A p u b l i c a tion of the B r o w a r d C o u n t y H i s t o r i c a l C o m m i s s i o n

volume 28 • number 1 • summer 2008

The Big Blow Broward County and the 1926 Hurricane The Original Palm Avenue Swing Bridge Book Review: Florida’s Big Dig 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 954-765-4671.

Monetary donations may be made to: Broward County Historical Commission Trust Fund 151 SW 2 Street Fort Lauderdale, Florida 33301

Christopher Eck Collection A publicati o n o f the B r o ward C o unt y H ist o rical C o mmissi o n

Board of County Commissioners Ilene Lieberman, Commissioner, District 1 Kristin D. Jacobs, volume 28 • number 1 • summer 2008 Commissioner, District 2 Stacy Ritter, Broward County Vice Mayor and Commissioner, District 3 features Ken Keechl, Commissioner, District 4 Lois Wexler, Broward County Mayor and The Big Blow Commissioner, District 5 Broward County and Sue Gunzburger, Commissioner, District 6 the 1926 Hurricane John E. Rodstrom, Jr., Commissioner, District 7 By Denyse Cunningham Diana Wasserman-Rubin, Page 2 Commissioner, District 8 Josephus Eggelletion, Jr., Broward County Commissioner, District 9 Spotlight: Bertha Henry, Interim County Administrator Historic 1916 Cottage Broward County Historical Commissioners Moves to City Park Phyllis Loconto, Chair By Diane Greer Smart Hazel K. Armbrister, Page 30 Vice Chair Thomas A. Hasis, Secretary The Original Palm James Bradley Betty Whatley Cobb Avenue Swing Bridge Ray Collier by Robert K. Hathaway William G. Crawford, Jr. Wally Elfers Page 33 Gypsy Graves Mona Habib Elsie Johns Sandy Johnson Book Review: Bill Julian Margaret McPherson Florida’s Big Dig Veronica Quiñones-Laughlin By William G. Crawford, Jr. Christopher Ryan Reviewed by Donald C. Gaby Dawn LaVoir Marla Sherman Dumas Page 41 Frank Fernandez Broward Historical Copyright 2008, by the Broward County Historical Commission. All rights reserved. No part of this work may Commission Staff be reproduced or copied in any form or by any means, whether graphic, electronic or mechanical, including Helen Landers, photocopying, recording, taping or information and retrieval systems, without permission of the publisher. Broward County Historian Broward Legacy is published semi-annually by the Broward County Historical Commission. Location and mailing address: Broward County Historical Museum Dave Baber, 151 S.W. 2nd Street, 2nd Floor Administrator Fort Lauderdale, FL 33301 Denyse Cunningham, Phone: 954-765-4670 • FAX: 954-765-4437 Editor, Curator Annual subscriptions and back issues are available. Marcia Seldine, Unless otherwise noted, photographs are from the archives of the Historical Commission. Administrative Coordinator 1 Neither the Board of County Commissioners of Broward County, Florida, nor the Broward County Historical Matthew DeFelice, Commission is responsible for the statements, conclusions or observations herein contained, such matters being County Archeologist the sole responsibility of the authors. This public document was promulgated at a cost of $2,369.00, or $2.369 per copy, to provide historical information to the public about Broward County. The Big Blow: Broward County and the 1926 Hurricane by Denyse Cunningham

n the night of September 17, 1926, a hurricane struck the southeast coast of OFlorida. Winds of 140 miles per hour hit Miami-Dade and South Broward. The storm started around midnight on Friday and raged and scourged the Florida East Coast for twelve hours.1 The U.S. Weather Bureau in Miami described the storm as probably the most destructive hurricane ever to hit the United States. Occurring many years before hurricanes were first formerly named, the storm was known to those who suffered through it as “The Hurricane” or “The Big Blow.”

