Fort Lauderdale and its last direct hurricane hit - the year may surprise you

Hurricane aftermath
Andrews Avenue 1947
State of Florida Archives

By Jane Feehan

Fort Lauderdale gets hit by a hurricane every 2.85 years, according to Hurricane.com. With that frequency, it’s worth noting the last direct hit on this city from the Atlantic was in 1947. There has been significant damage from hurricanes over the years (Wilma 2005, Cleo 1964, Betsy 1965, see below)* but none since 1947 have taken a direct swipe at Fort Lauderdale from the east.

Before the September 1947 hurricane, South Florida had already experienced an unusually wet rainy season; it couldn’t take much more precipitation. And then came the September ‘cane.  

The storm probably developed over French West Africa before its track was picked up in the Atlantic on its way to the Bahamas and Fort Lauderdale (satellite tracking first available in 1967). On September 17, winds were measured at 155 mph at the Hillsboro Lighthouse. Damage was light compared to the 1926 storm but problems were generated by eight inches of water the storm left atop an already saturated water table. New River came over its banks and sat … and then a second hurricane hit.

Though milder, an October hurricane dropped another 11 inches of rain in three hours. Knee - to waist-deep water settled in downtown Fort Lauderdale, flooding businesses and homes. By air, South Florida appeared to be a lake stretching from the ocean west to Collier County.   Some said they could take a boat from Fort Lauderdale to Naples for six weeks. Farm lands were devastated, highways were closed. The water finally receded by Christmas that year.

Part of the legacy of the flooding of ’47 was the South Florida Water Management District created in 1948.  Some note that since it was established, there hasn’t been a major flood of the scope of the 1947 event. Nor has there been a direct hit on Fort Lauderdale (now overpopulated, overdeveloped) from a powerful hurricane with catastrophic storm surge. Let’s keep our fingers crossed. 

Copyright © 2020. All rights reserved. Jane Feehan.

* Wilma came from the west; Cleo and Betsy from the south. In 2017 the large Hurricane Irma hit Florida's southwest coast and moved north; its large wind field grazed Fort Lauderdale.

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Flooded neighborhoods after Fort Lauderdale 1947 hurricane
State of Florida Archives

Sources:

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

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

http://www.nhc.noaa.gov

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/features/centennial/fl-100-anniversary-1940s-20110318,0,1548618.story

Tags: Hurricane history, Fort Lauderdale history, Fort Lauderdale in the 1940s, last direct hurricane hit Fort Lauderdale, history of Fort Lauderdale

End of WWII brings Burdine's Department Store to Fort Lauderdale

Burdines 1973
Florida State Archives

By Jane Feehan 

Retired Confederate army officer William Burdine and his partner, Henry Payne, opened their store in Bartow, FL in 1897 as a dry goods establishment. Some accounts indicate the store opened its doors in downtown Miami in 1898.; it operated as W.M. Burdine & Sons. By 1912 it became a department store and grew in synch with Florida's development in the decades to follow.

Burdine's expanded its South Florida presence with a Fort Lauderdale store in 1947. It was the retailer's third branch and was known by that time as Burdine’s Department Store. According to the Miami News, it was one of the first new department stores completed in the United States after the end of World War II.

Located at South Andrews and S.W. 2nd Street (site of the old city hall) The four-story building occupied eight lots with a build out of 48,775 square feet. It was constructed on a foundation suitable for eight floors but opened with three sales floors and another of mixed use. The new Burdine's was completely air conditioned. 

Local news reported other features that were sure to appeal to shoppers:

Atop the building was a 25-bell carillon which plays music at frequent intervals and strikes the time each half hour. Prominent carilloneurs will be invited to play during the Christmas season.

More than 80 percent of the store’s 150 employees are residents of Fort Lauderdale or vicinity. ‘We believe home-town men and women can do a better job selling,’ said Manager Russell Jones.

All employees have completed an intensive two-week course of instruction in Burdine’s sales methods and customer relations, with a particular indoctrination in their departments.

Burdine’s merged with Federated Department Stores, which owned Macy's, in 1956. That helped fund much of its growth throughout Florida, including additional SOFLA stores. The downtown Fort Lauderdale store was shuttered in 1980. In 2003, Burdine’s transitioned to the Macy’s brand. According to the Miami Herald, the Burdine's name officially met its end in 2005. 

The ad above is from the Miami News, May 25, 1928. Ahhh, those prices: Women's hats $4; men's neckties $1; boys' fine shirts ...79 cents.

Burdines 1926 Miami downtown
Florida State Archives

Sources:

Miami News, May 25, 1928

Miami News, Oct. 31, 1947

https://flashbackmiami.com/2016/05/24/burdines-the-florida-store/

Tags: Fort Lauderdale history, Florida retail history, Fort Lauderdale in the 1940s, history of  Fort Lauderdale

Go WEST they said. No, EAST ... early Fort Lauderdale

1916 
Florida State Archives/Florida Memory

Known today for its beautiful beaches and tropical scenery, Fort Lauderdale was once considered gateway to the Everglades. There, it was hoped, farmers could prosper growing fruits and vegetables in its rich dark, mucky soil.

