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A PUBLICATION OF THE BROWARD COUNTY HISTORICAL COMMISSION volume 29 • number 1 • 2009 Getting the Bugs Out: Fort Lauderdale before pest control Transcriptions of The Homeseeker Parkside: An early neighborhood in Hollywood worthy of historic designation West Side School: West Side Elementary School First Grade Class, 1923 86 Years of serving Broward County (Image courtesy of the Fort Lauderdale Historical Society) Curcie House, circa 1920s You Can Help Save History from the Dust Heap. Each day more of our local history is lost by the passage of time, the passing of early pioneers, and the loss of historic and archaeological sites throughout Broward County. But you can help. The Broward County Historical Commission has been working to preserve local history since 1972 with help from people like you. By donating old family photos and documents, volunteering at events, and providing donations to the Broward County Historical Commission Trust Fund, your efforts help preserve our history. Consider how you can help save our heritage and create a legacy for your community by contributing your time, historical items, or your generosity. What you do today maintains the dignity of history for the future. Call us at 954-357-5553. Monetary donations may be made to: Broward County Historical Commission Trust Fund 301 S.W. 13th Avenue Fort Lauderdale, Florida 33312 Detail of the West Side School. A PUBLICATION OF THE BROWARD COUNTY HISTORICAL COMMISSION A SERVICE OF THE BROWARD COUNTY BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS Bertha Henry County Administrator BROWARD COUNTY HISTORICAL volume 29 • number 1 • 2009 COMMISSIONERS Phyllis Loconto, Chair Hazel K. Armbrister, Vice Chair Thomas A. Hasis, Secretary FEATURES James Bradley John P. Barranco Getting the Bugs Out: Paul Callsen Fort Lauderdale before pest control Betty Whatley Cobb Ray Collier By Susan Gillis William G. Crawford, Jr. Maureen Dinnen Page 2 Wally Elfers Gypsy Graves Elsie Johns Bill Julian Transcriptions of The Homeseeker: Carl Lanke A monthly publication of the Model Land Company Dawn LaVoir Laura Prado Introduction by Patrick Scott Christopher Ryan Page 4 Marla Sherman Dumas Wendy Wangberg BROWARD HISTORICAL COMMISSION STAFF Ending the Hunt for “Pig” Brown: Dave Baber, Administrator Denyse Cunningham, Editor, Curator Solving the disappearance of John Joseph Brown Helen Landers, Broward County Historian Broward County’s first elected official Matthew DeFelice, County Archeologist Marcia Seldine, Administrative Coordinator by Christopher R. Eck Page 22 Parkside: An early neighborhood in Hollywood worthy of historic designation By Marla Sherman Dumas ON THE COVER: Page 28 West Side Elementary School near completion, 1923. (Image courtesy of the Fort Lauderdale Historical Society) West Side School: 86 Years of serving Broward County Copyright 2009, by the Broward County Historical By Helen Herriott Landers Commission. All rights reserved. No part of this Page 38 work may be reproduced or copied in any form or by any means, whether graphic, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or information and retrieval systems, without permission of the publisher. Harmon Field at West Side School: Broward Legacy is published semi-annually by the A forgotten legacy Broward County Historical Commission. Location and mailing address: By William G. Crawford, Jr. Broward County Historical Museum 301 S.W. 13th Avenue Page 42 Fort Lauderdale, FL 33312 Phone: 954-357-5553 • FAX: 954-357-5522 Annual subscriptions and back issues are available. Unless otherwise noted, photographs are from the Broward County Historical archives of the Historical Commission. Neither the Board of County Commissioners of Broward Commission Awarded Historic County, Florida, nor the Broward County Historical Commission is responsible for the statements, Preservation Challenge Grants conclusions or observations herein contained, such matters being the sole responsibility of the authors. By David Baber This public document was promulgated at a cost of Page 45 $702.00, or $3.510 per copy, to provide historical information to the public about Broward County. Getting the Bugs Out: Fort Lauderdale before pest control By Susan Gillis Oakland Park resident Susan Gillis is the author of five publications on local history: Fort Lauderdale in Vintage Postcards; a narrative history entitled Fort Lauderdale: The Venice of America; Broward County: The Photography of Gene Hyde; Boomtime Boca: Boca Raton in the 1920s; and Historic Photos of Fort Lauderdale. All are available at major book dealers and at the Fort Lauderdale History Center and Stranahan House. To order online, visit www.arcadiapublishing.com. o those full time residents who wonder “how people down here survived before air-conditioning,” in the Tsummer months, I say your misery is nothing to that suffered by our hardy settlers in the days before DDT. Insects were a constant threat to