 • Broward Legacy Wall Street looking west. Bryan Family Collection n Broward County alone the Laura Crawley, 42, was found Philemon Crory, buried in Dania Ideath toll reached at least 64; in Lake Mable; her home was in cemetery24 in the entire state the number Nashville, N. C. and she was visiting Phyllis Crory, buried in Dania was nearly 400. The local paper from Ocala10 cemetery25 reported that 15 died in Fort R. D. Crawley11 Jim J. Gordon, Hollywood, died in Lauderdale, 25 in Hollywood Alma Thompson, 23 and infant12 hospital of injuries26 and 9 in Dania, but the death toll Walter Martin, Fort Lauderdale13 Unknown woman, found in varies from source to source. 14 wreckage in Hollywood27 More than 800 others affected by Four African-Americans the storm were never accounted Others who lost their lives included: Grady Albert Rogers, 36, 28 for.2 The Chamber of Commerce Leroy Bishop, internal injuries15 Hollywood tried to assist friends and relatives The infant child of Ivan and D.A. J. Wunneberg, Biscayne Park, desperate to find their loved ones. Francis Montgomery Austin, (formerly of Burlington), Iowa, 29 Information requests appeared in Fort Lauderdale16 buried in Dania 30 the paper listing those missing. Frank Williams, 59, Fort Vick Driver The Fort Lauderdale Daily News Lauderdale, African-American17 James Terrell, 31, Hollywood31 on September 22, 1926, listed the J. B. Story18 George Frass, at Administration 32 following victims of the storm: Robert Nelson, African-American, Building in Hollywood Mrs. A. W. (Fern) Tillman, 34, of exposure19 Florence Goodrich, residence 3 Progresso Jack Merrel, 58, of Danville, Illinois20 unknown, at Administration Building in Hollywood33 Robert Tillman, 3, son of Peter and Mrs. Havelock (Edna Allen) 4 34 Fern, Progresso Churchill, Dania, body was found Mrs. Sarah Head Bertha Tillman, daughter of Peter in the wreckage21 L. W. Pool, at Administration 5 35 and Fern, Progresso Roy G. Coleman, 27, bookkeeper Building in Hollywood Martha Tillman, 10, daughter of for Sawyer Motor Company of Mrs. L. P. Pool, at Administration Peter and Fern, Progresso6 Hollywood, found in the wreckage Building in Hollywood36 P. E. Gamble, 317 of his home in the Little Ranches Mrs. Rhonda Louisa Priest, 55, James Terrell, Hollywood, 318 section22 at Administration Building in 37 Ralph McClure, 31, Fort Lauderdale9 Margorie Emma Crory, buried in Hollywood 23 Dania cemetery Volume 28 • Number 1 • Broward Legacy •  The Beach Road, now A1A, was washed away by the storm. Meeks Collection Peter Vighes, 2117 Polk 50, wore blue overalls, Andrew Hevelock, Dania53 Of the 64 individuals Street, at Administration killed in Sawyer Motor Henry Grady Luther, 34, listed only two were Building in Hollywood38 Company, body at Dania, buried Sunday54 registered to vote in 42 Grady Albert, 36, from Hollywood Mortuary Peter (or John N.) Broward County. Only Hollywood Mortuary39 Thomas M. McCarrell, Jr., McAllister, Dania, at one was listed in the 1926 Mrs. Yeager, Washington 22, Hollywood43 Administration Building55 Fort Lauderdale City Street, at Administration Gordon Brown, 35, Grant Directory and Broward Andrew McFarland, 64 40 County Gazetteer. This Building in Hollywood Street, at Hollywood Dania, at Hollywood 44 is not surprising given George W. Vinson, 30. Mr. Mortuary Mortuary56 the huge number of Vinson died at the local Mrs. Gordon Brown, Mrs. R. W. Moore, newcomers who moved hospital October 5, 1926 Dania, at Hollywood Dania57 45 to Broward County in from injuries received Mortuary 58 Moore infant, Dania the boom years of the during the storm. Vinson Murlean Brown, Dania, 4, Jenny Ferral, Dania60 early 1920s. The Fort had been in Florida only 10 at Hollywood Mortuary46 Mrs. H. J. Kimball, Lauderdale News of days, going to Hollywood 47 Annie Carley, Dania 61 September 17, 1926 in search of a home, when Hallandale Mrs. Cory, Dania at warned on the front page the hurricane struck the Infant Kimball, Hollywood Administration 62 that “Signals Warning of coast. Mrs. Vinson was still Hallandale Building48 Storm Given Between in the hospital suffering Earl Bateman of Davie Key West and Jupiter. from a fractured skull and Mrs. J. H. Craft, Dania, 49 was listed in the local Weather Bureau reports other injuries. Her mother at Hollywood Mortuary paper as “critical with ‘Very Severe Storm’ and sister were killed, all Nettie Hickman, Dania, fractured skull” but, of Hurricane Force being crushed beneath at Administration Building luckily for him, he appears Centering off Bahama the house.41 Netty Kielman, Dania50 in the 1930 Federal [sic] Islands; Coast May 51 Unidentified man, about Leon Helms, Dania Census with the rest of his Escape.” Most of the 63 Lorena Helms, Dania52 family in Davie. victims had not lived  • Broward Legacy through a storm of this type. They may not have prepared. Also, an earlier rather mild storm had occurred that summer, so many thought that was all the damage a hurricane could do. Many Homes and Las Olas Beach Devastated Fifteen thousand homes were damaged in the entire storm and 6,000 to 7,000 of these were totally destroyed.65 In a complete survey of storm damage made by the Red Cross to assist in administering aid relief, it was estimated that in Fort Lauderdale 868 homes Red Cross tents were set up to house the homeless. were entirely destroyed, 76 in Floranada (now Oakland Park) and 88 in Davie.66 Property loss was estimated to be from 8 to 10 million dollars in Fort Lauderdale. In Davie all the crops were destroyed and the citrus groves were badly damaged. The area was still under water from six to three feet deep as of September 28.67 The considerable damage many of the newer structures suffered was the result of the boom-time construction of flimsy buildings that were put up by people who knew nothing about hurricanes. Old-timers, who had lived through storms before, put up buildings that Fort Lauderdale City Hall at 301 North Andrews Avenue, now the site of Broward County Governmental Center. Bryan Family Collection would withstand the strong winds. One of the first things done to Americans could be treated. Mercie the Fort Lauderdale Daily News provide relief was the erection of L. Mims remembered working for reported on September 24, 1926: a tent city of hundreds of tents to the Red Cross in the relief efforts Work burying fish, which were house the destitute and homeless. giving shots and medicine to the washed ashore, and drowned One was set up for whites at injured. Typhoid vaccines were rabbits, rats and other small Stranahan Field and another for given out to all residents. She also animals, has been accomplished 70 African-Americans. The Florida remembered a tornado that went along the bathing beach… Miss East Coast Railroad furnished free straight down 5th Avenue and turned nd 68 Virginia West, 10 year old daughter transportation for the destitute. on 2 Street. of Frederic West, manager of The effect of the storm on the Fort Lauderdale Mayor Jack the Las Olas Inn, was especially African-American communities Tidball declared martial law and commended by members of the of Broward County is difficult to County judge Fred Shippy warned Red Cross corps for her untiring determine as the papers of the day he would deal summarily with assistance in burying these decayed did not always list news from those anyone found pilfering from open fish and animals and for assisting areas. Even the names of some of stores or dwellings.69 Prisoners in removing broken bottles from the victims were left out. A tent were used to help in the clean up the beach. th was set up by the Red Cross on 5 and rebuilding efforts. By September 30, 1926, bathers Avenue in the northwest section The Las Olas beach area suffered were allowed back to the beach, of Fort Lauderdale where African- much damage during the storm as only if wearing a suit.71 Volume 28 • Number 1 • Broward Legacy •  Letters Recall Horrors of Storm Muriel H. Bair (1896-1989) wrote a letter describing her experiences during and after the 1926 hurricane. Mrs. Bair’s husband, Russell O. Bair (1897-1973), was a teacher at Central High School in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. They lived at 736 North West 3rd Avenue in 1926. They survived the storm with their infant son Lowell Bair (1925-present). Mrs. Bair gave birth to a daughter, Twyla Mary Bair, shortly after the storm on December 14, 1926. A transcript of this letter was provided to the Broward County Historical Commission by her step great-granddaughter, Christine Lee.

