Jane's History Nook

By Jane Feehan

Social and political pressure nearly shut down casino gambling in Dade and Broward counties during the late 1940s and early 50s. Organized crime figure Meyer Lansky ran the Colonial Inn, a posh casino in Hallandale Beach, for three short years until the government closed it in 1948. The
high-profile Kefauver Crime Committee hearings, which arose out of concern for the growth of syndicated crime after World War II, ramped up scrutiny of illegal gambling operations in Florida and around the country. It was time for Lansky and friends to look for a more hospitable environment.

That place was Cuba, where exiled mobster and Lansky associate Lucky Luciano held court under the cooperative eye of Cuba dictator Fulgencio Batista, an old Lansky friend. Gambling brought tourists, so the Batista regime granted state loans to cover 50 percent of a hotel/casino valued at least $1 million. Honors went to Meyer Lansky who built the lavish 19-story, 354-room Hotel Havana Riviera along the waterfront. Seventeen other casinos were also partially financed by Batista.

Lansky had gambling interests in Las Vegas, where state law prohibited operators of gambling concessions from simultaneously running another casino. That included Havana, so Lansky tapped others, including businessmen Harry and Ben Smith, as owners/stockholders. A cadre of individuals listed as operators of the Havana Riviera was surreptitiously headed by Lansky.

Valued between $12 and $15 million, Hotel Havana Riviera was the first large hotel and casino to be constructed since the Gran Casino Nacional27 years prior. With gold-plated slot machines and other amenities, the hotel opened December 10, 1957 with a floor show that included Ginger Rogers and an audience comprised of American press, and television and Hollywood celebs. On Jan. 19, 1958 TV personality Steve Allen broadcast (NBC) from the Riviera with transmission made possible with new technology, the “over-the-horizon microwave system.”

It wasn’t long before the Cuban tide of fortune changed for Lansky and his associates. A violent storm that shattered windows and flooded the lobby of Hotel Havana Riviera on Jan. 4, 1958 foreshadowed the downturn. The growing July 26 movement, launched by lawyer and rebel Fidel Castro in 1953, was gaining momentum. By 1958 U.S. support for Batista waned after his army was routed by rebels. The breakdown of Cuba’s air force soon followed as did Castro’s repatriation from Mexico, Jan. 1, 1959. Batista, purse heavy with state money, left quickly for the Dominican Republic.

The casino at the Riviera, looted as others were during the coup, was closed by Castro within days. Lansky arrived in Miami from Cuba on Jan. 7, hopeful that the new leader would soon change his mind. He told reporters that hotel employees were about to ask the government to reopen the casinos to save their jobs. Lansky returned and Castro reopened casinos (only to non-Cubans) on Jan. 18, welcoming U.S. tourists to his “beautiful land of happy people.”

Summary trials and executions by firing squads were the order of the day with support of many. In late January, a group of mothers whose sons had reportedly been killed by Batista met with 300 members of the international press in the lobby of the Riviera. Trials and executions continued, people fled to Florida and relations with the U.S. deteriorated. In May, Lansky’s brother Jake and colleague Dino Cellino who also worked at the casino, were detained 25 days in the Tiscornia Emigration Station. They were released, according to the Cubans, when they had word the two were not wanted by the U.S. government.

Hotel Havana Riviera lost an estimated $7 million by the time Castro seized the hotel and outlawed all casinos in 1960. Cuba anticipated a U.S. invasion. A bomb went off at the Hotel Havana Riviera Oct. 31, 1960, destroying a room and furnishings on the 12^thfloor. The hotel was nationalized, the mob left, and gambling prospered in Las Vegas, the real land of happy people.

Today, Havana Riviera remains a popular, if not luxurious hotel, with rooms selling for less than $100. It is recommended to business travelers and honeymooners, an odd juxtaposition of guests.

Sources:

Miami News, Jul. 21, 1957

Miami News, Dec. 1, 1957

Milwaukee Sentinel, Dec. 12, 1957

The New York Times, Jan. 4, 1958

The New York Times, Jan. 2, 1959

Ocala Star Banner, Jan. 8, 1959

The New York Times, Jan. 18, 1959

The New York Times, Jan. 25, 1959

The New York Times, May 31, 1959

The New York Times, Oct. 31, 1960

www.HotelHavanaRiviera.com

Merle L. Fogg Field expansion construction 1935
State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory

By Jane Feehan

From nine-hole golf course to the Merle L. Fogg Air Fieldin the 1920s and the Naval Air Stationin the 1940s, today’s Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport ranks as one of the top 25 busiest airports in the United States. Its growth parallels that of South Florida from a winter season vacation destination to one of the most desirable places in the country to live and play year round.

Significant commercial activity came to the field after Broward County commissioners leased the airport back from the Navy in a series of temporary agreements commencing in 1948. A ten-year lease was signed between the two parties in 1949 but the county assumed formal ownership in 1953 and operated it as the Broward County Airport (some sources named it Broward County International Airport).

Non-stop flight service from the North to South Florida began in the 1950s, but the routes were to Miami. Routes were denied Broward County Airport because it was considered too close to its sister city. Travelers took Greyhound limousine service from the Miami airport to Fort Lauderdale and other cities. But the 1,200-acre Broward airport, one third the size of Miami’s, had a lot going for it. It was the only airport adjacent to U.S. Highway 1, a major traffic artery, and it sat four miles south of downtown Fort Lauderdale.* Also, it was poised to serve the fastest growing city in the state; the number of Fort Lauderdale residents doubled from 1950 to 1955, which outpaced Miami’s growth. By the late 1950s, this ocean side city was the last major city in Florida to obtain air service from the North.

