Henry Flagler and Miami's Royal Palm Hotel ...1897

Salt water pool at Royal Palm
Florida State Archives

By Jane Feehan

Henry M. Flagler planned for Palm Beach to be the terminus of his Florida East Coast Railway line in 1896. The plan changed when a severe freeze hit the state dipping temperatures to fourteen degrees in Jacksonville and 30 in West Palm Beach; there was snow in Fort Meyers. He sent his front man, James Ingraham, to Miami where he met with resident and land owner of considerable holdings, Julia Tuttle. When he reported back to his boss that there was no freeze and plenty of land there, Flagler was convinced to extend his railway.

The official date given for the arrival of the train was April 15, 1896, though the city celebrates its birthday in July. As with other significant stops along the way from Jacksonville, the Miami destination was to have a grand hotel. The rail extension sparked immediate construction and spawned new business in the area.  The five-story Royal Palm Hotel opened its doors in 1897.  It brought the backward settlement its first hotel, first electricity, first pool and introduced the first golf course to Florida (for more on Florida  golf see index or search).

The Royal Palm, which took up 600 feet along the Miami River and sat atop an Indian burial ground, was the center of social life in Miami. The move to Miami marked the beginning of Flagler’s most aggressive expansion phase, which eventually included building the rail over the ocean to Key West.  Soon after building the hotel, he began steamship service to Cuba and the Bahamas from Miami and dredged a portion of Biscayne Bay for a port.

Stories abound about Flagler’s activities in Miami. He donated land to the U.S. Weather Bureau for a weather station to advertise Miami’s good weather across the nation. One lesser known, darker tale, however, concerns a smallpox outbreak among some of the hotel’s African-American employees. Flagler’s staff moved them to a secret hospital where they recovered. Afterward, the employees were spirited out of the state.

The Great Hurricane of 1926* severely damaged the Royal Palm Hotel. It reopened briefly in 1928 and but closed within months, never to open again. The hotel was razed in 1930. Bricks unearthed from the hotel site near the Dupont Building downtown (once home of the Miami Herald) were placed on sale for $100 each in 2004 with proceeds marked for archaeological research on Indian artifacts. Bricks were also placed on sale shortly after the hotel was demolished but the going price at that time was $14 for 1,000. Copyright © 2020. All rights reserved. Jane Feehan.

* For more on the 1926 hurricane, see index.

For more on the Miami Circle, see:
http://janeshistorynook.blogspot.com/2013/12/miami-in-1904-nothing-that-savored-of.html


Sources:

Bramson, Seth H. Miami, the Magic City. Charleston: Arcadia Publishing, 2007.

Grunwald, Michael. The Swamp: The Everglades, Florida and the Politics of Paradise. New York: Simon & Shuster, 2006.

Miami News,  May, 14, 1971

Miami Herald, Apr. 21, 2004


Tags: Miami history. first hotel in Miami, Henry M. Flagler, first golf course in Florida, FEC Railway history, film industry researcher, historical researcher

Miami's trolley system challenged by hurricanes, cars and parades 1906-1940

Trolley car in downtown Miami 1926  State Archives of Florida

By Jane Feehan

Trolley systems had their ups and downs in Miami beginning in 1906. The demise of the trolley in 1940 was linked to hurricanes and an electorate confident in the future of buses. The Orange Bowl committee could not have been more relieved to see voters end the streetcar era.

The first trolley ran along Miami’s streets in 1906 (the city incorporated 1896). It operated for a year and a half until officials determined there weren’t enough riders; the city had fewer than 2,000 residents. A more successful trolley system – battery powered – was launched in 1915 and ran until 1919. It serviced a route from near the latter day Orange Bowl stadium south to downtown and from Northeast Second Avenue north to Thirty-sixth Street.

Miami’s land and population boom – and consistent need for public transport - was just around the corner. By 1922 residents numbered about 45,000.* The first electric trolley with overhead wires began operating in January 1922. The Brill Car Company of Philadelphia constructed the streetcars and painted them a dull grey, “more suitable for [Miami’s] weather than a light color.”