Fort Lauderdale, Florida Sept 21, 1926 Dear Folks: You are indeed lucky to receive this letter as you will see later when I have tried to tell you all that has happened. When we got our paper Friday afternoon we had just washed all our dishes and cooking utensils, cleaned the bedroom and just got things so we could begin to feel at home. The paper stated there would be a tornado strike Fort Lauderdale between 6:00 pm and midnight. We expected some hard wind of course but never dreamed of what we got. About nine the wind began to come so we didn’t go to bed tho we both pretended it was just because we were not sleepy. By one o’clock there was about a foot of water all around the house and it was shaking so Russell said, “Well we had just as well quit pretending and talk about what we are going to do.” So, we dressed and put on coats and I fed Lowell. We were in the living room about that time and the house fell over off the foundation and our big tall bookcase fell over on Lowell and me, but Russell grabbed it and Muriel Bair, 1981 held it until we got out. We were not hurt except just shaken up. We got Lowell wrapped in two blankets and I had one around me and we started for the garage but when we looked for the garage it was a pile of splinters. So Russell began piling the trunk and suit cases on the bed as the water was rushing into the house. We waited and worked in agony until 5:00 in the morning. The house began to crack and we started for the east door. (That was the direction the storm was from) Before we got there the whole top part of the house blew away with a mighty crash. We made it to the door and the wind was so strong it pinned us against the side of the door and we couldn’t move for some time. Russell had Lowell in one arm and me in the other. A big 2 x 4 came whirling at us and hit Lowell on the ankle and he began to scream. By Russell’s being so strong we managed to slide down The north-east view of the Methodist Episcopal Church South in Fort Lauderdale on South Andrews flat on the porch floor (that was and SE 6th St. People went there for shelter and some were killed during the storm. Marshall-Anglin Collection about all we had left). Lowell cried  • Broward Legacy for a long time and there was a knot as big as a hen egg on his ankle and an open gash that was bleeding. Then he hushed crying and shut his eyes real tight. There we lay flat in about an inch of water.We kept Lowell between us to keep him as warm as we could, but we were just freezing and shaking to death. I’ll never forget Lowell’s pale little face and black lips as long as I live. There we lay in a 150 mile wind and a cold beating rain with one blanket over the three of us and the mighty roar of the wind, big tall trees snapping and crashing on all sides, timbers and everything flying in the air and we could see all the houses blowing away one by one. The whole roof of a house went right over us. You can’t even imagine the horror of it. It seemed we had been there for years when the water was getting so high there was danger of drowning. The wind seemed to slow down so we just had to do something. Russell took Lowell to a house we could see a short way off which was off the foundation but still standing and part of the roof was off. A woman and her two sons (young men) had just gotten there also. Russell gave Lowell to the woman and The Methodist Episcopal Church located at U.S. 1 & Van Buren in Hollywood. The picture on the top came back for me. We waded water was taken in 1925. After the storm the congregation rebuilt incorporating the damaged structure into almost waist deep in a crushing the new church. Graham Collection wind, pushed our way through floating trash, wires, etc. and got here finally. When Lowell saw me he began to cry a little – the first since he got hurt and we discovered his hurt was just a bruise and flesh wound. (It is getting along fine.) Russell looked at his watch and it was about 20 minutes till 11, Saturday morning. We had been out in that storm almost 5 hours. The water was 6 or 8 inches deep in the house and I sat with my feet up in a chair and Lowell in my lap. The storm raged all day. About 4 o’clock Russell ventured out and God was good enough to let him find one of The Methodist Episcopal Church South Fort Lauderdale, South Andrews and 6th Street. Charlie Flinn Collection Volume 28 • Number 1 • Broward Legacy •  Lowell’s bottles and his milk. So Lowell had something to eat. About dark the water began to rise so Russell went to investigate a house he saw standing over a block away. It was a right new house and two- story so he carried me all the way to the house and went back and got Lowell. About 30 of us slept on the floors that night. The next day we were fishing around in the water in the wreck that had once been our home to see what we could fish out and the Scotts came over and said they had found a place for us all to The devastation of the Hallandale Garage stay. Claude’s and Mary’s house was a low stucco so was only damaged some and they are not here so we have all been staying in their house. I had two dresses and a night gown which I used for underwear so Dr. Robinson’s wife gave me a suit of underwear, a slip & 3 house dresses so I am all O.K. and we have found several of Lowell’s & Russell’s clothes and I have been washing them out. We have been able to get enough to eat and relief trains are coming in every day so I guess we are all fine. We don’t know what to do yet but Russell’s job is here. As soon as The Red Cross set up tents for those displaced by the storm. they can clear a place at the school house, school will begin and then we will have money enough. So, you see we have things yet to be thankful for. All we prayed for was that our lives would be spared and God heard and answered our prayers and has blessed us besides. No one who has never had the experience can half imagine the long hours of horror and agony we have been thru. Lowell’s ankle is doing fine but he is some upset in his stomach & bowels which is caused from not having his proper feed. All Russell & I had Saturday was two dishes of oatmeal and two cups of Many power lines went down in the storm. Barwick Collection coffee but since then we have had plenty such as it is. We feel that God alone has been with us and saved us thru the storm and that he will not forsake us now. It seems a miracle  • Broward Legacy The Tangerine Tearoom in its heyday (top) and the remains of the Tangerine Tea Room on the beach in Hollywood after the storm.