During the late 1800s, settlers established themselves a few miles west of the ocean on the banks of the New River,  an eight-mile-long ribbon of water flowing east from the Everglades. It was considered a good vantage point to Florida's "river of grass." By the early 1900s, aspirations for farming in the Everglades were diminished by repeated flooding from tropical storms and hurricanes ... and failure to drain it after massive private and government efforts.

The focus shifted east, and included thoughts about tourism by 1914. The Las Olas Causeway opened in January, 1917 six years after the City of Fort Lauderdale was incorporated (1911).  Fortunes were to be made on developing its beach area and waterway system. 

1916 - Florida State Archives/Florida Memory

Sources:
Checkered Sunshine (Burghard and Weidling, University of Florida Press,1966)
Fort Lauderdale, The Venice of America (Gillis, Arcadia Publishing, 2004)
Fort Lauderdale Historical Society

Tags: early Fort Lauderdale, Fort Lauderdale history

Boston Braves: first MLB team in Fort Lauderdale for spring training

By Jane Feehan

The first major league baseball team to come to Fort Lauderdale for spring training was the Boston Braves under manager Billy Southworth. 

In 1945, Logan Brown* of the baseball committee of the chamber of commerce presented an agreement to the city with the Braves’ request to submit the first bid on an updated baseball park.

The city funded improvements on the Westside baseball park on Broward Boulevard, opening the doors for and welcoming the National League's Braves. 

The Broward Hotel served as team headquarters but players stayed at various tourist accommodations. The Braves left after one season, citing lack of accommodations and too many distractions. The real reason was probably political: the reported arrest of Southworth after a minor traffic incident and an unhappy Boston newspaperman.

The ball park was used by a minor league team and the International League before and after the Braves briefly called Fort Lauderdale their spring training home. The Boston Braves moved and became the Milwaukee Braves in 1953. One reporter claimed the Braves conceded "Boston belonged to the Red Sox." For a very short while they captured the hearts and minds of Fort Lauderdale. 

*Brown owned Brown’s Restaurant, a popular dining spot for local politicians.

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(See index for more on baseball)

Sources:

Miami News, Aug. 7, 1945

Miami News, Jan. 9, 1947

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

Tags: Fort Lauderdale spring training history, major league spring training in Fort Lauderdale, Fort Lauderdale baseball history, Fort Lauderdale history, Boston Braves

Fort Lauderdale's second judge, Fred Shippey: "new fangled" gambling, a house preserved, and Johnny Weissmuller

Shippey House restored

      

220 SW 3rd Ave

Fort Lauderdale, FL 33301

By Jane Feehan

A piece of old Fort Lauderdale, the Shippey House, was moved from its original location in 2011. Formerly at 215 SW 7th Ave, it sits now at "Old Fort Lauderdale," near the Fort Lauderdale Historical Society. Once there, the house underwent restoration that was completed in 2016.  

The structure, more than 100 years old, is of interest to historical preservationists because it was constructed of tough - and now extinct - Dade County pine and was one of a very few two-story cottages built about 1914. It was also home to Fred B. Shippey (1877-1934), Broward County’s second judge.

Not a lot is known about Judge Shippey. Records indicate he was born in Illinois, that his father was a judge and that they declared themselves farmers on a census.  

Father, son and family moved to Fort Lauderdale in 1912. Fred Shippey succeeded the first county judge, JF Bunn, who held the post from 1915 until his death in 1920. Shippey probably did not hold a law degree (not unusual at the time and in some states, like Texas, not unheard of today).

It was thought Judge Shippey served well and honestly (1920-1933). He also assisted disabled children throughout the state and belonged to an organization that built a hospital for them. In looking through  old newspaper archives, I did find something interesting about his legal career.

In 1927 the judge rendered a decision that a “new fangled wagering system” at Pompano race track (not today’s Pompano Park but a predecessor) was not gambling. The system operated on the premise that wagers were really donations to horse owners (don’t laugh). This infuriated Gov. John W. Martin who sided with the Florida Supreme Court in its decision to close the race track to end all semblance of gambling.

The governor sent a letter to Broward Sheriff Paul C. Bryan demanding that he shut down the track that afternoon and if he didn’t he would be replaced. So would Judge Shippey, if he did not cooperate. Miami attorney James M. Carson, long an active agent to close the track, remarked that it was the first time in history a case was appealed from the supreme court of Florida to a county judge. “I like Judge Fred Shippey,” said Carson. “ ‘Brutus is an honorable man.’ May it be remembered that Brutus had distinguished company.”  

Gambling had a wide circle of protectors in Broward County until nearly 1950.

Judge Shippey presided over criminal and other cases and conducted many marriages. Among the marriages he performed was that of swimming athlete and film star (Tarzan), Johnny Weissmuller to Broadway actress Bobby Arnst in March, 1931. The couple met weeks before on Valentine's Day. They divorced in 1933.