Viability of Miami’s streetcar system continued to be tested. Car ownership was on the rise during the 1920s. Then came the Great Hurricane of 1926 driving many out of the area. The hurricane of 1935 ended service from Coral Gables to downtown Miami. General Motors began lobbying cities throughout the country, including Miami, to consider their combustible engine buses for public transportation. A referendum held in October 1940 spelled the end of the streetcar. Miami’s electorate was swayed to vote for the seemingly more modern buses.

The Orange Bowl Committee was ecstatic about the referendum. The first bowl was held in 1935 and had grown into a huge event by 1940 with scores of moving “stages” bearing tall displays that would exceed the suspended 18-foot streetcar wires. About 5,000 cast members were slated to march in the King Orange jamboree parade along 27 blocks with more than 250,000 expected to line the streets.

“They [floats] are so large and so tall that we were afraid low-hanging trolley lines might interfere …,” said E.E. Seiler, business manager of the Orange Bowl committee. An end to trolley service brought the removal of the overhead wires just in time for that year’s parade.

It’s back to basics today. Miami promotes the use of its Metro Rail, a popular, energy-efficient rapid transit system of light rail throughout the city.

*By 1923 population reached 70,000; it jumped to 117,000 in 1925.

Sources:
Miami News, Nov. 25, 1921

Miami Daily News, Oct. 11, 1940.

Bramson, Seth H. Miami: The Magic City. Charleston: Arcadia Publishing (2007).

Tags: Miami trolley history, Miami history, Orange Bowl history, Orange Bowl, film industry researcher

Of Russians, the Splitnik, Inverrary, Jackie Gleason ... and golf

Jackie Gleason circa 1950
State of Florida Archives

By Jane Feehan

American National Exhibition needed a typical American house to display at an event in Moscow in 1959.

All-State Properties was selected to construct that house. Herbert Sadkin, the company’s president, tapped architect Stanley H. Klein to design a home representative of the American middle class. 

The $13,000 “Splitnik” contained one and a half bathrooms, three bedrooms, two patios and an L-shaped living room. The Russian state news agency, Tass, ridiculed the house, saying it was as typical of the American worker’s house as the Taj Mahal was typical of the Bombay textile worker’s house.

That didn’t stop Sadkin from building the same model on Long Island. There, he discovered the house wasn’t luxurious enough for the American worker. He continued to upgrade. 

In July, 1959 Sadkin opened his first Florida development on 1,300 acres he purchased for about $1 million near the Sunshine Parkway (now Florida's Turnpike). Located in Broward County, the new city was chartered as Lauderhill. 

Sadkin went on to build about 1,000 more homes in Lauderhill that also became known for Inverrary, developed by Haft-Gaines, and its golf course.

Cut forward to 1972. Actor-comedian Jackie Gleason (1916-1987), a resident of Inverrary, kicked off the first Inverrary Classic bearing his name. 

Those were the glory days of golf legends Tom Weiskopf, Lee Trevino, Jack Nicklaus, and Johnny Miller; they each played the Jackie Gleason Inverrary Classic. Gleason’s involvement ended in 1980 when CBS-TV cut the Inverrary Classic from the event list for the 1982 broadcast season. Tournament officials sought a big-money corporate sponsor and planned to ease Gleason aside.

“I’m not going to have my name associated with some car company,” said Gleason who died at his Inverrary home a few years later. “The only reason I wanted to be involved in the first place was to raise money for charity.” Gleason’s name attracted celebs to play in the pro-am. He and President Gerald Ford were golfing friends. He had planned to invite President-elect Ronald Reagan to play in 1981 but decided against it given the circumstances.

Today we know the golf tournament as the Honda Classic, now played at PGA National in Palm Beach Gardens. The Inverrary Country Club and its golf courses in Lauderhill closed June, 2020. And Sadkin, a Fort Lauderdale resident, went on to build Bonaventure and other South Florida projects before he died in 1972. 

Copyright © 2012 2020 All rights reserved. Jane Feehan.

