Before Boca Raton Resort and Club, the Cloister Inn

Cloister Inn 1926
Florida State Archives

 

Addison Mizner (1872-1933) set his sights on Boca Raton in 1925 after eight years in Palm Beach – years in which he significantly influenced the architecture of that resort community.  Boca promised artistic freedoms he could only dream of while designing for the wealthy.

The 1920s were roaring, promising opportunities to those ready to seize them. Mizner and his brother Wilson (1876-1933) formed the Mizner Development Corporation in 1925 to promote Boca Raton, a town newly incorporated (August, 1924). With 17,500 acres in their grasp, they raised $26 million in the first six weeks of land sales. Lots jumped in value from a few hundred dollars to $100,000. "I am the Greatest Resort in the World," ads for the town proclaimed.

Boca Raton Hotel 1970
Florida State Archives

The centerpiece of their new resort town was the 100-room, $1.25 million Cloister Inn.  He claimed it reflected the atmosphere of Mediaeval [sic] days in architectecture," harking back to monastic days of the 13th century. Whatever Mizner couldn’t import to decorate and design with, he made in his terra cotta factory in West Palm Beach. Some pieces, many aged artificially by Mizner himself, remain at today’s Boca Raton Resort and Club (renamed "The Boca Raton in 2022)

Built on the shore of Lake Boca Raton, Cloister Inn opened Feb. 6, 1926. Some say it was the most expensive hotel ever built. Operated by Ritz-Carlton management, the rambling, red tile-roofed hotel drew notables such as the duPonts, Vanderbilts, Elizabeth Arden, composer Irving Berlin and a roster of Wall Street moguls.

Mizner Development Corp.,
National Register
of Historic Places
From City of Boca Raton 

The Boca Raton dream began to crack before the hotel opened. Florida’s decline was quietly predicted by a Wall Street wizard January, 1926. By year’s end, the boom went bust.  The hotel closed and Addison Mizner returned to Palm Beach where he died in 1933. His brother Wilson scrambled to Hollywood, California to operate a restaurant and to start a new career as screenwriter. He died a few weeks after Addison.

The Mizner dream ended but its influence did not; Boca Raton’s architecture and exclusivity are vestiges of the Mizner vision. The Cloister Inn is the nucleus of The Boca Raton (Boca Raton Resort and Club).

Cloister Inn from Lake Boca Raton 1926
Florida State Archives/Florida Memory

Copyright © 2021. All rights reserved. Jane Feehan

Sources:

Miami Herald, Nov. 8, 1925

Kinney, Henry. Once Upon a Time: The Legend of the Boca Raton and Club. Boca Raton. Arvida Corporation, 1966.

Johnson, Stanley. Once Upon a Time: The story of Boca Raton.  Boca Raton: Arvida Corporation, 1974.

Tags: Boca Raton Resort and Club, Addison Mizner, Boca Raton history, Florida history, Florida in the 1900s, 

Fort Lauderdale's Dooley's Basin and Dry Dock, WWII efforts and Broward Marine

Minesweepers under construction during the 1950s

Fort Lauderdale's Dooley’s Basin and Dry Dock, established in 1937 by Paul Dooley, built nearly 100 ships for the armed forces in World War II: two 110-foot sub chasers, 48 harbor patrol boats and 45 sea-air rescue craft. It was one of 21 shipyards across the nation approved for such construction.

Broward Marine was established in 1948 by Frank Denison when he bought Dooley's Basin and Dry Dock. During the 1950s, about 10 minesweepers (see photo) were constructed at the company for the U.S. and Dutch navies. Ross Petrie was Broward Marine's naval architect. 

Ownership has changed a few times for the shipyard located along the New River, east of I-95. It is now the site of Lauderdale Marine Center, the largest boat repair facility in the country. See: http://www.lauderdalemarinecenter.com/ft-lauderdale-marina.html.

For a list of boats/ships built at Broward Marine, see:

 http://shipbuildinghistory.com

Fort Lauderdale News, May 3, 1940

Fort Lauderdale News, Oct. 30, 1952

Tags: Broward County history, south Florida shipbuilding history, South Florida employers during the 1940s, 1950s, minesweepers, Fort Lauderdale history

Fort Lauderdale's first mayor about the Everglades: "Leaving no money for land or people"

 

Everglades 1912
Florida State Archives

By Jane Feehan

After William H. Marshall (1876-1956) served in the  Spanish-American War, he stopped by Fort Lauderdale to visit family. The town wasn’t much more than a settlement on New River at the time, but he stayed and established himself as a farmer.

