Early Industry

Update EARLY INDUSTRY HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION OF SOUTHERN FLORIDA £.V£RGLADES NATF#WA6 W R K AUGUST 1976 r e f e r e n c e l i b r a r y . PAGE 2 UPDATE/AUGUST 1976 DIRECTOR’S DESK by Randy F. IMimnicht CONTENTS adequate room for the the County Manager’s re various institutions. Conse quest, a presentation was 2 Director’s Desk quently the past twenty made before the Commission Randy F. Nimnicht months found HASF anxious which resulted in endorse Join Us For Our November ly awaiting the County’s deci ment of the idea. I find it Harvest sion. Earlier this year the gratifying that an organization 3 Early Rock Houses Joseph H. Chaille County Manager, then Ray such as HASF, which is 4 The Industrial Reporter G oode, requested the primarily interested in the 5 Gifts of the Land Historical Association of past, was willing to make such Thelma Peters Southern Florida to consider a strong commitment to the 6 South Dade’s Last On June 15, the Dade the possibility of the move future hopes of this communi- Commercial Starch Mill Jean C. Taylor County Commission took ac down town. After in-depth ty. Will downtown be 8 Tannin for Tanners tion which will result in a new discussions the Board decid revitalized? Will mass transit 9 My Thirty-Six Years permanent home for the ed the move would be a fine be a reality? Our Board has With Burdines Historical Association of opportunity for HASF to ul enough confidence in the Nelle Coates Southern Florida in the plan timately serve more people future to vote “yes” for a 10 Reflections on Black History Dorothy Jenkins Fields ned downtown government because of the location of the location where we can serve 11 Castor Oil Helped to and cultural center. The new mass transit line and other the most people. Win the War main library, the Metropolitan cultural attractions in the History Is A Mystery Art Museum, and the downtown complex. The 12 History Is No Longer Historical Museum will make Board indicated to the Coun A Mystery up the cultural components of ty Manager several factors the complex. The Malt study that must be present if we (completed November 1974) were to provide a first class COVER: had recommended additional historical museum. These in space for HASF at our cluded a separate building, “Coomptie” root en route current locatbn in the Viz adequate space (31,000 sq. to processing plant in Ken caya complex but only after ft.), other cultural attractions dall, 1924. indicating there was not really and a revenue package. At JOIN US FOR OUR NOVEMBER HARVEST UPDATE JOIN US FOR OUR NOVEMBER HARVEST Florida, its people and its heritage. Health food and fresh produce UPDATE, Bi-Monthly Pub An old-fashioned country fair is be Libby Fullerton (444-5929) and reaped from the area’s farmland are lication of the Historical ing sponsored by the newly organiz Betty Tongay (445-7524), who are ed volunteers of the Historical included in Chairman Pat Molinari’s Association of Southern coordinating the exhibits committee, Association of Southern Florida. plans. Florida. will be happy to receive any recom The Harvest will be held at the mendations. Local historic and ser In telling the story of our communi 3280 South Miami Avenue, Dade County Youth Fairgrounds, vice groups are being invited to ty we wish to recreate yesterday to Building B, Miami, Florida Tamiami Park, on Saturday and Sun participate. give everyone an opportunity to return, at least for one weekend, to 33129. Phone: 854-3289. day, November 6 and 7. Contests will be about: essay, the grass roots, so as to enjoy the This event will be an expansion of oratory, multi-media, poetry and quilt simple entertainments of our past the Craft Show held at our Historical making, as well as pie, cake, and and to appreciate what we are today. UPDATE BOARD: Museum last January and will feature homemade preserve competitions. In authentic historic craft store for the children are games that Help us to enjoy the Harvest! Plan Leonard G. (Jerry) Pardue demonstrations ranging from Grandpa used to play, such as greas with us, volunteer your time, your ef Editor candlemaking to woodcarving. ed pole climbing, sack racing, and forts, your friends, your skills and Marlene Arel, tel. 448-0087, and your talents. Please call Pat Brandt, Mrs. Jack Skigen conch shell blowing. These are 271-5736 or Bixie Matheson, 665- Managing Editor Mary Pirie, 667-0755, are jointly samples of the fun Joan Thompson heading up the Crafts Committee to and Kathy Greenan are planning. 