 During the moving process in 2011

 Tags: History of Fort Lauderdale, Gambling in Broward in the 1920s, Judge Shippey, Pompano race track in the 1920s, Fort Lauderdale history, old Fort Lauderdale architecture, old Fort Lauderdale homes, film researcher

Sources:

Miami News, March 12, 1927.

Sacramento Bee, March 5, 1931

Shippyhouse.org

Sun-Sentinel, May 31, 2012.

Seminole factions: Miccosukee Tribe emerges and two nations are recognized

 

Seminoles 1913, near Miami
State of Florida Archives

By Jane Feehan

A federal initiative to integrate the American Indian population with mainstream America was conducted between the end of Franklin Roosevelt’s era to the beginning of John F. Kennedy’s presidency. Laws were enacted to terminate the government’s trusteeship of Indian lands and to relocate them to cities where it was believed they would have more education and employment opportunities.

The Florida Seminoles, the only Indian tribe never to sign a peace treaty with the U.S. government, were not happy about integration efforts. President Eisenhower granted them their freedom but in a letter to the “great White Father,” the Seminoles rejected the plan. Through their attorneys they stated: “Request action giving us our freedom be reconsidered as we, members of the Seminole tribe, realize our limitations and know that we still need supervision and assistance in our affairs.”

Seminoles and Miccosukee in Tallahasse 1976
 State of Florida Archives

All was not settled among the Indians who numbered about 900 during the 1950s. Two factions emerged in the debate about their independence. 

Buffalo Tiger, leader of the smaller Miccosukee group, wanted gradual withdrawal from federal jurisdiction. He wanted lands to be preserved on the Big Cypress and Brighton reservations where they raised beef herds.

Michael Osceola, leader of the other faction, said the Indians had to face the fact that the government couldn’t be their guardian forever. 

The two groups did agree on a few parts of the new law. One was  allowing Seminole women to have their babies in area hospitals. Neither faction was concerned about lifting the restriction of whiskey sales to Indians. It was never enforced anyway.

The two groups went their separate ways. The Seminole Tribe was recognized by the U.S. government in 1957. The Miccosukee Tribe of Indians was recognized as a nation in 1962 ... after leader Buffalo Tiger flew to Havana to meet with Fidel Castro. He asked the Cuba leader to recognize the Miccosukee Tribe as a sovereign nation. 

Both nations live within several reservations in South Florida and each depend on sustainable use of the Everglades for agriculture and the raising of livestock.

The U.S. government abandoned the policy to integrate American Indians when it was recognized that there were distinct differences between Indian and Anglo-European cultures (and nationally, among tribal cultures). Today, in addition to the agricultural endeavors of each tribe, the Miccosukees run a large casino on their lands 30 miles west of Miami; the Seminoles run casinos throughout South Florida. Their separation is political, not cultural. They are self sufficent and self governing.

 

Sources:

Palm Beach Post, Aug. 30, 1953

Semtribe.com

miccosukee.com/tribe

Educational Resources Information Center

 Tags: Florida history, Seminole nation, Miccosukee nation

 

Fort Lauderdale's day of infamy: the 1935 lynching of Rubin Stacy

By Jane Feehan

I first wrote about this day of evil as a student at Virginia Commonwealth University during the 1970s. I had read about it in a book from their library and then presented the story in class. It was thought then to be one of the last such lynchings in the United States.  

After years of near silence, news stories about this dark chapter in our history abound. Some may say Fort Lauderdale’s day of infamy was July 19, 1935. 

On that day, African American Rubin Stacy (published also as Reuben Stacy, or Rubin Stacey) 37, was seized by a mob from the custody of six Broward County deputies as they were transporting him to a jail in Dade County for “safekeeping." He had been accused by a 30-year-old white woman of a knife attack in her Fort Lauderdale home, 

The mob, estimated by deputies to be about 100 men with faces covered and license plates hidden, took Stacey, kneeling in prayer, to an area near the house of accuser Marion Jones. There, they hanged and then shot him 16 times.  

Jones claimed Stacey knocked on her door asking for a glass of water and then followed her inside where he pulled a knife to her throat. Her screams, she said, frightened Stacey off. She later recanted the story. Some say Stacey was a homeless tenant farmer going from house to house asking for food.

It was widely believed that deputies, then led by the notorious Sheriff Walter Clark, were in collusion with the mob. They were, the story goes, angered by the slow legal proceedings of another case involving an African American.

Pictures of the lynching were shown to President Franklin Roosevelt in hopes of swaying him to support a federal anti-lynching law.  It didn’t have the impact hoped for; Roosevelt did not endorse the law because he feared losing Southern votes.

Rubin Stacey is buried in Fort Lauderdale’s Woodlawn Cemetery. He was born in Georgia.

Copyright ©2010, 2020, 2022 All rights reserved. Jane Feehan.

                      

Sources:                                                                    

Palm Beach Post, July 19, 1935

Miami News, July 21, 1935

Palm Beach Post, June 13, 1937

www.findagrave.com

Tags: Fort Lauderdale lynching, Fort Lauderdale history, 

Rubin Stacy, Reuben Stacey, Fort Lauderdale black history, history of Fort Lauderdale, Jane Feehan