Fort Lauderdale draft in World War II

By Jane Feehan

A notice posted in the Fort Lauderdale Times (Apr. 22, 1942) about where men ages 45-65 would --not could--register for noncombatant service reveals much about those times. Men 18-45 were eligible for immediate induction.

Many who winced about the draft during the Vietnam era were not aware of draftee ages during World War II. It’s also interesting to note the separation of races for registration; the armed forces were not integrated until 1948 under President Harry Truman.

A notice of the day reads:

For District 1: Central High School in Fort Lauderdale  – white [Fort Lauderdale High]; Pompano High School in Pompano – white; City Hall in Deerfield – white

Negroes will register at the Pompano colored school and at the Fort Lauderdale colored school.

U.S. military ages over the years have varied: average age of a soldier during World War II was 26.5;  the average age during the Vietnam era was 19. The average age of today’s soldier has been reported anywhere from 19-30.  Since many are more educated, hold more college degrees than those of the past, they are, most likely, older than 19. The average age today may not yet be officially published. 

Tags: South Florida during WWII,  WWII draft in Florida, U.S soldier's ages, Fort Lauderdale during World War II, film researcher, history of Fort Lauderdale

Addison Mizner's Palm Beach: 38 estates, a club and Worth Avenue

 

Mizner's home off Worth Avenue

By Jane Feehan


Addison Mizner’s (1872-1933) Palm Beach architectural legacy includes 38 estates, a club and Worth Avenue.

Invited to Palm Beach in 1918 by his friend, Paris Singer (Singer Sewing Machine), Mizner first designed the Everglades Club, originally planned as a convalescent home for wounded World War I soldiers.

The club's design, a fusion of Moorish, Renaissance, Gothic and Venetian influences appealed to Mrs. Edward Stotesbury, a wealthy Philadelphian, who commissioned Mizner to create her Palm Beach home, El Mirasol. It was his first concept for a Palm Beach home, the first of the ocean side estates known as Mizner’s Row.

Everglades Club

A few estates were demolished over the years, including El Mirasol (its archway stands at North County Road, north of Wells Road, original site). Those remaining can be identified by Terra cotta tiles, minarets, towers, archways, fountains, columns - elements of Mizner’s “Mediterranean Revival” style.

The distinctive Mizner imprint still emblazons the Everglades Club on Worth Avenue and the architect’s former residence across the street at Via Mizner. Mizner named the adjacent Via Parigi for his friend, Paris Singer. Today, both vias are popular with shoppers, diners, and visitors.

Sources:

Palm Beach Historical Society

https://pbchistory.org/

https://www.pbchistoryonline.org/

O'Sulllivan, Maureen. Palm Beach Then and Now. West Palm Beach: Lickle Publishing, 2004

Tags: Addison Mizner, Palm Beach architecture, Palm Beach history

Mar-a-Lago's Past and Present in Palm Beach

Mar-a- Lago 1973
Florida State Archives

 By Jane Feehan


Addison Mizner wasn't the only architect to leave an imprint on Palm Beach. Several others were commissioned in the 1920s to build expansive, over-the-top-mansions on the island.

Mar-a-Lago 1920
Florida State Archives

Among them were Marion Sims Wyeth (1889-1982) and Viennese architect and production designer Joseph Urban (1872-1933). They designed Mar-a-Lago (ocean-to-lake) for Edward Hutton and his wife, cereal heiress Marjorie Merriweather Post. Sims drew up plans for the structure; Urban designed its interior.*

The opulent estate, with 115 rooms, a nine-hole golf course, 15th century tiles, and a 70-foot tower, took four years to build at a cost of $8 million. Completed in 1927, it still stands today. Hutton and Post divorced but the heiress continued to live at the mansion. Her parties and charitable functions at Mar-a-Lago were legendary, drawing national attention to Florida. When Post died in 1973, she left the estate to the U.S. government as a national landmark. Nearly seven years later, Mar-a-Lago was returned to the Post Foundation because maintenance costs were too high.

                                                                      

Mar-a-Lago circa 1930
Florida State Archives

In 1985, Donald Trump purchased Mar-a-Lago as his residence. A few years later, he was granted permission to run it as a private social club. Mar-a-Lago sits across from the Bath and Tennis Club, at the southern end of town. It is now included in the National Register of Historic Places.

*Wyeth also designed the Florida Governor’s Mansion and the Norton Museum; Urban helped write several children’s books and was production designer for the Ziegfeld Follies and Metropolitan Opera.
_________________________________

Copyright © 2021. All rights reserved. Jane Feehan

Sources:

Historical Society of Palm Beach County 

O'Sullivan, Maureen. Palm Beach Then and Now. West Palm Beach: Lickle Publishing, 2004

Tags: Palm Beach, Palm Beach history, Mar-a-Lago

Filmmaker D.W. Griffith and the Lauderdale Harbors land "purchase"

 

Griffith 1907/ Creative Commons

By Jane Feehan

This started out as a piece about famous filmmaker David Wark Griffith (1875-1948*) and his property purchase in Lauderdale Harbors in 1925. It evolved into something a bit different.