Volume 28 • Number 1 • Broward Legacy •  Many local grocery stores were damaged by the storm. Canned goods were some of the few things to survive. Labels were stripped from the cans and meals were often a surprise. that in my condition I stood it so well and am feeling reasonably well. I surely have a strong constitution. Russell is alright except his feet and legs are scratched and cut up pretty bad and being in that filthy water so long they are kind of poisoned but we have a bottle of iodine so I don’t believe they will give serious trouble. None of us have a hat to our name, so we are a little sunburned but we will get over that alright. Now, I believe I have told you all, the main points and kept nothing from you so don’t worry. The whole town is certainly a pitiful, desolate looking place but we are under martial law and they are clearing streets etc. as quickly as possible. Everybody they see on the street that can’t tell their business there, they are drafted into work. No one is allowed out after night after 10:30 without a permit or they are arrested immediately. I imagine we will be able to fish out several of our things and be able to use them but of course our loss is awful to us and our house is just a hopeless wreck. Russell has the car out and got it so it will run but not very good and it is sure a pitiful looking sight but we are thankful to have it anyway. I don’t know Willie’s and Violet’s addresses so you can send this on to them when you have read it so they will know we are alright. Several people were killed and lots & lots injured but there are so many tales, I don’t think anyone knows for sure how many. We will write more when we can. We are awfully busy now trying to do something with nothing.

Worlds of love from us all. Muriel, Russell & Lowell. 10 • Broward Legacy The letter below was included in the “Minutes of a Regular Meeting of the Supervisors of the Napoleon B. Broward Drainage District” held in the Office of the District in the Maxwell Building, October 6TH, 1926, at 2 O’clock P.M. It is reproduced here complete with punctuation, spelling and typographical errors as shown in the original document. The original document is kept in the archives of Central Broward Water Control District, 8020 Stirling Road, Hollywood, FL 33024. Telephone: 954-432-5110. www.centralbrowardwcd.org. Ford Garage in Fort Lauderdale “STATE OF FLORIDA Tallahassee October 1, 1926 “Mr. James S. Rickards, Secretary N.P. Broward Drainage District Fort Lauderdale, Florida

Dear Sir: “Your favor of the 29th of September advising that you were sending to me thirty (30) $1000 Napoleon B. Broward Drainage District Bonds, Nos. 401-430 inclusive, to be signed by me and placed with the State Treasurer. I will do as you have requested and await your further instructions in Progresso after the 1926 hurricane. Mrs. Clyde Brown Collection the matter. “I note there is a great deal of dissatisfaction, criticism and condemnation as to drainage operation in the Everglades. It has been my observation since I became identified with this work that the newspapers and others in that section of the State have never let an opportunity go by to criticize and knock the work that has been done. This agitation is likely to cause a move to change the personnel of the Drainage Board. This continued knocking and agitation will make it impossible for the Drainage Board to finance this district and carry on this work. “You can readily appreciate that there is not a member of the present Drainage Board who would not like to get from under this responsibility and let others carry it. It has been a night-mare for years. The Everglades District is the back country and the natural support of all the contiguous towns and cities. There is no reason in the world why this drainage project should be a failure. If we should have the minimum rain fall that we had down there from 1912 and 1922 there would not be sufficient water to make farming in the glades possible. Volume 28 • Number 1 • Broward Legacy • 11 “The Drainage Board has had to see the project as a whole. They have not been able to discriminate in favor of one locality as against another. The lake section wants to have the water turned out of the Lake regardless of whether it drowns those in the lower Glades or not. The North side of the Lake objects to the levees along the South rim of the Lake but to remove these levees would spread the entire Kissimmee River Valley waters over all the Glades and would prevent the utilization or drainage of these lands until these waters could be The U.S. Coast Guard base was blown across the Sound. Charlie Flinn Collection. carried off. “It has been the policy of the Board during excessive rains to undertake to hold the surplus water in the Lake until the canals have taken the water off of the land and then turn the water out of the Lake through the canals as the canals are able to take care of it without overflowing the land. “I am writing you this for the purpose of calling the attention of those who are vitally interested in drainage work to get thinking heads together and if the personnel of the Drainage Board is to be changed and this work to be carried on under some different system then it is to the interests of the entire contiguous territory and all owners of lands in the Glades to frame and propose a bill which will function fairly and equitably and which will insure the finances necessary to carry on this work. Hasty and ill advised action might set this matter back for years and put the same in a condition where recovery might be almost House on Las Olas Beach. Charlie Flinn Collection. impossible. “If nothing unforeseen happens, the St. Lucie canal will be 100 per cent complete in another week or two. I am thoroughly satisfied that when this canal is functioning to its full capacity the greatest problem of drainage will have been solved. The St. Lucie canal would have been completed long before this but for the flood of 1924, when thousands of yards of earth were washed into this canal and had to be pumped out. The flood of 1924 broke the banks of this canal in numerous places, cutting great gullies and carrying all the earth into the canals. “Everyone should appreciate the fact that when 10 inches of rain falls over that entire territory within a period of a week the entire country will be flooded temporarily and all the surplus water has to drift out. That entire country should appreciate that if Lake Okeechobee were lowered to a minimum or as low as it has been in times passed, there would be 12 • Broward Legacy Mother and Child survey the damage. Charlie Flinn Collection. no moisture in the Glades and navigation up to the canals would be practically impossible, and navigation over the Lake greatly curtailed. This matter should be considered by level headed people down there and if a change is made let same be made along consistent and conservative lines. So many folks seem to lose sight of the fact that the Board has no control over winds and rains. “I want to express to you and 300 North Andrews Avenue, Broward Develpoment Company. Charlie Flinn Collection. to all the people down there my sorrow and regret at this storm calamity. It is something that no one could have foreseen or anticipated. I believe that it was the worst storm that has every struck any portion of the United States unless it was equaled by the Galveston storm where 5,000 or more were destroyed. I have no financial interest in any section or part of the Everglades. I have become vitally interested in the success of this drainage operation. I sincerely hope this storm and these floods will not cause folks down there to lose their sense of proportion and cause hasty action which might be regretted. I think the people of that part of the State have the right more than any other section of the State to say what shall be done in this matter. I am for anything that will procure the carrying on and success of the drainage of the Everglades. “With best wishes for all in that section, Very truly yours, J. B. Johnson Attorney General” Volume 28 • Number 1 • Broward Legacy • 13 Andrew Percy Hansen (1880-1962) was a longtime Fort Lauderdale resident and prominent real estate broker. He and his wife Minerva lived at 716 SE Seventh Street in 1926. Mr. Hansen was the president of the Fort Lauderdale Board of Realtors and a member of the Knights of Columbus and St. Anthony’s Church. He was born in Iowa. This letter was published in the Daily Telegram of Eau Claire, Wisconsin on October 1, 1926. A. P. Hansen wrote this letter to his brothers, William D. Hansen and Fred Hansen giving considerable detail of the great devastation wrought by the hurricane.