2128, or any of the other persons listed. (Pat and Bixie are Harvest Patsy West select the participants who will Music will include Bluegrass, Jazz, Staff Artist demonstrate and in some cases sell Calypso, Rock, Flamenco, all part of Committee Co-Chairmen). Sherrill their handmade crafts. South Florida’s past and present. Kellner is Treasurer and Nita Nor man is secretary of the Harvest Com Randy F. Nimnicht Numerous exhibits also are Silvia Morgan, music chairman, mittee. Irene Shiverick, 666-6982, is Dr. Thelma Peters planned: antique automobiles; the 665-8004, welcomes suggestions and Dr. Charlton Tebeau the Fair Coordinator for the restoration of a coomptie (arrow additional committee members. Editorial Consultants Historical Museum. root) mill by volunteer Elroy Food preparations include ribs, Hop onto the wagon and join the Samuel J. Boldrick Cormack’ private doll and shell roast pig, black beans and rice, fried Chairperson collections and many, many more chicken, conch salad and more hayride to our country fair so you can Publications committee exhibits which reflect Southern native fare to please every palate. be part of the Harvest in November. UPDATE/AUGUST 1976 PAGE 3 EARLY ROCK HOUSES by Joseph H. Chaille A home with rock walls was particularly appropriate to South Florida’s hot summer months in days before air con ditioning. A solid rock wall must be at least 12 inches thick, Mr. Savage says. Rock veneer over a wooden frame is about eight inches thick. Such a house with a properly constructed roof is practically hurricane proof, according to Mr. Savage. He says that buildings unroofed during hurricanes had roofs that had not been firmly fastened to the underlying structure. In any event, he says, most hurricane damage comes from water, not from wind. According to Dr. John Edward Hoffmeister, professor emeritus of the The Tee House Plantation, home of William B. Ogden was built in the early 1900s in Lemon City. William Savage and his son added the rock facade and trim to the house which was located on Ogden’s thirty-five acre Rosenstiel School of Marine tropical fruit plantation. The water in the foreground is Biscayne Bay. Today land fill has moved the bay and Atmospheric Sciences of eastward and the Tee House has been partially restored and serves as the City of Miami Adult Recreation the University of Miami, the Center at Legion Park. (Photo from The Lure of the Southland by C. H. Ward.) term “coral rock” applied to periodically in geologic time, William R. Savage of North sources no longer exist. The rock comprising the Atlantic these sand deposits became Miami was a stone mason bedrock is still there, of coastal ridge is a misnomer. In dry land. Rainwater trickling when he came to Miami in course, but lacks the irregular his book, Land from the Sea, down between the grains dis 1913 and recalls building four surfaces and weathered Dr. Hoffmeister points out solved some of the lime in the teen of those rock-walled appearance that made sur that there is indeed coral rock sand and the lime was then residences during the years face rock so attractive to the in some parts of Florida or off redeposited to bind the grains 1914 to 1925. Most of them eye. shore from Florida; that is, together into rock. have since been torn down to In the technique used by rock originally formed by the A close neighbor of the make way for apartment Mr. Savage, hand axes were organisms that create coral Museum of Science and the buildings or other commercial employed to smooth the sur reefs. The bedrock in the H istorical M useum of developments, he says. faces that had to fit together. Atlantic coastal ridge, a Southern Florida on South A mortar of one part cement narrow strip between the Miami Avenue is Vizcaya Mr. Savage attributes the to six parts sand, plus lime, Everglades and the sea run which is largely constructed decline in rock construction held the stones together. In ning north from Homestead, of oolite, says Dr. here to present-day costs of cases where a newly cut sur is oolite, and the surface rock Hoffmeister. rock construction and a scar used in the construction of face would be visible, Mr. A mark of affluence in early city of the surface rock that Savage devised a method of houses and fences came from Miami was a home built of was abundant in earlier days. coloring it with a mixture of outcroppings of the bedrock. native rock. Until the boom of Rock construction involves lamp black and cement to Oolite, says Dr. Hoffmeister, the early twenties, many of much labor in shaping the give the rock a weathered was originally formed under the better homes in South rock and in putting it in place, appearance. water from grains of sand Florida had exterior walls of and costs far exceed those deposited on the bottom. In solid rock or a veneer of rock such as cement block that More elaborate methods of one of the rises and falls of the outside a wooden frame.

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