D.W. Griffith had directed scenes for a few movies in Fort Lauderdale from 1919-1923 (Idol Dancer, Love Flower, and The White Rose). He praised the area for its jungle-like unspoiled beauty in 1919. But on a return trip, Griffith became disenchanted with the new seawalls installed along the New River and moved some of his filmmaking to a studio in Hialeah, west of Miami. In 1920 Griffith told a reporter that he did not think he would move operations from California to Florida, though Florida had “inducements.” D.W. Griffith was not only a director of singular filmmaking talents but a polite and tactful man of his time.

So, I was surprised to see a story in the Fort Lauderdale Herald dated Nov. 30, 1925 that Griffith had purchased a block of lots in Lauderdale Harbors, a subdivision being developed and promoted by W.F. Morang and Son. The neighborhood sits on the west side of today’s Intracoastal, north of SE 15th Street. The sale to the film director was reportedly handled by C.P Weidling, described as co-founder of the city’s first law firm, first publisher of the Fort Lauderdale Herald and one-time representative in the Florida House of Representatives.

Griffith, wrote the reporter, had traveled to Tallahassee to have Weidling handle the transaction. Weidling hinted the filmmaker bought a block of lots to build a movie studio. Griffith, said Weidling, liked it here and was going to spend the winter in Fort Lauderdale. The article proffered that Griffith described the land next to the Las Olas Inn (today A1A and Las Olas) as “the most beautiful on the East Coast and the New River was the most beautiful [river] in the world.”

Griffith may or may not have said that. What was true was Fort Lauderdale was booming. Morang was developing and dredging canals in Rio Vista Isles, Lauderdale-by-the-Sea, the Seven Bridges area off Las Olas Boulevard and other nearby sites. One report from the Morang sales office claimed daily average lots sales of $150,000 … with opening day kicking off with $750K in business. On Nov. 7, the developer reported a sale of one block of lots for $500k to a “syndicate of 10 men,” a record for a single land purchase in a subdivision.

But no sale involved Griffith. On Dec. 8 the director denied he purchased the Lauderdale Harbors land. In a telegram sent to The Miami Herald he said though he did not buy the Lauderdale Harbors property as reported by the Associated Press, he would tour Florida to “ascertain its possibilities for that purpose [a movie studio] as no one believes more than I in Florida’s tremendous possibilities.” I did not find denial of his land purchase in the Fort Lauderdale News.

The hurricane of 1926 halted real estate sales and destroyed hopes for developing Fort Lauderdale and South Florida. The Great Depression hit the United States a few years later but Fort Lauderdale and Florida bounced back in the late 1940s and 1950s. Today, Lauderdale Harbors claims its place as one of the city’s most desirable neighborhoods where homes now sell for $850,000 to $33 million.

The story about the land sale to D.W. Griffith ... was it a high hope or a sales promotion?

For more on Griffith, including his perilous sea adventure off Fort Lauderdale, see index.
______
*Griffith died financially destitute and is buried in Crestwood, Kentucky where his grave is cared for by an organization of fans.

Tags Fort Lauderdale in the 1920s, Fort Lauderdale communities, Fort Lauderdale neighborhoods,
D.W. Griffith, David Wark Griffith, Lauderdale Harbors, Fort Lauderdale history



Sources:

Miami Herald, Nov. 12, 1920
Fort Lauderdale Daily News, July 24, 1925
Fort Lauderdale Daily News July 30, 1925
Fort Lauderdale Daily News, Nov. 7, 1925
Fort Lauderdale Daily News, Dec. 1, 1925
Fort Lauderdale Daily News Nov. 30, 1925
Miami Herald, Dec. 8, 1925

Lauderdale Beach Hotel: 1930s, in WWII ... and what remains today

Lauderdale Beach Hotel
circa 1937
Florida State Archives

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.

Fusion of old/new

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 $3.9 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, Fort Lauderdale hotel history, Fort Lauderdale in WWII, Fort Lauderdale in the 1930s, Fort Lauderdale in the 1940s

Katy Rawls: Fort Lauderdale Olympian, WWII pilot

 

Rawls in 1935

By Jane Feehan

Once a Fort Lauderdale resident, Katherine Rawls (1917-1982) swam and dove her way to celebrity at the  1936 Olympics in Berlin bringing home bronze and silver medals.

She brought world-wide attention to Fort Lauderdale, helping to underscore the relationship of the city to competition swimming. 

Rawls had already established herself before the Olympics of 1932 and 1936, breaking a few world records at national and international championship events, including one, when she was 14, for the 300 meter individual medley. Young Katy had aspired to one day swim and dive in the Olympics after seeing Olympian Johnny Weissmuller train in Coral Gables in 1928. (Rawls, born in Tennessee, had lived in St. Augustine, Coral Gables and Hollywood before Fort Lauderdale.)

