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Bahama Hotel, Fort Lauderdale beach hotel with an entertainment legacy
Bahama Hotel circa 1959State Archives of FloridaBahama Hotel 401 N. Atlantic Blvd. (now Fort Lauderdale Beach Blvd)Fort LauderdaleBy Jane FeehanAmong the hotels opened in Fort Lauderdale during the...
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Fort Lauderdale and Jay Mar Cottages - from covered suppers to hordes of...
Jay-Mar Cottages in Fort Lauderdale 1956 Jay-Mar Apartments.515 Seabreeze Blvd.Fort Lauderdale, FLBy Jane FeehanJay-Mar Cottages started out as a pleasant, low-profile, no-frills seaside motel along...
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Fort Lauderdale, Fazio's Fireside Steak Ranch and his House of Prime Ribs
Fireside Steak Ranch901 E. Las Olas Blvd. Fort LauderdaleandUS 1 in DeerfieldHost: Jimmy FazioBy Jane FeehanFort Lauderdale was booming in the 1950s and 60s. The boom included new restaurants opened...
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Sailboat Bend, Fort Lauderdale's only neighborhood deemed a historic district
By Jane FeehanFort Lauderdale’s Sailboat Bend, once known as the “West Side,” was designated a historic district in 1992. It is the first neighborhood in the city so deemed.The historic area sits...
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Marlin Beach Hotel ... once leader in Fort Lauderdale beach entertainment
Marlin Beach Hotel circa 1960Marlin Beach Hotel17 S. Atlantic Blvd.Fort Lauderdale, FLBy Jane FeehanThree West Point graduates (Class of 1946) from Pittsburgh agreed that Fort Lauderdale held solid...
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Beach life – more than meets the eye. A lifeguard’s dedication to profession...
Lt. Serrano, Fort Lauderdale Ocean Rescue, photo courtesy of G. Serrano By Jane Feehan Gio Serrano’s stop in Fort Lauderdale on his way to Texas in 1996 would change his life. Traveling from Puerto...
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Sunny Isles, a tropical wonderland develops into a wall of condos north of...
Sunny Isles 2018Public Domain, Photo licensinginformation below* By Jane FeehanAdvertisements for lot sales in Sunny Isles first hyped it as “the America Riviera.” In 1930, the project was touted as...
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Mark 2100 Resort Hotel in Fort Lauderdale and an owner who left a gift for...
By Jane Feehan The Mark 2100 Resort Hotel was one of a very few that sat directly on Fort Lauderdale’s sands. For more than three decades it attracted guests from across the nation to its...
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Unconventional golf coach teaches his children the game and how to win
L to R: Paula, Julian, Emma, Kevin By Jane FeehanMost who seek a professional career in golf started out using a coach. Some have been coached by parents who were pros. Athletes in other sports have...
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Eyes were on Lemon City before Miami
Bay View Hotel, second on Biscayne Bay. Lemon City 1892,Moved to Miami 1899 via bargeState Archives of FloridaBy Jane FeehanLemon City didn’t have its own government but did have plenty of economic...
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A Civil War hero and once resident of Fort Lauderdale, Edgar A Bras and his...
Medal of Honor, U.S. ArmyPublic domain By Jane FeehanCivil War veteran Edgar A. Bras (1841-1923) made his way to Fort Lauderdale in the 1900s. Approaching their final years, Bras and his wife moved in...
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SeaEscape cruises into Florida sunset with no return as onshore gambling evolves
By Jane FeehanAs Florida voters rejected gambling casinos, one-day cruises for betting grew in popularity during the 1980s and 90s.One of these ocean-going casinos was SeaEscape. Over several decades,...
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Fort Lauderdale's first department store - Pioneer Department Store
By Jane Feehan Frank Stranahan’s New River trading post, opened in Fort Lauderdale in 1895, served as antecedent to the Pioneer Department Store. Reporters established this lineage through Pioneer’s...
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Fort Lauderdale and Broward County fallout shelter craze in the 1960s
By Jane FeehanFallout shelters dominated controversial topics in South Florida and the nation in the late 1950s and early 1960s. People feared a nuclear attack from the Soviet Union when its leader,...
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Sun Tower, one of the oldest remaining hotels on Fort Lauderdale sands
Sun Tower Hotel & Suites2030 N. Ocean Blvd., Fort Lauderdale, FL954-565-5700By Jane FeehanThe Sun Tower remains one of the few that can claim the beach lies literally out the back door. With a...
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The Landmark Building leads downtown Fort Lauderdale development in 1972
Looking north from 3rd Avenue BridgeLandmark sits center of photo 1991(White strip to roof))State Archives of Florida/RiddleLandmark Building 1996, State of Florida Archives 1996, Florida Dept. of...
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Palm Beach County's Hypoluxo - surrounded by water, no way out
Hypoluxo peninsula,State of Florida ArchivesBy Jane FeehanThose driving by I-95 exit signs for Hypoluxo may be more curious about that name than its history.More on that name to come, but first its...
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Coral Springs, once green beans and cattle but no springs
Coral Springs in 1977, State of Florida ArchivesBy Jane FeehanBroward County pioneer Henry L. Lyons arrived in Florida during the early 1900s with plans to farm and assess other opportunities. About...
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Fort Lauderdale in the news 1950 - surprises and …
Fort Lauderdale A fast-growing city in 1950, Fort Lauderdale began to capture the attention—and headlines—of Northern newspapers. Some news came courtesy of public relations initiatives. Other items...
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Fort Lauderdale's Las Olas bridge, the Dwight L. Rogers Memorial Causeway
Las Olas bridge view from Idlewyld neighborhood 2024By Jane FeehanFort Lauderdale’s population grew from 17,996 in 1940 to 36,328 residents in 1950*. Along with this expansion came infrastructure...
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Fort Lauderdale - farm or beach?
By Jane FeehanHigh hopes for farming helped fuel Fort Lauderdale’s early growth.The first big wave of investors overtook what there was of the rural town in 1911 with a lottery sale of lands belonging...
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Riviera Isles off Las Olas - brisk sales, a hotel and a hard landing after...
Riviera Isles 1996, State Archives of FloridaBy Jane FeehanTo some, Fort Lauderdale is known as a modern Venice. Finger islands bordered by canals off Las Olas Boulevard gently suggest images of that...
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Sign of those times, the Space Satellite Hotel, Pompano Beach
Pompano Beach 2024 Space Satellite HotelOnce at 1450 So. Ocean Blvd. Pompano Beach (now Lauderdale-by-the-Sea) By Jane Feehan The space race between the United States and the Soviet Union was in full...
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Will the 1974 -75 sad Fort Lauderdale real estate story be repeated?
Downtown Fort Lauderdale 2025By Jane Feehan Fort Lauderdale has seen several building busts and booms since World War II. A review of 1974-75 news stories offers both similarities to and differences...
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Nightclub stories: Unsolved murders at Bocaccio's in Broward County
By Jane FeehanA popular club with live entertainment and flashy customers, Bocaccio’s was similar to many late-night venues in the Fort Lauderdale area during the 1970s.Bocaccio’s in Oakland Park was...
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