The city of Fort Lauderdale was chartered in 1911 and Marshall, a native of Georgia, was tapped to be its first mayor (1912-1913). The pioneer farmer worked tirelessly to promote the budding town, seeking to attract businesses and trade; he gained the reputation as the “greatest booster of them all.”

Farmer was one side of Marshall, businessman the other. Draining the Everglades to cultivate crops in its rich muck appealed to both sides of the man. He pushed for the construction of North New River Canal locks big enough to accommodate large boats travelling on Lake Okeechobee to Fort Myers. “When all the Everglades land between Fort Lauderdale and Fort Myers is under cultivation, the shipments of produce will be tremendous,” said Marshall.

But Marshall was also concerned about how the Everglades drainage project was to be funded. He feared the state would sell its lands to pay for draining, “leaving no money or land for the people.” Marshall called for a convention of businessmen to devise a plan to raise money. “We must have cooperation and if we have it we will eventually have the greatest spot of all.” The money was eventually raised with bonds but the drainage project was abandoned a few years later.

A more successful endeavor was Marshall’s push to deepen the city’s harbor. He and pioneer Frank Stranahan formed the Fort Lauderdale Harbor Company and cut a waterway between Lake Mabel, now Port Everglades, Florida’s deepest harbor, and the New River.

Marshall served in Florida’s legislature from 1915-1921 and continued to keep one hand in farming. In 1913, he grew a 23-pound sweet potato in his backyard for a contest.

A bridge over New River bears the name of William H. Marshall, Fort Lauderdale’s first mayor and booster extraordinaire. 

Copyright © 2011. All rights reserved. Jane Feehan.

Sources:

Miami News, Oct. 15, 1911

Miami Metropolis, Aug. 16, 1912

Miami Metropolis, Sept. 1, 1911

Miami News, Oct. 5, 1911

Miami Metropolis, Apr. 11, 1913

http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~flgsbc/resources/biographies_m-p.html

Tags: Fort Lauderdale history, history of Fort Lauderdale, Jane Feehan

Second largest hotel in 1937 Fort Lauderdale now a ...

Lauderdale Beach Hotel 1947 
State of Florida Archives/
Florida Memory

Lauderdale Beach Hotel
101 Fort Lauderdale Beach Blvd
Fort Lauderdale, Florida 33316

By Jane Feehan

Built in 1937, the Lauderdale Beach Hotel was one of the two largest hotels in Broward County when the U.S. entered World War II (the other was the *Tradewinds Hotel).  The 500-room Lauderdale Beach Hotel, the Tradewinds, the Edmar apartments and adjacent beach were taken over by the U.S. Navy August 1, 1943. They were used as a navy radar training school until the winter of 1945 when they were released to civilian trade.

Today, only the front part of the Lauderdale Beach Hotel remains, occupied by a cafe and attached via a garage to the upscale Las Olas Club condominium. The hotel with its distinct architecture, a vestige of the 1930s art deco or art moderne style was partially rescued by preservationists when condo developers bought the property. A condition of development was to leave the distinctive facade of the old structure intact.

The Las Olas Club was built behind and attached to the old Lauderdale Beach Hotel in 2007. Condos there range from $799,000 to about $4 million (about $540 a square foot) – quite a change for the old Fort Lauderdale landmark, site of so many special occasions, conventions and vacations since 1937.

Copyright © 2019, 2021, 2024. All rights reserved. Jane Feehan
________________

Sources:

Miami News, Aug. 19, 1945

Miami News, May 18, 1943

http://blogsouthflorida.com/south-florida-oceanfront-condos/Las-Olas-Beach-Club

Tags: Fort Lauderdale history, history of Fort Lauderdale, Fort Lauderdale in the 1930s

Frank Croissant: "World's greatest salesman"

Once touted the “World’s Greatest Salesman,” Brooklyn-born Frank Croissant bought nearly 1,200 acres for $1.25 million in 1924 south of New River to develop his Croissant Park. The following year, Croissant spent $215,000, an enormous amount of money for the time, for advertising. A few ads were for salesmen.

In a 1924 advertisement,  Croissant asserts he was “sixteen years ago a teller in a small bank in Brooklyn, today one of the world’s largest real estate operators with a sales record of $20,000,000!”

Text-heavy, the ad describes working conditions at the Croissant Park sales office:

Here you will find supreme satisfaction … an atmosphere that breeds success in any man unless he’s downright worthless. There is no bickering here, no jealousy, no discord – nothing but happiness and success.

In the same advertisement, Croissant said a lesson he learned from Henry Ford was to make salesmen "co-workers of the employer."

Croissant Park remains one of Fort Lauderdale's oldest subdivisions*. Frank Croissant bought property throughout South Florida, including an area in Palm Beach County that was to be called “North Palm Beach Heights,” at the western end of what became Donald Ross Road. His widow began the project in the mid 1950s but later abandoned it. 