Sources:

Miami News, July 14, 1959

Palm Beach Post, Nov. 1980

New York Times, Feb. 18, 1989

http://www.inverrarygolf.com/

http://www.jackiegleason.com/bio.html

Tags: Lauderhill history, Jackie Gleason, Russians, Fort Lauderdale in the 1960s, celebrities in South Florida, Fort Lauderdale history, Splitnik, Inverrary 

Seminole Wars and Maj. William Lauderdale. A future city is named ...

Colee Hammock Park today

Marylander and one time Key West resident William Colee (or Cooley) and his family were among the first settlers along the New River in 1824. Prosperous farmers of coontie, a fern-like plant with roots used for edible starch, the Colee family named their small plantation, Colee Hammock. Some say the family may have been responsible for planting coconut trees along New River because an old map marks the site as “Cocoanut Grove.”

Life on the 29-acre farm along the New River changed drastically in 1836.

Seminole Indians, new to the area, resented the U.S. government and its attempts to resettle them. They also bore particular animus for Colee. The Seminoles thought Colee, elected justice of the peace, had treated them unfairly in a criminal case. While he was away on a ship salvage mission off the Hillsboro Inlet in January 1836, a band of Seminoles killed Colee's wife, three children and their tutor. After returning to bury his family, he abandoned the plantation. A year later, the settler was tapped to be the first lighthouse keeper at Key Biscayne but he declined when the federal government cut back its offer on security expenses.

The Second Seminole War had begun in 1835 and continued until 1842. The Colee incident fueled mutual animosities. Major General Thomas Jesup, commander of troops in Florida, asked President Andrew Jackson (served 1829-1837) who he could recommend to lead an effective force in Florida to end the conflict. Jackson knew and had fought with William Lauderdale in the War of 1812 and highly recommended him for the mission.

Lauderdale (born in Virginia in 1782) agreed to take on the assignment in 1837. Then, as U.S. Army major, he raised five battalions of Tennessee Volunteers. After arriving in Florida, his orders were to strike a route from Jupiter Inlet to Fort Dallas (along the Miami River) to search for Seminoles who had escaped after the Battle of Loxahatchee January 24, 1838. Their march along what became known as Military Trail (first called Lauderdale Trail) took them to the New River where they knew it to be near the site of the Colee massacre. General Jesup, impressed with Lauderdale's efficiency in establishing a stronghold there, named it Fort Lauderdale.

Some say Lauderdale fought the Battle of Pine Island Ridge March 22, 1838; that is not confirmed, though he has been honored for it. Accounts reveal most of the Seminoles had left Pine Ridge before troops arrived. One hundred days later and 13 days after the Pine Island event, Major Lauderdale, ill with a respiratory disease, asked to be relieved of duty. He and his troops headed to Tampa. He died May 10, 1838 in Baton Rouge, enroute to Tennessee. He was 56.

Two other forts by the same name were built in the area (one on the beach) during the war; the Seminoles were never defeated. Today, Fort Lauderdale is a city of about 183,000 and Colee Hammock (1500 Brickell Drive), is one of its most beautiful parks.

Sources:
Gillis, Susan. Fort Lauderdale, Venice of America. Great Britain: Arcadia Publishing, 2004.  
Douglas, Marjory Stoneman. The Everglades, River of Grass. Miami: Banyan Books, 1978.
Snyder, John D. Light in the Wilderness. China: Pharos Books, 2006.
Miami News, May 16, 1965
http://pbchistory.blogspot.com/2016/11/the-last-campaign-of-major-william.html

Tags: Seminole Wars, Maj. William Lauderdale, Fort Lauderdale history, New River, who was Lauderdale

Why are life rafts orange? There's a Fort Lauderdale connection

Ever wonder why many life rafts, floats and other buoyant apparatus around the world are colored international orange?

There’s a Fort Lauderdale connection.

In 1960, the five-member vacationing Duperrault family left Bahia Mar on a 60-foot charter boat, the Bluebelle, captained by Julian Harvey. A few days later, Harvey was picked up on a life raft with the body of young girl, a member of the family. He told the U.S. Coast Guard that all the Duperraults had perished in an accident on the boat.