Fort Lauderdale, Florida Saturday, Sept. 25, 1926

My Dear Fred, Wm, and All:-- Here it is Saturday, a week ago tonight we got back home to our cottage, and a week ago last night that awful storm began. One just can’t realize time has gone so fast with even the long hours which we have had to put in. Last night was the first night I have had my clothes off for two nights. None of us had a wink of sleep. While we have lots to do in rehabilitating ourselves into living conditions again, we couldn’t Ruins of the Gallagher House, Charlie Flinn Collection. help to be of service to the many surrounding us who were left in destitute circumstances with everything gone, their home and all their belongings – they only saved what they had on. Feel They are Fortunate As each day goes on we realize more that we were indeed fortunate in many ways coming out of this hurricane as we did. Our lives were spared and no one injured by the storm. However, we have had a few accidents or injury to ourselves in working around the water and debris, but the Red Cross has been good to dress up our wounds. 72 Ruins of Progresso, Charlie Flinn Collection “Minn” is holding up fine. It’s a marvel how she has kept up. Through the terror of the storm which cannot be described, and the endless amount of work in trying to clean up and dry out the salvage we had left, I still cannot sleep nights, as the roaring of that awful wind as it hit our place comes to my ear and conscience, and we haven’t overcome the fear, as every time it clouds up and the least shower and rain comes we are sensitive to its appearance. 14 • Broward Legacy There has not been much sunshine all the week and it’s overcast most of the time with showers which keeps doing more damage to all the places without a roof and prevents the purification which the Florida sun is endowed with. But today it’s clearing up and let’s hope we are in for a spell of sunshine to help clear conditions for health. The water has receded around our place and is drying up, but in the lower places where the filthy water stands, the stench is something awful. Find Baby Alive But Parents Dead A few dead bodies were still taken out yesterday from under wrecked homes. One place they found the bodies of a father and The washroom sink remained after the storm at the Lamar filling station, Dania Beach. mother, and a small child was alive Floyd Plyes Collection sucking a rag. The cries of the child brought the attention of the relief workers who were looking over the wreckage. Every speck of our belongings was soaked, including all our stuff in storage. This hurricane brought with it a continual sheet of rain that seemed to go right through the wood of the house as well as everything in boxes and in dressers and drawers and it’s hard to get the furniture put back into place again, it’s so badly warped and the water took out the glue that so much of it is apart. Any place where there was veneering is all curled up and almost impossible to repair. Our office furniture and the things in the front two rooms of our house came out in pretty good A scene along Dixie Highway in Hollywood. Photo by Higby shape, that is, it was not so badly soaked with water; the rain and water did more damage than perhaps the storm as much of the lumber and building materials can be salvaged. All our clothes, furnishings and the girls’ outfits are mostly ruined.73 Every kind of color went through the rest of it. We unpacked all this as it was already mildewed, but in trying to wash and rinse this colored stuff out it was nil; but to save it was to get it rinsed out and many times the line would break as it was so heavy, and into the water or lake below it would go. Then showers would come every few hours and the things had to be taken in and out so many times before we could get the things dry. Our house was so wet things would not dry inside so had to depend on the outside air, even if it did not shine, the breeze would dry the things.