The first major carrier to fly to Fort Lauderdale was Northeast Airlines. Service began in December, 1958 with one flight a day from Idlewild (now JFK) that left at 10 a.m. and arrived four hours and 35 minutes later. Return service left Fort Lauderdale at 4:30 p.m. Soon after, flights were scheduled from Washington, D.C., Boston and Philadelphia.

Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International
Airport today:
Courtesy of ZiggyMarley01, Wikipedia

Prior to 1958, the airport handled 400 landings and take offs a day but traffic consisted of cubs, Convairs, private and executive planes. To modernize the facility and accommodate northern service with larger aircraft and ancillary traffic, Broward County Airport (renamed Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport in 1959) lengthened its four air strips from 5,000 to about 6,000 feet, and paved taxi ways, aprons and access roads (yes, it was that primitive). The new $340,000 terminal featured a self-service baggage area, "which eliminated the need for tipping," and a U.S. customs section with a check out station similar to those in supermarkets. Modern indeed.

National, Delta, Eastern, and Northwest Orient airlines followed with service to Fort Lauderdale during the next two years. Also operating were the smaller Mackey International Airlines, Bahamas Airways, and Aerovias Q servicing Cuba and its Isle of Pines.

Customers lined up for Fort Lauderdale winter hotel packages that started at about $68 per person, double occupancy, for six nights, seven days. Little wonder air traffic to this city grew 178 percent from 1958 to 1959. Copyright © 2015. All rights reserved. Jane Feehan.

*At one time in the 1960s, Broward County considered proposals for an airport at U.S. 27 and State Road 84, but that’s another story.

Sources:

Miami News, April 25, 1950

The New York Times, Jan. 18, 1959

The New York Times, Nov. 6, 1960

Broward.org

USATravel.About.com

Wikipedia

Tags: Fort Lauderdale airport, Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, Florida aviation history,

By Jane Feehan

During the 1960s, before malls became popular high school hangouts in Fort Lauderdale, Wolfie’s Restaurant on Sunrise Boulevard was the place to be seen. The deli was a winner among all ages with its overflowing bowls of tiny breakfast Danish, mouth puckering dill pickles and crunchy coleslaw, overstuffed pastrami sandwiches and creamy New York cheesecake.

For those of us who spend a lot of time in Fort Lauderdale, the restaurant’s demise is but one of many markers on the road of long gone and forgotten … until someone who moved away while it was still open asks “whatever happened to Wolfie’s?” A Publix now sits near that once-hallowed spot.

Wolfie’s history is complicated—except for its beginning. In the beginning was Wilford or “Wolfie” Cohen. He got his start in the restaurant biz working as a kid in the Catskills. He came to Miami Beach during the late 1930s and bought Al’s Sandwich Shop at 23^rd Street and Collins. He made it a popular place—one that Al Jolson and Milton Berle visited. Customers seeking a glimpse of celebrities and a good meal flocked to Cohen’s restaurant.

But Cohen set his sights on a larger empire. He sold his place (with Wolfie's name rights) at four times what he paid for it to Meyer Yedlin in 1948. Wolfie opened another winner, Pumpernick’s, in the 1940s and sold it in 1955, according to a Miami News obituary. When Cohen died at 74 in 1986, he had also owned the Bull Pen, Mr. Mahzik, and the Rascal House (restaurant names should be unforgettable he once said). At the time of his death, he owned only the *Rascal House, which he left to his daughter actress Robin Sherwood. (Sherwood appeared in Brian de Palma’s Blow Out, in Death Wish II opposite Charles Bronson and in other films.)

Meyer Yedlin opened Wolfie’s in two Miami locations, at Lincoln Road and Collins Avenue and another at 163^rd Street in North Miami Beach. He also opened one in St. Petersburg in 1953 (sold it in 1955) with partners and incorporated Fort Lauderdale Wolfie’s in 1958. Joseph Sloane, a partner in the St. Petersburg venture, was also listed as owner of the Fort Lauderdale Wolfie’s. As I said, this ownership history gets complicated.

As tourism grew in South Florida so did the national reputation of Wolfie’s, especially among New Yorkers. In 1961, a U.S. Appeals Court ruled that the Wolfie’s name could not be used by a deli in Brooklyn; only the two restaurants in Miami had rights. The Brooklyn partners claimed they did not steal the name; “Wolfie” was a nickname earned by one of them for a reputation as a ladies’ man. The judge didn’t buy it. Yedlin (who died about 1960) or his relatives had their hands in various Wolfie’s, thus the permitted use of the name at some other locations.

In 1968, during the Republican National Convention in Miami Beach, Chef Craig Claiborne wrote in The New York Times that Wolfie’s, open 24/7, was worth a visit but to conventioneers he recommended the breakfast spread at Pumpernick’s, by that time out of Wolfie Cohen’s hands.

Long after Wolfie’s closed in Fort Lauderdale—the corporation involuntarily dissolved in 1984—it was announced that Wolfie’s Deli Express was set to open a number of franchises in South Florida. I’m not sure about the genesis of this corporation or whether it was even related to the Wolfie’s we all knew and loved. In 1998, the president of the company claimed this was to be the “biggest news” in franchising since McDonald’s. Anybody hear of it?