Her aspiration turned into a reality when Rawls was the first woman Floridian to join an Olympic team. She won more than 30 national titles for swimming and diving throughout her career. In 1937, the Associated Press tapped Rawls as the “Number One Athlete of the Year” among female competitors.

A swimmer - and swimming instructor - throughout her life, Rawls also achieved distinction during World War II as a pilot. She was one of the original 25 women pilots selected for the U.S. Squadron of Women's Army Ferry Service, shuttling planes into combat zones.

Rawls joined the festivities when the International Swimming Hall of Fame opened in 1965 in Fort Lauderdale and was among its first inductees.

Sources:

City of Fort Lauderdale

Roots Web Ancestry

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

Fort Lauderdale News, April 13, 1936

Florida State University

Tags: Fort Lauderdale history, Fort Lauderdale swimmers, Fort Lauderdale swimming, Katy Rawls, Katherine Rawls, women's history, Florida Olympians

Hillsboro Beach: Of pirates, a lighthouse and Broward's most pricey real estate

Hillsboro Inlet and bridge 1953
Florida State Archive/Florida Memory

By Jane Feehan

Hillsboro Beach sits astride A1A for about three miles, the only road through this small town of nearly 2,000 residents. Most today know it for the picturesque lighthouse at Hillsboro Inlet and by its current-day reference as “Millionaire’s Mile.”

The town’s history, though somewhat scarce, offers some interesting tidbits. It was once referred to as Hillsborough in deference to the Earl of Hillsborough, a large Florida land grant recipient of the King of England when Florida was an English possession 1763-1783. Hillsboro seemed to have attracted pirates during these years, spawning speculation treasure was buried there. In 1920 or so, 25 men teamed up to excavate the area in hopes of finding something valuable. If they found anything, they kept quiet about it.

In 1895, the state sold this piece of the barrier island for 75 cents an acre to private owners. Newspapers intermittently wrote “Hillsboro” by the early 1900s. Some accounts claim the area was settled between 1922-1925 but it was probably unofficially well before that. 

Reefs off this area grounded many a ship. The solution: a lighthouse.  There were 17 futile requests for a lighthouse before the federal government approved, financed ($90k) and placed one into service in 1907. 

Meanwhile, in Coconut Grove, the Lake Placid School for Young Men was operating until Miami set out to annex the town. Taxes would have been prohibitive for the school with annexation, so teacher (and Yale grad) H.L Malcolm decided it was a good time to move the school north. 

He purchased property in the Hillsboro inlet area for $33,000 in 1922 from Harry Kelcy. The new Lake Placid School opened there in 1924 and students were ferried across the inlet for classes. But its doors shut after only one term; there were not “enough rich boys” to make this (and other private Florida schools) profitable.

Hillsboro Club 1930
Florida State Archives

Malcolm had other plans. He realized that parents visiting students often lingered in the area to enjoy the climate, beach and fishing, so he opened the Hillsboro Club in 1925. Many of the school’s attendees and families returned to the hotel for years. 

Advertisements for the “loveliest estate on the beach” offered “regular daily meals” for $1.50-$2 a plate. The hotel provided 50 rooms on the American Plan with rates as low as $35 daily.  Also advertised were the hotel’s tennis, croquet, swimming, boating and location in the "town closest to the Gulf Stream."  News accounts claim famous visitors to the hotel included President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Katherine Hepburn, Bing Crosby and Perry Ellis.

Malcolm sold the hotel and its 15-acre campus in 1959 to developers who ran into hard times. Members decided to purchase the hotel from them in the 1960s. Today its members number at around 700. About 300 have summer access for approximately $3000 (as of 2008). The Club now offers 146 rooms.

The Town of Hillsboro Beach was incorporated in 1947. The Hillsboro Inlet Bridge was built in 1927 and replaced with a modernized bascule bridge in 1966 (renovated in 2015). 

As of this writing, the most expensive house in Broward County was sold recently for $42.5 million along the Hillsboro Mile; it is one of about 50 private residences in Hillsboro Beach. (Condos sit at the town's northern end.)

On a personal note, I was fortunate to once cover their town government meetings for the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. They were the only such meetings conducted during the day, a plus after covering so many at night in other area towns and cities. 

 Copyright © 2021. All rights reserved. Jane Feehan

Sources:

Fort Lauderdale News, April 27, 1925

Fort Lauderdale News, Oct. 31, 1925

Fort Lauderdale News, Apr. 27, 1955

South Florida Sun-Sentinel, July 28, 2008

www.hillsboroclub.org/

https://www.townofhillsborobeach.com/252/About-Hillsboro-Beach

www.hillsborolighthouse.org/

www.newpelican.com/articles/captains-of-industry-helped-create-hillsboro-beach/

 Tags: Hillsboro Beach history, Florida history, Jane Feehan, Hillsboro Inlet Lighhouse, Broward County history