pompano Beach's Oceanside Shopping Plaza and that famous vacuum cleaner connection

Old site of Oceanside Shopping Plaza
State of Florida Archives/Florida Memory

 

By Jane Feehan

Many who grew up in Fort Lauderdale before 1990 visited Pompano’s Oceanside Shopping Plaza during its 40-year history. Few know much about its beginning, demise, the man behind it, and connections to several Fort Lauderdale businesses.

James B. Kirby (1884-1971) purchased the shopping center property at the corner of Atlantic Boulevard and State Road A1A in the early 1950s. Inventor of the vacuum cleaner (1906) bearing his name, and developer of the prototype of today’s home automatic washer/dryer, the Laun-Dry-Ette (1916), Ohioan Kirby started visiting Fort Lauderdale in the 1920s. After he sold his interest in Kirby Vacuum to Scott-Fetzer Company in 1961, Kirby moved permanently to Fort Lauderdale's Galt Mile. 

Pompano Beach was booming; the new bridge across the Intracoastal brought a steady stream of traffic to the area. In 1956 the center, developed for about $1 million, opened with 24 stores and parking for 270 cars. Businesses included a cafeteria, Bill’s Camera and Novelty Shop, Bush’s (home decorations and occasional furniture) a food market, Las Olas Bakery, gas station, and real estate office. It was also home to Leonard Taylor Jewelers, site of the 1962, $1.75 million jewelry heist—one of the largest in South Florida history at the time.

This prestigious corner, home of “Pompano Beach’s luxurious shopping center” was adjacent to Harris’ Imperial House, at 50 N. Ocean Blvd, which opened in 1959. The two-story Polynesian-themed restaurant was built and operated by father and son team, Sam and George Harris. Interestingly, they also owned the 4 o’ Clock Club, The Townhouse restaurant downtown Fort Lauderdale, the popular Seahorse restaurant on Las Olas and the Bahia Mar restaurant. The Imperial House closed in 1990.

The shopping plaza was sold for $2 million to Louis and Ann Bough in 1972. Their investment grew to be worth more than $10 million in one decade, but shoppers’ interest faded; many more centers offering an expanded shopping experience were being built throughout the area. The plaza was sold and demolished in 2005 to make room for The Plaza at Oceanside, a mixed-use property of condos ($700K and up) and retail. Local historians considered saving its iconic mid-century pylon sign, but it was destroyed with the rest of the center. The picture above shows today’s Plaza at Oceanside.

Copyright © 2020. All rights reserved. Jane Feehan

Sources:

Fort Lauderdale News, Oct. 17, 1954

Miami Herald, Jan. 9, 1955

Fort Lauderdale News, 1956

Fort Lauderdale News, Aug. 30, 1958

Fort Lauderdale News Nov. 29, 1956

Fort Lauderdale News, Feb. 18, 1962

Miami Herald, June 10, 1971

Los Angeles Times, June 9, 1971

South Florida Sun-Sentinel, May 2, 2004

 

Tags: Pompano Beach history, Oceanside Shopping Plaza, Pompano Beach retail history, Pompano Beach commerce, James B. Kirby, Jane Feehan, Harris Imperial House

 

 

Pompano, a railway stop with no name until ...

Florida East Coast Rail Depot circa 1930
 State Archives of  Florida

According to the Tropical Sun in 1914, the town of Pompano (now Pompano Beach), was named as a stop along the growing Florida East Coast Railway in 1896 in honor of an "excellent meal."

Eighteen years ago, the railroad went through to Miami, opening up the whole country as it went and one of our pioneer surveyors, Mr. Franklin Sheen, was kept very busy spying out the land and locating settlers near to the railroad.

In his explorations up and down the beach to Miami, he selected Pompano as the leading farming settlement in the whole county and succeeded in inducing people to invest there and it was necessary to give it a name. While consulting about a name at the old Park Cottage, in West Palm Beach, in company with some prospective purchasers, the company had had Pompano fish for dinner and in view of the fact that they all considered it an “excellent” meal it was determined that the name “Pompano” would be a good name for an “excellent” farming country and forthwith it was “dubbed” Pompano and that name went into the railroad with the requirement that they put a station there …

_______
For more about the Tropical Sun, see: Two cousins ...
http://janeshistorynook.blogspot.com/2013/03/two-cousins-stage-line-and-founding-of.html


Tags: Florida history, Pompano Beach history, Broward County history, Florida East Coast Railway, film research

Last of the Tequesta burial sites in Broward: Indian Mound Park, Pompano Beach

Indian Mound Park, Pompano Beach

1232 Hibiscus Avenue (12^th Street and Hibiscus)

By Jane Feehan

Pompano‘s Indian Mound Park, which sits along the east side of the Intracoastal Waterway, features a Tequesta burial mound thought to be at least a thousand years old. The mound, about seven feet high and 100 feet wide holds the artifacts and bones of Tequesta Indians, early residents of Florida. Referred to as the only burial mound to escape Broward County development, the site was listed on the National Registry of Historic Places in April 2014 (registry reference 14000151). Pompano listed it on its historical directory in 2010.

Residents have known about the Indian Mound for decades. A newspaper in 1925 referred to it as the “old Indian Mound of historical romance.” Others promoted it as a tourist attraction. Few understood the Tequesta connection but an associate professor of anthropology from the University of Florida, John Goggin, did. He came to the site in 1938 and started digging. He didn’t find much except one significant piece, an image dubbed “Keeper of the Mound.” It was enough to pique the interest of an archaeologist a short time later, but he was stopped from digging by neighborhood residents who did not want the site to be disturbed. Goggin was to return nearly two decades later but for a different purpose mentioned below.