In 2002 Wolfie’s closed on 21^st Street in Miami Beach. The last owner of the one on Lincoln Road was Samuel Kaye who died in 2012, but I'm not sure when that Wolfie's shut its doors; the same fate was dealt the restaurant on Sunrise Boulevard in Fort Lauderdale. International residents and exotic palates have replaced the taste for Jewish borscht, bagels, lox and cheesecake but not the fond memories woven into Fort Lauderdale and Miami history. And it all began with Wolfie Cohen ... Copyright 2015. Jane Feehan

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*Rascal’s closed in 2008, and is currently the site of Epicure Market;

Sources:

St. Petersburg Times, Dec. 18, 1953

Miami News, Sept. 21, 1958

The Reading Eagle, Feb. 13, 1959

The New York Times, Jan. 22, 1961

The New York Times, June 10, 1961

Evening Independent, Aug. 13, 1964

Miami News, Oct. 7, 1986

Schenectady Gazette,Jul. 3, 1987

Boca Raton News, June 3, 1998

Tags: Wolfie's, Wolfie Cohen, Fort Lauderdale restaurants in the 1960s, Miami Beach deli restaurants

Two gators in search of a meal, picture courtesy of Steve Kantner

According to a New York Sun Times news story datelined Fort Lauderdale, Jul. 23, 1897, Florida Seminoles* acknowledged two capital crimes in the late 1800s: theft and adultery. The newspaper published an account given by Seminole James Jumper that underscored the negative views held then about one of those crimes.

It was reported that Tiger Cat, a member of an Indian camp near Tamiami Trail, ran off with the chief’s wife, enraging their entire community. A group set out to find the law-breaking couple; two weeks later they were apprehended and brought back home to face justice. For more than two days the governing council debated punishment. They settled on execution … by alligator.

The convicted pair was brought to Little Gator Key (perhaps an Everglades hammock; there is no Florida key by that name). The two were stripped of their clothes and tied to the ground about 50 feet apart. A dog, which was to initially attract feeding gators, was attached between them. The couple waited all day in the blazing heat until sundown, when a gator emerged from the water and quickly devoured the dog. Other gators joined the dinner frenzy and finished off the errant couple, who were by then most remorseful.

*Note: It is not implied that this group was part of today’s Seminole Tribe of Florida, which has its own constitution, police department and modern and humane due process of law.

Tags: Florida in the 1800s, Jane Feehan film researcher, Everglades, alligators

Man raising his glass in a toast. 19--.
State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory.

By Jane Feehan

Liquor flowed to and from South Florida during Prohibition (1920-1933) and according to Jacksonville-based Federal Prohibition Administrator P.F. Hambsch, many across the nation knew about it.

In 1926 Hambsch decided to clean up that reputation.

In April that year, he wrote to Broward Sheriff Paul C. Bryan outlining the problem and asked for monthly reports on arrests of bootleggers and seizures to refute the widely-held notion that little was being done to enforce the law. According to Broward County Sheriff historian, William P. Cahill, Bryan said he “was ready to cooperate.”

Cooperation included Bryan’s invitation to send agents so he could get to know them. Unbeknown to Bryan, two agents were sent to work undercover as bootleggers for three months, gathering evidence for arrests. They paid $750 to the sheriff and his men in weekly installments of $5-$15.

With protection payments, bootleggers enjoyed full police protection to make and then distribute booze to Miami, Palm Beach and other east coast resorts. There was evidence a few bootlegging rings were financed by some wealthy and respected citizens of Broward County and Fort Lauderdale. (And so evolved the moniker, Fort Liquordale).

In January 1927, raids were conducted by 18 agents, and a few Coast Guardsmen and customs inspectors, resulting in 41 (some say 32) arrests, including Sheriff Bryan, Broward County’s second sheriff, all six of his deputies, Fort Lauderdale Police Chief Bert Croft and eight patrolmen. The raiders seized eight large stills, 10,000 gallons of mash, 300 gallons of moonshine and a quantity of bottled beer.

The arrested lawmen were brought to the Coast Guard Station (near today’s Bahia Mar). They were heavily armed but their weapons were confiscated. Bail was set at $5,000 for Bryan and Croft; for the others, $2,000. The arrests left Broward County and Fort Lauderdale without local law enforcement, but according to Cahill, Bryan served out his term until 1929.The Broward Sheriff’s website states he served until 1927.

Paul Bryan, son of Louis H. and Elizabeth Bryan, was born in Volusia County in 1891 and came with his family to Fort Lauderdale in 1900. His father helped lay out the town of Fort Lauderdale. After Paul left the Sheriff’s Office, he helped run the Dania café owned by his wife, Maude Henson Bryan. Bryan died in 1942; his wife died in 1988 at age 90. Local history is framed (and here, peppered) by Bryan family civic contributions.

Sources:

The New York Times, Jan. 28, 1927

William P. Cahill, Broward Legacy, Vol. 24, No. 2 (2004)

www.sheriff.org

Roots Web

By Jane Feehan

Florida was hit by the Great Depression before most other states, especially after the 1926 hurricane slammed Fort Lauderdale and Miami, scaring off land speculators and developers. By the 1930s, the entire country was affected by a severe economic downturn.

But tough times didn’t stop people from visiting Florida, especially those with cars. New roads and inexpensive tent and trailer camps welcomed “swarms” of tourists during the winter season, which back then started after the holidays.

There was plenty to see by car, according to travel writers. The roads that made sightseeing possible were State Road 441 from the Georgia line south to Miami and US 1. In the late 1930s, Route 1 was to undergo widening from St. Augustine to Palm Beach. From the Palm Beach area to Miami that well-traveled road was smooth and wide at the time.

Motorists could travel through Central Florida along the Orange Blossom Trail (parts of 441, adjacent routes U.S. 17/192 and other roads).* A recommended itinerary would include a stop at Clermont, Gem of the Hills (now Choice of Champions), and Howey-in-the-Hills, then touted as the “largest citrus development in the world.” Drivers could also stay at Winter Garden, a mecca of vacation trailers, Lake Apopka, a sweet spot for bass fishermen or Winter Haven, the “Citrus Capital” and site of the annual Orange Festival. They might also like to see Palatka, the “new rival” to Ocala (how things have changed …).