Volume 28 • Number 1 • Broward Legacy • 15 A Sorry Sight It’s a sorry sight to see the large warehouses of furniture packed several stories high with fine furniture, without any roofs and in most cases these warehouses have no walls left just a mass standing in the center. Garages packed two and three stories high with cars standing in the same way – no roof and walls with cars hanging over the edge and a mass in the center. Wholesale grocery, fruit, and provisions are the same. Badly twisted But when we look around in our section, Progresso, our place looks pretty good; although it’s badly twisted and the different sections are apart, it can be repaired.74 The floors and ceilings are buckled up, and the floors up and down as something got under each section which holds up the end. We were moved between three to four feet north, when the hurricane changed to the south toward the end about 4 o’clock Saturday afternoon. If it hadn’t been for this sudden change to the south, I think our place would have stood up on the foundation. We have to get the house moved over on our line and up again, as the slime and stench View from automobile looking towards Hollywood Hills. Cox Collection comes up between the sections that is apart. Also it will dry up and get circulation underneath. Have tried to raise it with some of the neighbors, but can’t do anything, but will get one of the raising and moving crews to come next week. Except we will have to take our turn. The Dixie Highway which runs in front of us and which is the so-called main street of Florida, was cleared up for traffic. It was completely covered with wreckage of every kind, twisted up with all the electric wires and poles which all went down, but they are doing great work in restoring this, and we may have light within 30 days. The entire city has to be restrung and poles set up again. Ice is being shipped in from Palm Beach, Jacksonville, and Orlando; also water. We have had our first “shot” of anti-typhoid serum. All except Jack who was called back to the Western Union.75 Free Transportation For Women and Children Hollywood is giving free transportation to all women and children to any point in the U.S. Men are required to stay. Fire trucks from nearly all the northern cities along the coast are coming daily. They are burning up all the rubbish and wreckage that cannot be salvaged. One state and the cities are spreading disinfectants of every kind everywhere to prevent any epidemic of disease; there are so many animals, cows, horses, dogs and poultry killed lying around in the wreckage that it is a job to get this cleared up. The militia is here now helping, and wonderful progress is being made to clear this up. Already the city is rebuilding and the sound of hammers is everywhere, like a city of beehives. Outside relief is coming in slow. Northern Florida cities have done wonderfully in sending down trucks of food stuffs and clothing. We are among only a few in Progresso that can’t come in on any charity here. It’s hard to ask even though we 16 • Broward Legacy need it as much as anyone, our situation and appearance doesn’t warrant them giving to us when so many have nothing and with rations not too plentiful. At first they gave the sufferers milk, butter, eggs and even meat, until this supply has run low and this has to be paid for by most everyone now. The Highway is just jammed with trucks bringing in roofing, paper, which can be here in a few days so that the buildings now standing can be put under a roof to prevent further damage, and so folks can get under cover. I have much property which I have had in charge for rentals, some of which are standing and the owners most of which are north. I have a desk full of wires to look after these houses and business places, also to arrange for the rebuilding of the places which are down; each day the work and responsibility of this piles up, scarcely know where to begin. Have to make calls to see how the tenants who are still able to have a place to stay in and see what can be done with their houses, and to get roofing over their heads. Every able bodied man has been called to the city headquarters to help. Many Leave State So many left at first who had been wiped out but had their cars and started out before any signs of rebuilding was in sight, and many of course that did not have courage to stay. Now labor is getting scarce, the slogan is now Hollywood Beach Hotel before (top) and after the 1926 storm to get rehabilitated and rebuilt by Christmas for the winter tourists. From the looks of the city already at this first week-end, and if this keeps up with increase of workers, by New Year’s our Lauderdale and other Lower East Coast cities won’t look as though a hurricane had ever struck the place, only for shrubbery, trees, etc. This hurts me very much to see so much of this destroyed. We had our place looking fine surrounding the cottage and the office and also in the back, but we will have to keep up courage and start over again. One thing, every kind of shrub grows well and hardy. It’s true a city and its citizens must have a lot of courage to rebuild and if you could see the wreckage one would at first wonder how it can be done. But history tells us as far back as records go, that stricken cities and communities have in most cases come back. Lauderdale is now working with Hollywood and Miami to have the financial aid that is

Volume 28 • Number 1 • Broward Legacy • 17 coming in, transferred into loans, extending over a period of years, in place of accepting all as charity. A banner was posted downtown today which read, “Many men are hitting the trails, but men worth while are hitting the nails.” Get Wire from The Culvers We received a wire from the Culvers telling us they were safe and wanting to know how we were.76 We had not time to write, so on Monday sent you a card. Mail was the only service out at the time as the wires were down. Every minute counted when we had daylight, and as darkness came with only two small lamps, we were kept busy getting our place in some order inside. We had to sleep on Destroyed apartment on beach. Charlie Flinn Collection. the springs without any pillows as the mattresses and pillows and blankets were soaking wet and slow to dry out, but we didn’t mind that as long as were under a cover. Your wire was a day late in reaching us, as it was addressed to our P.O. Box. Had it been addressed to care of N.H.P. Realty Co., No. Dixie, the telegraph office would have delivered it here as we have messenger service to our office. They now have five wires going; three north and two south, but with 1200 to 2000 messages coming in daily a great portion of these had to be delivered by motorcycle to Palm Beach as most of these had to be answered. Air mail is now working good. I have had a good deal of my business correspondence come in from owners in the north, regarding their property, come by air mail. The new St. Anthony’s school came out without a scratch and the church only a little damage: the tiling near the edge of the roof was blown off. It is remarkable how a great number of the fine stucco houses that were closer to the beach in the fine residential sections came through without much damage. The city schools were damaged quite a good deal, but present plans are for the opening of schools next week Monday. They may use some other buildings, as I don’t see how they can have the big high school repaired completely by that time, as that is damaged the most. The trend you get from the discussions you hear from the men of affairs here is to go ahead in a better and bigger way than before and if the arrangements and progress continue as has been done this week, indications surely point strongly that way, they surely have a big way of doing things here. It’s a big loss folks are taking here. When you think of it less than 5 per cent of the loss is covered by storm insurance. God only Controls Well folks, I must sign off and can say we are thankful and happy we came out of all this as well as we did, and I hope we can keep well, so that we can hold the fort and carry on the duties that are before us. It’s not the time to give up the ship and as long as we can keep up courage, there no doubt will be some way of working out of this, and we may not ever have a storm like this again, but these are elements which God only controls, and 18 • Broward Legacy this may have been sent to Florida for some good reason. Let’s all hope Broward Electrical Company, 149 N. Brickell Avenue, Fort Lauderdale. Charlie Flinn Collection. we may take a lesson from it. One thing sure, we may lose material things here but Florida is surely blessed with climate and sunshine most all the time. As there is no electricity we have no daily papers in Lauderdale; was told today they would get some sort of edition out on hand (press) this week. As everything here is dependent on electricity, there is no provision made for any other kind of power. No steam plants here and very rare in other places, and gasoline about the only thing that is used for is motor cars – trucks, etc. No stationary gasoline engines as we see so much of in the north. But as soon as a paper is out we will send West end of an apartment house. Charlie Flinn Collection. you a copy. Miami began sending their papers here yesterday. With best love and wishes to you all.