While Harvey was telling his story to the Coast Guard, word came there was a survivor. Eleven-year-old Terry Jo Duperrault had floated on a small white cork device for three days before being picked up in the Bahamas by the Greek ship, Captain Theo. Other ships may have mistaken the float for a white cap and sailed past the girl.

Hours after hearing news of the rescue, Harvey killed himself in a motel room. The subsequent investigation and interview with Terry Jo revealed the family was murdered by Harvey. 

It also seems Harvey had a cloudy past. A former pilot in the Air Force, Harvey was reportedly also a survival expert. He had been involved in two other ship sinkings and an air crash. He collected insurance proceeds on two vessels, according to news accounts in 1961. The same account indicates his second wife and her mother were killed in a car he was driving that went off a bridge in 1949. Harvey survived.  

In closing the investigation in 1962, the Coast Guard recommended “that the body of buoyant apparatus, life rafts and life boats … be painted or otherwise colored international orange.” This regulation was adopted and implemented by the Coast Guard.

Afterward, the practice was embraced world wide; orange is used today as a life raft safety precaution aboard many boats and ships across the globe. Thus, one girl's three-day ordeal at sea served as catalyst for the adoption of a new, international marine safety standard.

Sources:

US Coast Guard 

Fort Lauderdale News, Nov. 22, 1961

Logan, Richard and Fassbender, Tere Duperrault.  Alone, Orphaned on the Ocean. Green Bay: Title Town Publishing, 2010.

Tags: Marine safety standards, international orange, Bahia Mar, Fort Lauderdale history, lifeboats 

Fort Lauderdale rises ... first high-rise condominium? First co-op?

By Jane Feehan


Residential high rises rule Fort Lauderdale’s skyline these days. For some it’s hard to remember what the city looked like before them. Rental apartments and cooperatives--or co-ops – were the beginning of the skyward push. 

According to the Fort Lauderdale News, the first two high-rise buildings in town were built by Col. T.J. Murrell during 1956-1957 and opened in 1958: Spring Tide at 345 N. Fort Lauderdale Beach Boulevard and Sea Tower (soon after a co-op) at 2840 N. Atlantic Blvd. Birch Towers at 3003 Terramar went up in 1958. The skyward push included 23 high rises constructed between 1956 and 1965. Several were converted to condos or co-ops over the years.

Among the first co-ops was the Edgewater Arms* on the Galt Mile, with ground broken in late 1959 (88 units).  Another, the Breakwater Towers, near Port Everglades offered units for sale in 1960 (and was completed around 1962). This 16-story co-op was once the largest residential building in Broward County. It couldn’t make that claim for long. The first Coral Ridge Towers, a co-op across from the Galt Mile opened with 330 units in 1963 (my family among its first residents). The Illini, a co-op at 535 S. Fort Lauderdale Beach Blvd. with 52 units was ready for occupancy in late 1962.

The first high-rise condominium in Fort Lauderdale was Sky Harbor East, announced in 1963 and completed in 1964 (as were a few other projects those early years, so the claim of first may be first announced or first completed or written up as such by the New York Times and local media). A few blocks from the Breakwater on South Ocean Drive, Sky Harbor East also reaches 16 floors, and holds about 186 units.

The Four Seasons off Las Olas at 333 Sunset was built as a co-op in 1958-1959 but was purchased after lengthy litigation by Tennessee oil man Calvin Houghland. He converted the building into rental units in 1963.  

In 1963, condos at Sky Harbor were going for $14,900 to $29,430. Today the same units (956 -1,474-sf) ) sell $500,000 to $700,000 and up. South Ocean Drive is still one of the most beautiful parts of the city. The two Points of America buildings there overlook the harbor entrance. The widow of Jackie Gleason, Marilyn Taylor, once lived in Points of America II. After her death in 2019, her two-bedroom penthouse condo was listed for $1.165 million (July, 2020).

And so it went from the late 1950s and 1960s, condominiums reaching for the clouds, from Port Everglades to Las Olas and northward to Galt Ocean Mile. Only Lauderdale-by-the-Sea pushes back with its height limits for new construction … for now.