The lower coast of West Florida offered Sarasota, “which has more valuable old masters than any other American museum except for the Metropolitan." South of that town sat Fort Myers, once home to Thomas A. Edison (1847-1931) where Edison Day was “still celebrated.” (And celebrated today.)

A tour to East Florida could include driving on sand along the ocean at Daytona Beach or stopping at Merritt Island to see flocks of birds rising like clouds from its marshes. Nearby was Pelican Island, a wildlife refuge off Vero Beach. Also in Vero was the McKee Jungle Gardens, opened in 1931 (and now named McKee Botanical Garden). Cape Canaveral, about an hour north, was a prime spot for catching jumbo shrimp; the town claimed a yearly 400-ton-catch from its adjacent ocean waters.

Travel on the Overseas Highway down to Key West was interrupted by damage from the Labor Day Hurricane of 1935 but motorists could visit the Lion Farm in Fort Lauderdale (see my post: Where lions once roared at http://bit.ly/1xyXdBA ), Hibiscus Gardens in Dania or stay at one of the many fishing camps in or near Key Largo.

And there was an air show—held south of Miami—that featured planes from 12 airports and seaplane bases. The U.S. Coast Guard provided some of the best acts, according to some. For visitors who made it that far, a visit to Miami could include a wager placed at Tropical Park or a much-needed rest at a comfortable hotel room near Biscayne Bay or along the ocean.

Much has changed since 1937 but some things stay the same: nomadic tourists seeking warm winters, sightseeing and … air shows.

*Not to be confused with the seven notorious miles of illicit activities dubbed the Orange Blossom Trail near today’s Orlando.

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Sources: New York Times, Wikipedia, Cities of Howey-in-the Hills, Daytona Beach

For Florida trips today, see below:

Tags: Travel, Florida tourism, tours, Florida history, South Florida history, Central Florida, West Florida, Jane Feehan film researcher, Florida in the 1930s, Florida during the Depression

By Mateusz Kudła (Own work)

By Jane Feehan

During the early days of filmmaking, Florida held a place in the collective mind of the industry. A few studios were established during the early 1900s in Miami and Hialeah (see index). But they closed as California evolved into a movie making epicenter with the founding of Warner Bros* in 1923 and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1924. Other studio giants followed: Fox, RKO, 20th Century Pictures.

For one last time the spotlight turned on Florida in 1935 as a potential haven for the film industry. MGM threatened to lead a movie studio exodus from California to the Sunshine State to escape high taxes. Key MGM player (and later 20^th Century Pictures co-founder) Joseph M. Schenck voiced apprehension about California’s tendencies toward “soaking the rich.”

The 1930s saw a huge increase in federal income taxes; California followed suit. As a result, highly paid actors and directors chose to work less. Schenck pointed to a proposed 35 percent tax on film industry incomes as reason to leave the state. He called for the people of Florida to raise $10 million through subscriptions to build motion picture studios to be rented to the film industry for $250,000 a year. The interest rate for the arrangement would not exceed 2.5 percent. Schenck told The New York Times he was about to meet with Sidney Kent of Fox Studios in Boca Raton to discuss the plans. Florida would be fine as a new locale, he said. Good transportation to and from the state was an asset. And, most scenes were shot indoors. If mountain scenery was needed, North Carolina was nearby.

The plan was probably a threat; the movie industry was firmly planted in California by 1935. During that decade of the Great Depression, a roster of movie classics was produced that includes: Wizard of Oz, The Public Enemy, King Kong, Petrified Forest, Gone with the Wind and Little Caesar. And the actors soaring to fame through those and other films—Bette Davis, James Cagney, Edward G. Robinson, Judy Garland – were synonymous with Hollywood. It was after, all the “Golden Age of Hollywood.”

Whether threat or plan, Hollywood’s complaining in the media about taxes during the 1930s earned its place in popular debate about the subject—and about politics. And Florida still holds a special mention: The state continues to attract the film industry with its production locations. In 2006 the state ranked third in the nation (behind California and New York) in the film industry.

Let’s hope Florida's incentives for filmmaking are renewed.

*Albert Warner owned an estate on Miami Beach; it was later sold to make way for the Eden Roc Hotel.

Sources:

The New York Times, Mar. 5, 1935
Film History: An International Journal: Vol. 22 (2010) Number 1

IMDB

MGM

Tags: Florida history, film industry, Jane Feehan film researcher, MGM history, Florida film industry

Though most of the nation was struggling to climb out of the depths of the Great Depression during the late 1930s, Miami’s Mayor Robert R. Williams waxed optimistic about greater Miami's growth:

In 1937:

Hotel inventory reached 350, with 60 built that year.
Visitors could also find lodging among 6,000 available apartment units.
More houses were constructed—3,500—in 1937 than in any year of its history.
Eastern Airlines was doubling round trip winter flights between New York (five) and Chicago (three) and Miami; it was adding five new 21-passenger Douglas DC-3s
October air passenger traffic to South America from Miami was up 20 percent from the previous October.
Florida East Coast and Seaboard Airline railways added extra equipment to transport passengers from Jacksonville to Miami.
Out of eight million pounds of fish caught and shipped from Florida, five million were fished from waters off Miami.
The first of many expected mega yachts arrived at the Miami Yacht Basin, the 188-foot Arcadia owned by Mrs. Huntington Reed Hardwick of Boston.
Bayfront Parkat Biscayne Bay was to host 45 operas and concerts that winter season.
The Orange Bowl (played since 1935), the Lipton Trophy sailing race, and the Miami to Nassau sailing race were expected to draw thousands of spectators.