Copyright © 2021. All rights reserved. Jane Feehan

* For more on Croissant, see: 

https://janeshistorynook.blogspot.com/2023/09/fort-lauderdales-croissant-park-and-its.html

Sources:

Gillis, Susan. Fort Lauderdale, Venice of America. Great Britain: Arcadia Publishing, 2004

Miami News Feb. 19, 1924

Miami News Feb. 24, 1925

Miami News, Jan. 19, 1926

Palm Beach Post, Oct 1, 1972

Tags: Fort Lauderdale history, Florida developer, Florida history, Fort Lauderdale in the 1920s, film research

Wilson, the other Mizner: Playwright, wit and would-be Boca Raton developer

Wilson Mizner 1922

By Jane Feehan

Palm Beach and Boca Raton bear the imprint of Addison Mizner’s distinctive architectural style, but few today know that his brother, Wilson (or Bill) Mizner (1876-1933) was recognized during the early 20^th-century for his singular wit.

Be nice to people on the way up because you’ll meet them on the way down has been attributed to Bill Mizner, though some claim Walter Winchell said it. 

Wilson Mizner also penned several plays. The Deep Purple, and The Grey Hound were among his successes. He was known as the life of the party … “wherever he went, he whooped it up,” wrote a columnist for the Palm Beach Post.

He shared with brother Addison an exuberance for Boca Raton's prospects. Wilson was popular; many overlooked his shady dealings to promote the new resort town. For awhile the money flowed. But it ended for the brothers in late 1926, less than a year after they opened the Cloister Inn - the hotel that eventually became the splendid Boca Raton Hotel. The inn closed; land sales dropped and the boom popped like a balloon in the hot sun.

Wilson left for California to take solace in writing movie scripts. He died two months after Addison passed away in Palm Beach. A friend said of Wilson: When he died, the whole world must have stopped laughing.

_______

Sources:

Kinney, Henry. Once Upon a Time: The legend of the Boca Raton Hotel. Boca Raton: Arvida Corporation, 1974.

Palm Beach Post, April 23, 1933

Miami News, Mar. 30, 1936

1943 April 2, Milwaukee Journal, Famous Wisecracks From Wilson Mizner [From the New Yorker Magazine], Page 18, Column 6, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Google News Archive

Quote Investigator

Tags: Florida history, Boca Raton history, Addison Mizner

"Swim-in" protests spark desegregation of Fort Lauderdale beaches 1961

Fort Lauderdale Beach demonstration 1961
 State of Florida Archives/Florida Memory

By Jane Feehan

It wasn’t easy for all to enjoy Fort Lauderdale beaches before the 1960s. 

One beach north of today’s Oakland Park Boulevard was designated for African Americans, but was closed when Galt Ocean Mile underwent development. The only other beach they were permitted to visit was south of Port Everglades, now John U. Lloyd State Park. The recreation area was accessible only by ferry and lacked facilities. 

Broward County failed to build a road to this beach, galvanizing the African American community to desegregate Fort Lauderdale beach.

To paraphrase the news service on a summer day in 1961, Blacks swam at a crowded Fort Lauderdale beach while police watched. Officers on motorcycles and a paddy wagon were staged nearby.

Two girls and five boys were led to the beach by Dr. Von D. Mizell, Broward County secretary of the NAACP. But Mizell said the swim-in (also referred to as wade-in) was not sponsored by the group. It was the first of 200 swim-ins that summer that physician Mizell and president of the local NAACP, Eula Johnson, supported.

Fort Lauderdale filed suit in the Broward County Circuit Court against Mizell, Johnson, and the NAACP in 1961 to stop the wade-ins. Nearly a year later, Judge Ted Cabot denied the city’s request, essentially desegregating the beaches. Swim-ins proved to be a success, if not an immediate one.

Fort Lauderdale Mayor Jack Seiler commemorated the swim-ins during the city’s centennial in 2011, dedicating a plaque installed in the sand at Las Olas and A1A. Mizell and Johnson are lauded today as leaders in the city's civil rights movement. Copyright © 2020. All rights reserved. Jane Feehan.

*Freedom Rides to the South began May 14, 1961, a watershed year in the national civil rights movement.

Sources:

Miami News, July 5, 1961

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

City of Fort Lauderdale: 

https://www.fortlauderdale.gov/home/showpublisheddocument/61222/637616958091070000


Tags: Fort Lauderdale history, Fort Lauderdale African American history, Fort Lauderdale desegregation, Fort Lauderdale civil rights movement, film industry research