* Plans for the Ocean Manor Hotel also on the Galt Mile, indicated co-op units would be included, but when it opened in 1958, it was announced by the Fort Lauderdale News that the building held 114 hotel rooms and suites and 84 efficiencies and apartments, no mention of co-op but it may have been one.

   

Downtown Fort Lauderdale 2023, the new construction frontier

Copyright © 2020, 2023. All rights reserved. Jane Feehan.

Sources:

New York Times, Jan. 12, 1958

Fort Lauderdale News, Dec. 20, 1958

Fort Lauderdale News June 10, 1962

Fort Lauderdale News, Sept 15, 1962

Miami News, Feb. 13, l963

Fort Lauderdale News, May 16, 1965

Sun-Sentinel, July 9, 2020

Gillis, Susan. Fort Lauderdale, The Venice of America. Charleston: Arcadia Publishing, 2004

Tags: Fort Lauderdale history, Broward County history, Fort Lauderdale condos, aerial view of Fort Lauderdale, Fort Lauderdale development

Sen. Kefauver stunned by Broward Sheriff Clark 1950 acquittal

Kefauver

By Jane Feehan

Broward County Sheriff Walter Clark turned a blind eye to illicit gambling for years (he served as sheriff 1931-39 and 1941-50). The mob rewarded him for his hands-off policy when they allowed him to run a bolita operation and own slot machines through his Broward Novelty Company.

Clark did not escape the attention of Sen. Estes Kefauver (D-TN), who headed a high-profile federal investigation of organized crime and gambling in 1950-51. Presidential hopeful Kefauver conducted some of the hearings in Miami, questioning mobsters Joe Adonis, Frank Costello, Vito Genovese and a roster of others, including Clark and Dade County Sheriff James Sullivan.

The Broward sheriff was evasive but was not convincing enough to evade a subsequent local grand jury indictment for owning slot machines.

A trial soon followed but Clark, his brother Deputy Sheriff Robert Clark, and Gordon F. Williams were acquitted in Broward County Dec. 8, 1950. The evidence was circumstantial. No defense witnesses were presented during the tumultuous proceedings. What most don’t know – or remember - of the trial’s outcome was Kefauver’s reaction. When the senator heard about the acquittal he told a congregation at a Miami temple that he was shocked and surprised.

“I heard testimony from Sheriff Clark in Miami, and I don’t mind admitting I was considerably shocked at the jury’s findings,” said Kefauver.

Later that month in the Saturday Evening Post, the senator elaborated.

“It is hard to stomach the admissions of characters such as Sheriff (Smiling Jimmy) Sullivan of Dade County and Sheriff Walter Clark of Broward County that they grew rich in office, far out of proportion to their modest salaries (Clark admitted he was worth more than $750,000).

Kefauver’s reaction drew the ire of Pompano Beach resident and jury foreman James Wilson.

“I’m shocked and surprised at the statement of Sen. Kefauver, in which he, by inference, tied together the testimony … he heard in Miami with the local Clark trial,” said Wilson.  “He is evidently unfamiliar with the facts of evidence introduced in the trial. Doesn’t Kefauver know that the evidence gathered in Miami was not introduced? This jury did its civic duty in an intelligent and forthright way. Furthermore, as a taxpayer, citizen and ex-U.S. Marine, I resent any reflection on my intelligence or veracity. If Kefauver wants to debate the issue publicly, I will meet him either in Florida or in his native hills of Tennessee.”

A movement to reinstate Clark was underway when he died April 24, 1951 of leukemia. Many mourned the colorful 47-year-old sheriff who was known for his charitable ways.

Sources:
Fort Lauderdale News, Dec. 9, 1950
Miami Herald, Dec. 10, 1950
Fort Lauderdale News April 11, 1951
Miami Herald, April 13, 1957

Tags: Kefauver hearings in Miami, Broward County gambling in the 1940s, 50s, Sheriff Walter Clark, Sheriff Clark acquittal, Kefauver reaction to Clark acquittal, Miami hearings on gambling 1950, organized crime in Broward County,