Sources: Wall Street Journal, Dec. 18, 1937

Tags: Miami in the 1930s, Miami tourism, Miami history, Jane Feehan, film researcher, Eastern Airlines, Douglas Aircraft

Memorial Day is about remembering those who died in the service of our country. Beginning each class I taught in American history with this sad tally, I hoped to establish a perspective and to set the context for the rest of the course.

Not all conflicts are listed below and many more died serving America. Some numbers are estimates and may differ, depending on the sources, but the point is made.

US War for Independence

6,800 to 8,000

About 17,000 servicemen were thought to have died from disease

Civil War

620,000 to 750,000

World War I - The Great War

110,000-116,000 (Great Britain lost more than 900,000; France lost one in four of its male population)

World War II

About 407,000

Korean War

54,246

Vietnam

58,209

Afghanistan and Iraq

About 6,700

Tags: US Military deaths, Memorial Day

By Jane Feehan

Lakes with floating islands dot the globe in countries with marshlands, notably in Tasmania, Brazil, Congo, Burma, The Netherlands and the U.S. Central Florida touts a number of them, drawing the interest of tourists and scientists.

Orange Lake, located in Florida’s Alachua and Marion counties, and part of the St. Johns River system, floats several of these aquatic wildlife habitats. In 1937 this body of water made headlines and postcards as “Lake of a Thousand Floating Islands.”

A floating island, or tussock, comprised of plant root systems of cattails, reeds, bulrush and other species, occurs when water runs too deep for roots to reach bottom, so they orient toward the surface for oxygen. Some islands are small, others expand to acres in size and grow trees. One island with a maple tree was featured decades ago in Robert Ripley’s Believe it or Not compendium of the bizarre. Some say these island trees serve as sails when windy, eerily moving a root system across the water. Documented as growing eight to 50 inches in diameter, island-dwelling trees generally live a decade or two.

Floating islands in Florida serve as home to raccoons, aquatic rabbits, a variety of birds and at times, alligators. Bass fisherman and tourists flock to Orange Lake, which loses about 30 percent of its water each year through a network of sinkholes, an important feature of the area’s hydrology.

Orange Creek Basin,
Osceloa Co.

Orange Lake may be the best known Florida lake for floating islands but others are located in Lake Yarbo in Winter Garden, and Lake Buckeye and Lake Idyl in Winter Haven. Anglers find floating islands to be a nuisance. So does the Florida Department of Environmental Protection’s Bureau of Invasive Plant Management, which spent more than $18 million in 2004-2006 for cleaning up organic buildup adversely affecting fish and wildlife habitats. BIPM is the largest program in managing invasive species on public lands in the U.S.

Tourist attraction or nuisance, Florida’s floating islands add to the area’s semi-tropical mystique.

Sources:

Ocala Star Banner, Dec. 28, 1953

Ocala Star Banner, Jul. 31, 1986

St. Johns Water Management District

Wikipedia

University of Florida

Florida Department of Environmental Protection

Tags:

Florida, Jane Feehan, floating islands, tourism, semi-tropics, history, Orange Lake

January, 1925

This advertisement came out less than two years before the devastating hurricane of 1926 that ushered in the Great Depression in Florida before it cast its shadow across most other states.

And today? Recent sales include homes from $490,000 to $1.1 million. Others on the water exceed that. The area, which sits behind the Gateway Theater and along the Middle River, includes 30 percent of Fort Lauderdale's historically significant properties. About 10,000 residents call this beautiful neigborhood home.

Tags: Fort Lauderdale neighborhoods, Fort Lauderdale history

By Jane Feehan

Sears, Roebuck and Company, founded in 1886, has had its ups and downs over the years. The largest retailer in the United States until 1989, it now occasionally announces store closings. When it does, many Fort Lauderdale residents wonder if Searstown on Federal Highway at Sunrise will be shutting its doors. As of this posting, the landmark department store remains open. Few know the history of Sears in Fort Lauderdale; it did not begin with Searstown.

Opening day on South Andrews, 1937

Sears opened its first Fort Lauderdale store Jan. 7, 1937 at 101 S. Andrews Ave. Mayor Lewis Moore (in office 1937-39) officiated at the event along with Chamber of Commerce President J.D. Camp. A reported 2,000 residents “thronged” to the 19,000 sq. foot store. With plenty of product lines to choose from, the store also operated an automotive department offering free tire and battery servicing to those who purchased the products at Sears. Opening day was so busy Store Manager E.E. Carroll summoned additional help to assist at registers and in the aisles.

Sears’ business continued to expand in the growing city. In 1955 the new Searstown opened at 901 N. Federal Hwy where it entered memories of current long-time residents. The transition day between the closing of the store on South Andrews and the opening on Federal was the first business day

Rendering of Searstown before opening in 1955

Sears had closed in its then 18 years in Fort Lauderdale. Searstown, touted as having plenty of parking, which it still does, was anchor store to a collection of 15 other businesses by 1958: grocer Piggly Wiggly (second largest in the center), Billet Doux Card Shop, Stevens Bakery, Dr. Harold S. Doubleday, optometrist, Pribbles Jewelry, Searstown Beauty Salon, Chat-N-Nibble Sandwich Shop, Deluxe Barber Shop, Monty’s 5 & 10, Gift Box, Broward Drug and Surgical Supply, the Religious Shop, Dr. William Migden, physician and surgeon, and Town Properties Realty.