man and beast throughout the year, but never more so than when the “west wind blew in from the Everglades” as my grandmother would say, during the summer months. The Seminole Indians as well as the early white settlers, found various flying pests to be a continual threat to their crops, livestock, and themselves — malaria was potentially fatal, in the days before quinine. Horseflies were large and fierce, drawing blood from animals and humans alike. Early local pioneers often relied on canned milk and sea turtle eggs because of the difficulty of keeping livestock. When Davie pioneers Blanche and Hamilton Forman struggled to establish dairy farming in the area they faced formidable if small foes. The mosquitoes could be so numerous they were known to have killed unprotected animals left in the open.1 Advertisement from the Fort These intrepid pioneers were resourceful however; the Lauderdale Sentinel of 1913 ancient Tequesta knew to pick up and move camp to a (Broward County Historical site nearer the ocean breezes during an infestation. The Commission collection) Seminole and other early settlers used smoke from the campfire to fend off flying insects. Current South Florida residents can only imagine how the average lifespan might have been shortened by that practice. They also used mosquito netting or cheesecloth for bedding, in the days before window screens.2 Pioneers commonly carried a “smudge,” which was often palmetto roots set afire with 2 • Broward Legacy wet grass or wet moss added to create more smoke, and every home had a palm frond fan at the door that was used to disperse the flying insects lurking there. Indians and early white and black settlers wore long sleeves and dark clothing—even on the hottest day. The alternative to “broiling” was being eaten alive.3 The real dread of the pioneer era was a critter called a “no-see-um,” or sand fly. The pest was particularly tiny, particularly insidious, and particularly prevalent near the beach, where one might expect to find relief. Fort Lauderdale pioneer Joe Oliver recalled his own early method of integrated pest management: “Back in the early days and up to and including World War II, up past that time even, we had a thing here called a sand fly. My wife and I, when we were just a young married couple, lived out in a place called Victoria Park…We used to have to take drained out crank case oil and kerosene to paint the screen to keep the sand flies out. The sand flies would fly up against the screens and stick on that oil and then when they would get so thick we would have to take the screens down and wash them off and do the whole job all over again. How those Yankees stood those sand flies and mosquitoes, back in the early days, I’ll never know… I will say that was about the worst thing Fort Lauderdale ever had.4” Mercifully, times changed. In the 1930s, Dade and Broward County began an active campaign against the flying pests by digging a series of drainage ditches to drain local marshes where they bred. DDT, a highly effective broad spectrum Here workers dig “mosquito ditches” in the central part of Broward County—channels to drain pesticide developed during World the local marshes where these insects bred—in the mid 1950s. (Image courtesy Fort Lauderdale War II, was quickly adopted on the Historical Society, Gene Hyde Collection) home front after the war. Trucks and The vast amount of pavement that has University of Florida Press, 1966), 25. airplanes were dispatched to “fog” taken over much of Broward County Virginia S. Young, Mangrove Roots infested communities through South ensures that fewer and fewer flying of Fort Lauderdale (Fort Lauderdale, Florida from the late 1940s until the pests today have a breeding ground. 1976), 18; Wagner, History of Davie, 1960s. The treatment was immediate 46. 5 and long lasting. But the same factors 1 Charles Hofman, Letters From Linton 4 Joe Oliver, Oral History Interview that made DDT useful caused it to be (Delray Beach, 2004),69; Victoria OH95, Fort Lauderdale Historical banned from use in the U.S. by 1972 Wagner, The History of Davie and Society when it was shown to accumulate in Its Dilemma (Fort Lauderdale: Nova University, 1982), 27. 5 Dan Ray, “Getting the Bugs Out,” non-target species (all the way up and Mostly Sunny Days (Miami: Miami down the food chain) and have a long- 2 Patsy West, “ Reflections 181: Herald, 1986), 141-145. residual life.6 Other safer and more Mosquitoes,” TMs Seminole Miccosukee Photo Archives. 6 George W. Ware, Pesticides Theory modern pesticides have taken its place. and Application (New York: W.H. But the real answer to “getting the 3 August Burghard and Philip Weidling, Freeman and Company, 1983), 36-38. bugs out” is much simpler—concrete. Checkered Sunshine (Gainesville: Volume 29 • Number 1 • Broward Legacy • 3 Transcriptions of The Homeseeker: A monthly publication of the Model Land Company Introduction by Patrick Scott Mr.

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