Sincerely, Percy (A.P. Hansen)

Volume 28 • Number 1 • Broward Legacy • 19 The American Legion, Salvation Army, Odd Fellows, churches and other groups participated in relief work. On October 3, 1926 the Fort Lauderdale Daily News reported the following: MASONIC TEMPLE WAS CENTER OF RELIEF DURING STORM HUNDREDS FED, WOUNDED ARE CARED FOR DAILY BY VOLUNTEER WORKERS by August Burghard The hub – the center of all relief and first aid activities in Fort Lauderdale during the period immediately following the hurricane of September 18 and up to the present time has been the Masonic Temple in Fort Lauderdale. There refugees were brought by the hundreds. More than 1,000 were given first aid the first day of the storm. Volunteer cooks fed to these people 1,000 gallons of soup and 15,000 gallons of coffee within 24 hours after the worst of the storm was over. Besides the temporary hospital which was opened in the south wing of the building, the food dispensaries, the temporary barracks, and the first aid stations – the Temple was also used as a milk depot, as a place for giving out relief for the St. Anthony’s Catholic Church and the Park Street Temple church, as a point for reuniting lost families and as a general storehouse for foods and supplies to be divided among both white and negro people. The Masonic Temple Dining Room, which occupies the first floor and is privately managed by Mrs. Lillian B. Griffioen, presented a mad scene by 10 o’clock Saturday The MasonicTemple was located on the corner of S.E. 1st Avenue and S.E. 1st Street. morning of the storm. Several hundred refugees had already found their way to the Temple, or had been brought in by relief workers. The first first aid was given to a woman who had been brought in with a broken back and a broken blood vessel by E. “Dutch” Anderson. Anderson, a member of the Fort Lauderdale Fire Department, who had had four years experience in the medical corps of the Navy, gave first aid to dozens of cases during the entire time of the emergency period. Mrs. Griffioen turned her entire facilities over to the workers. Her living quarters on the south side of the first floor were crowded with injured and several who had died. Linen napkins from the dining room were used as bandages and the greater part of her dry clothes were given to those who had escaped the storm only with their lives. Mark Hannah, bookkeeper for the dining room, took full charge of the work in the front part of the Temple, assisted by his partner in the automobile repair business, Elmer Kellar. 20 • Broward Legacy W.J. Feldman, owner of the M and W Café (blown down in the storm) took charge of the kitchen. He was assisted by W.P. Howard and J. Fisher. On the Saturday of the storm this group of men cooked and fed to storm victims 1,000 gallons of soup and 15,000 gallons of coffee. Incredible as it may seem, the work was done on small oil stoves. Coffee and soup, the only food and drink available in the city, were prepared in new garbage cans which had been procured from a hardware store. Ruins of the Lauderdale Beach Hotel This group of men worked from Friday until Monday night without even attempting to get any sleep. By Monday the second floor of the Masonic Temple was so crowded with sleeping people that one could not find a place to put a foot down. They crawled under benches for two hours sleep and were back at work. Feldman and Howard were on the Florida East Coast train which picked up refugees at Avenue E in Progresso during the storm Saturday morning. This group of a hundred or more victims was also brought to the Temple. Most pitiful of all the cases brought in, according to Mr. Feldman and Mrs. Griffioen Friday morning, were Mr. and Mrs. Davis, of North “Sand Finished” Automobile. Cox Collection Lauderdale. Mrs. Davis’ back was broken and she was floating with only her face showing above water. Her husband had both legs crushed and was lying at the other end of the partly submerged house, unable to give his wife any aid. Both are now at a Miami hospital and are said to be recovering nicely. The Tillman family, Mrs. Tillman and two small daughters, who were killed, and another child badly hurt, were first brought to the Temple. According to Mr. Feldman the conductor and crew of the Florida East Coast rescue train are deserving of much credit for the manner in which they rescued and cared for the victims in North Lauderdale. The baggage car was thrown open for the dead and injured. Coffee and cocoa were prepared for the women and children. As this party left the Temple wind was still blowing so hard that shirts were literally torn from the backs of several of the workers.