By 1958, Searstown was upgraded in the Sears roster of highest revenue producers to number 75 out of its top 122 stores. I wonder how it ranks today …

Sources:

Fort Lauderdale News, Jan. 6, 1937

Fort Lauderdale News, Jan. 7, 1937

Fort Lauderdale News,Aug. 10, 1958

Tags: Fort Lauderdale history, Florida retail history, South Florida history, Broward County history,

Jane Feehan

Fort Lauderdale, Broward County ... South Florida ... all were booming in the 1960s. Below are ads from some of the popular dining and club spots of 1963-1965. None remain open. For a more comprehensive list, see:
http://janeshistorynook.blogspot.com/2014/04/those-1960s-fort-lauderdale-night-spots.html

Tags: Fort Lauderdale history, Fort Lauderdale nightspots, Fort Lauderdale restaurants

By Jane Feehan

Seems the citizens of Vero, as it was called in its early days, had big plans for their tiny community in 1925. On January 10 of that year, town notables, residents and guests gathered to dedicate the “largest electric road sign in the United States.” It bore the slogan— still used today—Vero, where the tropics begin.

Erected at the corner of Dixie Highway and Seminole Drive (then the main street through Vero) the illuminated sign spanned 50 feet, stood 10 feet high and was suspended 40 feet above the pavement. The sign was built for $2,000, a hefty sum for that time. It was paid for by residents and property owners.

Among the guests that day was Chicago developer Frank Croissant, who had established a reputation in Fort Lauderdale as developer of several communities, including Croissant Park. No doubt, the people of Vero had high hopes for similar development in their town. The Fort Lauderdale News touted Croissant as the “greatest city builder of the country.”

Vero Beach today, near the ocean

The unveiling of the sign, which was “illuminated more elaborately than anything of its kind in the history of Florida,” was celebrated with a three-gun salute and 25 shrieking sirens, a live band and street dance.

The town, established in 1919, remained a sleepy agricultural center for decades.

Today with subdued (compared to that of South Florida), development of elegant communities, Vero Beach is home to Piper Aircraft and a growing list of celebrities—including Gloria Estefan—seeking a quiet alternative to the traffic and congestion of Broward and Miami-Dade counties.

Sources:

Fort Lauderdale News, Jan. 9, 1926

COVB.org

Wikipedia

Tags: Vero Beach history, Fort Lauderdale history, Frank Croissant

Gateway Interchange 1963 · Mon, Jan 7, 1963 – 29 · Fort Lauderdale News (Fort Lauderdale, Florida)· Newspapers.com
By Jane Feehan

Fort Lauderdale traffic jams have long vexed residents, visitors and city officials. During the late 1940s and 1950s, the city could boast it had the worst traffic snarl in the state until the completed Henry E. Kinney Tunnel carried U.S. Route 1 under New River in 1960. That solution fared better than the proposed Tri-Level Interchange at Gateway did in 1963.

According to news that year, accidents in the city with the highest property damage occurred at Gateway Center at Sunrise Boulevard. The State Road Department offered a solution at a city commission meeting in January, 1963—a Tri-Level Interchange at Gateway. Engineering firm Howard, Needles, Tammen & Bergendoff presented a rendering of an interchange that was to cost $1.4 million and take about a year and a half to build.

Before the month ended, city notable Jack Gore, whose father Robert H. Gore opposed the Kinney Tunnel, opined in the Fort Lauderdale News that property devaluation would occur in that area if the interchange materialized. He also said traffic was most congested along North Federal Highway between the Jefferson Store and Oakland Park Boulevard and from Sunrise Boulevard east from Gateway to Bayview Drive. (Sound familiar?) By March 1963, 82 businessmen had banned together to protest the interchange. It would, they claimed, isolate Gateway from northeast Fort Lauderdale, disrupt business for a year and a half and would cost too much. Besides, newly installed—and much cheaper—traffic lights were already driving accident stats downward.

The Tri-Level Interchange never came about; it would soon give way to concerns about other interchanges along the turnpike and I-95. But the traffic? The same snarls along Federal Highway now join a growing list of others in Fort Lauderdale.

Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose or … the more things change they stay the same … right?

Tags: Fort Lauderdale history, Fort Lauderdale in the 1960s, Fort Lauderdale traffic

Sources:

Fort Lauderdale News, Jan. 7, 1963

Fort Lauderdale News, Jan. 20, 1963

Fort Lauderdale News, March 25, 1963

Added to National Register of Historic Places 1994 - From Google Maps

By Jane Feehan

Yeehaw Junction. The name draws a smile from those who pass its exit along Florida's Turnpike. This town of fewer than 300 serves as a stopping point for gas and at one time, tickets for Orlando tourist attractions, food and lodging.

Located in Osceola County, some 75 miles south of Orlando in Florida’s cattle belt, this tiny town of ranchers seems to be a place that time continues to forget. Even the genesis of its name is forgotten. A few thought it was an Indian name; others say it was a call used to move donkeys or oxen along in their work at logging camps. Some say it was named Crossroads in the 1940s because it sat at the junction of SR 60 and U.S. 441. For years, truckers called it Jackass Junction, and may still do. A Standard Oil gas station owner once told a tale about cleaning up the name Jackass for an oil company map maker to Yeehaw Junction. It stuck.

The site of a few gas stations, a motel and now the closed Desert Inn, the town, at this writing, has no police or fire station, bank or schools. Legend says it once served as a cattle trail stop and an Indian trading post in the 1800s. In fact, Yeehaw Junction sat along the Okeechobee branch of the Florida East Coast Railway, which had set up one of its many water depots nearby (there were many along the railway’s route). The branch closed decades ago, lowering the curtain on its development.

While South Florida growth led the nation during the 1950s, Yeehaw Junction remained static. In 1960, Miami real estate titan J.A. Cantor bought much of the town’s leased property and set out to create Central City. Billboards proposed a modern community with amenities alien to residents, but for whatever reasons, plans fell to the wayside.