1925 ad for Lake Santa Barbara: "
the old Indian Mound has been
a mecca for thousands."

It is thought the Tequestas came to Florida about 2,500 years ago. They lived peacefully off its land and waters for centuries. Most of these early settlers were decimated by disease after Spanish explorers started coming to Florida in the 15^th century. Florida remained in Spanish hands until 1763, when it was ceded to the British in the First Treaty of Paris. Some historians think a few Tequesta left with the Spanish and headed for Havana; others think the last of the Tequesta lived in Florida until the 1800s.

The Tequesta legacy includes mounds throughout Florida; there were probably 50 of them between Lake Okeechobee and the Keys, including that of the Miami Circle downtown (though some dispute this site). Some sites reveal evidence of canals the Indians built to reach the mounds. These dirt mounds could be 40 feet high and 300 feet wide and used for dwellings, ceremonies and for burial. There is also evidence of above-ground cemeteries built by Tequesta.

Pompano’s Indian Mound was long thought to be an eyesore along the Intracoastal. The Jelks family, residents of the area since the early 1900s, donated the property to the city of Pompano for a park. It was dedicated by Mayor Bruce Blount as Indian Mound Park April 13, 1958 with Professor Goggin on hand. Indigenous trees and plants were planted for the occasion and many remain.  At one time a museum was planned for the site, but it never materialized. For years it remained largely unnoticed. It still wasn’t much to look at during my childhood, well after its dedication.

But things have changed, even though the park sits between a water tower and a tall condominium. Today, it’s a small, but beautiful area astride Hibiscus Avenue. It provides a wide view of Lake Santa Barbara and the Intracoastal. The park now includes a covered waterside table, a Water Taxi stop, a winding sidewalk with benches and parking for only four or five cars. I visited recently and found myself in the company of two others taking a quiet lunch break. Stop by … but don’t tell too many. Indian Mound Park is a gem of historical significance with a magnificent vista. One can only imagine how beautiful it was when the Tequesta lived here.

Sources:

Miami Herald, Nov. 3, 1925

Miami News, May 19, 1935

Miami Herald, July 29, 1951

Tampa Tribune, March 27, 1955

Fort Lauderdale News, April 13, 2958

Fort Lauderdale News, Oct. 3, 1958

Sun-Sentinel, Feb. 19, 1986

Sun-Sentinel, June 2, 2003

Sun-Sentinel, March 31, 2004

Sun-Sentinel, March 31, 2014

Sun-Sentinel, June 26, 2014

Tags: Pompano Beach history, Indian burial mound, Tequesta Indians, Pompano Parks

Jane Feehan

WWII titans meet in Pompano Beach 1941

Gen. George C. Marshall U.S. Army

By Jane Feehan

Among the famous and powerful to visit South Florida during the 1940s was General George C. Marshall (1880-1959), U.S. Army Chief of Staff, who flew in unannounced to the Fort Lauderdale Municipal Airport Nov. 16, 1941.

Marshall “blitzkrieged the entire county” while he paid a visit to Edward Stettinius, Jr. (1900 - 1949), former lend-lease administrator who was vacationing in Pompano Beach. The visit was termed social but turmoil in international affairs provided a more plausible reason for the brief overnight stay. That turmoil resulted in Pearl Harbor, only a few weeks

 away.

Pompano remained “blissfully unaware” of the confab until after Marshall’s departure at 7 a.m. the following day aboard a Great Douglas Bomber or C-41 (Eastern Airlines acquired a few C-41s and changed the designation to DC-3). The four-star general and his pilot, Major L.R. Parker, headed to North Carolina to fly over a maneuver area before landing in Washington, D.C.

Stettinius, who later served as secretary of state under President Truman, hosted Winston Churchill in Pompano (actually Hillsboro Beach) in January, 1942. It gave rise to the local myth that Churchill and President Roosevelt met at Cap’s Place for dinner when, in fact, food from the restaurant (and former gambling hub) was delivered to the Stettinius residence for the prime minister’s visit. Roosevelt had suggested Churchill visit Florida (without the president) when he needed a breather from the prime minister who had been in Washington. 

It was hoped the vacation would be secret, but the press discovered the trip and Churchill was disapointed. (In Hillsboro, Churchill totally disrobed at the ocean's edge and fell into the water, dousing his cigar, according to a Secret Service agent.)

Hillsboro Inlet, Pompano Beach
Hillsboro Mile, site of Stettinus house north of
 lighthouse
Florida State Archives/Overton

General Marshall encouraged U.S. assistance in the post-WWII economic recovery of Europe, thus the naming of the Marshall Plan, an unprecedented $17 billion program that helped restore war-ravaged countries. Marshall also served as the nation’s third secretary of defense and as secretary of state under Truman. Copyright © 2015. All rights reserved. Jane Feehan.

For more on Churchill in Florida, see:
https://janeshistorynook.blogspot.com/2020/06/winston-churchill-and-his-miami-beach.html

For a newsreel clip of his arrival in Miami, see: http://tinyurl.com/92x5axf
For more on Churchill at Hillsboro Beach in Broward county during WWII, see:
https://janeshistorynook.blogspot.com/2015/02/wwii-titans-meet-in-pompano-beach-1941.html
https://janeshistorynook.blogspot.com/2020/06/historic-caps-place-gambling-raids.html

Sources:
Fort Lauderdale Daily News, Nov. 17, 1941.
Manchester, William and Reid, Paul. The Last Lion, Vol. 3: Defender of the Realm. 2012.

Tags: WWII, Pompano Beach history, Florida during WWII, Gen. George Marshall, Edward Stettinius, Jr., film researcher