In 2002, the Pentagon revealed Yeehaw Junction was a secret test site (among 27) for biological warfare. In 1968, during the height of the Cold War, wheat rust, a variety of Puccinia graminis, was sprayed over fields four times in hopes of developing a fungus strong enough to kill wheat crops of an enemy during warfare.

During the 1980s, state officials proposed a 122-room Yeehaw Junction motel be converted to a 200-man prison. Though a few residents hoped a prison would boost job growth and its economy, others joked the town would be known as “Jailhouse Junction.” The proposal failed.

Since then, travelers and truckers continue to stop for gas and restrooms. Its Desert Inn was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1994. The only place in town for nightlife and reasonable food, the inn recently closed. A voicemail message at the establishment says it’s closed indefinitely.

Boom times again come to Florida—again sidestepping Yeehaw Junction. Developers and potential residents might be interested the town sits 69 feet above sea level, not prone to flooding.

Sources

Fort Lauderdale News, Sept. 25, 1960

Fort Lauderdale News, Aug. 17, 1986

Tampa Tribune, Jan. 24, 1995

Orlando Sentinel, Oct. 10, 2002

Tags: Florida history, Yeehaw Junction, Florida’s Turnpike, Jane Feehan, film researcher, Florida development, Osceola County, National Register of Historic Places, biological warfare

1. First Jefferson Store established in Miami in 1946 by hotelier Harry Mufson (d. 1973), once part owner of the San Souci Hotel who later built the Eden Roc Hotel (1956) causing a rancorous split with Fontainebleau owner and partner, Ben Novack;

2. Jefferson SuperStores was tapped as the nation’s Outstanding Westinghouse Dealer in 1953;

3. The Fort Lauderdale store opened July 20, 1960 at 2400 N. Federal Highway with 1,000

parking spaces, 156,000 sq. ft., a photographic studio, shoe repair, beauty shop, pet shop, home improvement department, bake shop, restaurant, tailor, dry cleaner, jewelry department featuring Miss Florida, Kathy Magda, for opening day, and Funland’s indoor rides for kids;

4. By 1969, other South Florida locations included prime sites in Boca Raton, Hollywood, West Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach;

5. By the 1970s, more than 20 Jefferson SuperStores operated in Florida, with 500 employees at its Miami headquarters.

6. Montgomery Ward purchased Jefferson’s in 1973 for $37 million in stock; the stores were then known as Jefferson Wards;

7. By 1985, 200 of its 500 employees had been laid off at the Miami headquarters. The same year, Jefferson’s was put up for sale but merchandise was eventually liquidated by AMA Management Company.

Sources:

Miami News, Nov. 19, 1953

Fort Lauderdale News, July 20, 1960

Miami News, Oct. 13, 1961

Palm Beach Post, Nov. 21, 1969

Miami News, May 14, 1973

Miami News, May 30, 1985

Miami News, Aug. 16, 1985

Tags: Fort Lauderdale retail history, Fort Lauderdale history, Harry Mufson, Eden Roc Hotel, Miami history, Jefferson SuperStores

By Jane Feehan

Fort Lauderdale’s boom era of the 1950s brought development, population growth, tourism—and the city’s first bank robbery.

Police records of the day report a robbery of the People’s Industrial Bank at 7 East Broward Boulevard, Oct. 10, 1952. Two robbers tied up several bank employees and made away with $9028. A third participant drove the stolen getaway car, which was later found abandoned in the “Gateway section.”

The trio continued their crime spree, which included a murder and other bank heists, one in Alabama for more than $30,000. Eventually, they were picked up by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. But Lurton Lewis Heflin, Jr., Albert Sidney Denton and Samuel Jay Hornbeck were not brought to trial for the Fort Lauderdale robbery. Instead, they served lengthy sentences for a murder committed before the South Florida caper, their first bank robbery, and another murder after.

John Ashley, far right, entering prison

The first bank robbery in Broward County was the work of the notorious Ashley gang in 1923 or 1924. Leaving their base camp in the Everglades near Fort Lauderdale, they summoned a cab for the job. They robbed the Bank of Pompano of a reported $23,000. The driver of the cab was then tied to a tree and given a bullet and message for Sheriff R.B. Baker to find them. Some accounts say the sheriff found them in the Everglades, shot and killed four. With activities of the gang cloaked in myth and hyperbole, accounts differ.

What is certain: John Ashley escaped the sheriff that day. But he and several gang members were killed in a shootout Nov. 1, 1924 at the Sebastian Bridge, about 25 miles north of Fort Pierce. Law enforcement had had enough of their South Florida antics. For more on the Ashley gang, see my post at: https://janesbits.blogspot.com/2010/11/florida-history-before-age-of-mobsters.html

Sources:

Douglas, Marjory Stoneman. Everglades: River of Grass. Miami: Banyan Books (1978)

Fort Lauderdale News, Oct. 11, 1959

Fort Lauderdale News, Aug. 27, 1978

Fort Lauderdale News, Jan. 22, 1984

Tags: Fort Lauderdale history, Fort Lauderdale crime, Fort Lauderdale in the 1920s, Fort Lauderdale in the 1950s,

By Jane Feehan

The mile-long strip of land known as the Galt mile was sold in 1953 by Arthur T. Galt for $19 million to James S. Hunt and Stephen A. Calder, heralding the first development phase of that area. The first hotel to go up was the Beach Club Hotel, which had operated as an exclusive private club since 1954.

Today's beach access next to the site of the old
Beach Club Hotel site at Oakland Park and A1A

The Beach Club, at Oakland Park Boulevard, was purchased in July 1956 by Eugene Ballard and L. Bert Stephens, owners/managers of the Lago Mar Hotel. Ben Chavez Construction connected the old Beach Club building to a new, 150-room (some accounts say 200-room) wing. The Chanticleer cocktail lounge in the old building and the new, outdoor Carousel Bar, shuffleboard courts and saltwater pool were included in hotel offerings when it opened Dec. 22, 1956.

1956 rendering of the Beach Club Hotel

Its “tropical architecture” motif served as backdrop to an array of civic club meetings, a busy calendar of winter season parties and year-round memberships to its pool and roster of family activities. In May 1957, five months after opening, the Beach Club Hotel hosted the Mrs. America contest for 10 days.

And there was the Woody Woodbury connection.

The popular Fort Lauderdale entertainer is often remembered for his appearances at other hotels along Fort Lauderdale beach, including the Bahama Hotel, but he appeared (and ran things) at the Lulubelle Room at the Beach Club Hotel for 10 years, his longest run anywhere. Woodbury’s last show at the Lulubelle was July 21, 1984 where he bid farewell to about 200 fans—the B.I.T.O.A. club or “Booze is the Only Answer” club. Many thought he would soon move to California, but he remained in the Fort Lauderdale area (Plantation). Woody re-appeared months later at the Rum Room at the Galt Ocean Mile Hotel and elsewhere in Fort Lauderdale and other cities.

The opening of the Beach Club was soon followed by the Galt Ocean Mile Hotel in 1957. But, by the mid-1980s, both were shuttered to make way for new projects—what I call the second development phase for the Galt, the condominium era. A 500-room Hilton Hotel was proposed for the Beach Club Hotel site but made some on the city’s zoning board nervous about potential traffic problems (they should see Fort Lauderdale now, where traffic problems no longer matter). After several years of lying vacant, the old Beach Club site was developed into two 27-story towers of L’Hermitage Condominium.

For more on Galt Mile hotels, see

https://janeshistorynook.blogspot.com/2013/05/galt-mile-jewels-in-1950s-ocean-manor.html

Sources:

Fort Lauderdale News, Oct. 27, 1956

Fort Lauderdale News, Dec. 20, 1956

Fort Lauderdale News, May 2, 1957

Fort Lauderdale News, Dec. 19, 1975

Fort Lauderdale News, July 24, 1984

Fort Lauderdale News, March 29, 1985

Tags: Beach Club Hotel, Galt Ocean Mile, Woody Woodbury, B.I.T.O.A. club, Fort Lauderdale history

Fort Lauderdale, 2018

By Jane Feehan

Not much more than an overnight stop for the mail coach that traveled between Lemon City* and West Palm Beach, Fort Lauderdale in the 1890s was home to businessman Frank Stranahan and a few Seminoles. Many of us in Fort Lauderdale who have been here awhile know something about our early history, but below are a few numbers to add to the tale.

Stranahan’s trading post or mail stop (now a museum), sat on the banks of the New River, estimated at the time to average 26 feet in depth; ferry service was provided for its crossing. Eight rooms, eight by six feet were available for visitors at the post. Houses in the area at that time were constructed with thick red paper nailed to framing. Primitive times, however, would soon yield to land buying, farming and development, especially after Henry M. Flagler’s Florida East Coast Railway carried its first passengers into Fort Lauderdale Feb. 22, 1896.

Farmers were soon drawn to the area by the rich, dark soil of the nearby Everglades. By 1905, it was reported they were growing profitable tomato crops in the east Everglades. “The territory around Fort Lauderdale has the world beaten when it comes to growing fine tomatoes,” wrote one reporter for the Miami Metropolis. Farmers also grew potatoes, cabbage and beans. An acre could yield up to $300 in vegetables. About 100,000 crates of vegetables were shipped out of Fort Lauderdale in 1909.

By 1910, a year of land speculation here, the “hustling little village” (as it was described) of Fort Lauderdale had grown with:

About 1,500 residents (some accounts say 750). By 1911, 5,000 called the village home, thanks to a soon-to-go-bust speculative land boom;
Two bridges spanning the New River;
Two concrete buildings at the trading post with about 30 rooms—the New River Hotel and the Keystone. In all, three hotels in the village;
Two boatyards;
50 buildings, mostly residences under construction, estimated by a reporter to range in cost from $300 to $10,000 (an unrealistically high estimate?);
A public school nearing completion;
Methodist church about complete for $4,000; a Baptist church constructed for $3,500;
A three-story Masonic temple for $8,000;
Fort Lauderdale State Bank built for $2,500 (without fixtures);
Three general stores.

More than 20,000 farmers, a reporter wrote, settled in the area; about 200,000 acres were sold with shaky (and shady) speculative plans to sell in 10-acre allotments. Fort Lauderdale Fruit Lands Company purchased 2,000 acres a mile north of New River and two of three canals constructed to drain the Everglades emptied into that river. The drainage project to extend farming and prevent crop flooding eventually failed. Farm prospects diminished—along with the land boom—but Fort Lauderdale was incorporated as a town (not enough qualified voters for a city) March 27, 1911. The town limit was set at one and one-half miles square.

Today, this “hustling little village” sits on more than 36 square miles, is home to about 177,000 and is among the top ten largest cities in the state.

_____

*Lemon City never incorporated and held loose borders extending from NW 54 Street to approximately NW 79Street in Miami, today’s “Little Haiti.”

Sources:

Miami Metropolis, June 1, 1905

Miami Metropolis, Sept. 3, 1910

Miami Daily Metropolis, March 28, 1911

City of Fort Lauderdale

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

Tags: Fort Lauderdale history, Fort Lauderdale farming, Everglades farming, Florida East Coast Railroad history

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