Hollywood Hills. Cox Collection

Volume 28 • Number 1 • Broward Legacy • 21 Not much left of this house except the ice box. Mrs. Byrtene Anderson, of the State Board of Health with headquarters in Jacksonville, arrived in Fort Lauderdale the Sunday following the storm and assumed charge of all nursing service and nursing personnel, establishing her headquarters at the Temple. On the first day she estimated that more than 1,000 cases of first aid were handled. Records, kept from Tuesday, 21, to date, show an additional 882 first aid cases. Doctors Stranahan, Skiff, Robinson, Maxwell, Peavy, in fact most of the physicians of the city were prominent in the work at the Temple headquarters. Dr. Sanford, who lives next door, was the first to turn the H. A. Hoxie’s Home on beach, Mr. Hoxie was a “Copeland” dealer. Temple into a temporary hospital. Floyd Pyles Collection The exact number of people fed will never be known. More than three tons of foodstuffs were used. Special tables were kept for the soldiers and guardsmen after they assumed charge of the city. Twenty-four hour service has been maintained daily since the storm. A crew of from eight to 10 potato peelers alone were kept busy continuously. By noon Monday it was said that Messers Hannah, Kellar, Howard, Fisher, Dutch Yeoman and several other volunteer workers were every one practically on the verge of nervous breakdown. Some organization had been perfected by dusk, however, and these men carried bravely on. On Wednesday after the storm refugees still were being brought in from the ‘Glades and the numbers of those to be fed increased rather than diminished. Cooks, servers and those trying to keep the refugees in 22 • Broward Legacy The Las Olas Inn was on the beach and suffered greatly. The 30-year old grove of coconut palm trees at the Las Olas Inn, which made the historic inn one of the most picturesque spots in Broward County, was blown down and uprooted. Australian pines in the back of the inn were also destroyed. Waves swept through the lower part of the inn building destroying practically everything on that floor. A four-inch deposit of sand was left on the upper floor. Small fish were swept through the lobby and out the rear. Floyd Pyles Collection line worked frantically. Meals started at 5 o’clock and were served as fast as humanly possible until after 9. Special mention for work at the Temple was also made of Mrs. Elsie B. Shippey and her daughter, Betty Shippey, and Mrs. Peters and her son. The Peters, mother and son, had been employed at the Dutch Kitchen at the Broward. The Masonic Temple was designed and built by George Young, local contractor. It withstood the storm as well or better than a ny of the larger buildings in the city. Prior to the storm Mrs. Griffioen had served the weekly luncheons to all of the civic clubs of the city. It has been two weeks since the storm struck and her Las Olas Boulevard looking west toward the Sweet Building and Brow ard place of business is still being used to feed and house Hotel. Sam and Art Graham Collection refugees. Most of the napkins and table cloths were used; the furniture, tables and chairs are scarred and broken and the walls and fixtures and floors have suffered considerable damage from the thousands who have eaten, slept and been given medical attention since the storm. However, Mrs. Griffioen stated Friday that immediately the city turns the place back over to her that she will be ready to again serve her former patrons. Food and assistance was sent to the workers at the Temple by the city government, the Red Cross and by the American Legion.

Volume 28 • Number 1 • Broward Legacy • 23 This first-hand account of the 1926 hurricane was written by Nellie Blanche Gallagher (1888-1968). Her family lived at 615 NE 3rd Avenue, Fort Lauderdale, Florida in 1933. Oral N. Gallagher (1887-1945) was Nellie’s husband. According to the voter registration cards in the collections of the Broward County Historical Commission he was a clerk from Missouri. Nellie’s mother was Martha Buck (ca. 1860-1934); according to the Federal Census she was living with the Gallaghers in 1930. Nellie’s children included daughters Genieve (ca. 1912 - 1983), also called “Genis,” Paula (1914-1989 and Gertrude Charlie Gallagher (1917- present). On Friday evening the 17 of September 1926 we drove out to the beach about 7:30. The wind was strong enough then that it ripped the top of our car but the ocean was not nearly as angry as it had been in July so we went home and went to bed feeling assured the storm wouldn’t be bad. O.N. and I slept on the porch but the wind blew so hard our rest was quite broken. At 2 a.m. I got up and went in to lay down The Gallaghers sought shelter in the Pioneer Department Store (on right). The unfinished Wil-Mar Hotel, with Mother. At 3 a.m. later known as the Governor’s Club, was across the street from the store. This is a view of Las Olas and some branches were Boulevard looking east from the top of the Sweet Building. Mrs. Clyde Brown Collection down by this time. I called O.N. He moved the bed in the house. The sheets were dripping wet. We put dry sheets on and went back to bed. At 4 a.m. we got up and dressed. We just walked the floor from one room to the other trying to see out. It was as dark as Egypt and the air so full of water we couldn’t see a thing. Between 5 a.m. and 6 a.m. the house started leaking. Then we moved from place to place trying to keep dry. O.N. was standing by the east windows in the back bedroom when they blew out. At the same time the door blew shut and it took both Mother and Genis to get it open to get in to help him. He took the mattress off the bed and nailed it over the holes. This is one thing that kept our house from blowing to pieces. Two big trees fell on the roof but there was such a noise anyway that we didn’t realize what it was for hours. Such a roar it would be impossible to describe. The Maxwell Arcade and what is left of the $80,000.00 electric sign. The But if you can imagine the wind blowing off the ocean sign was the biggest electrical sign on Florida’s East Coast. This view is looking south from the Andrews Avenue Bridge. Mrs. Clyde Brown at the rate of 130 miles an hour and bringing with it Collection the ocean water, possibly you can feature what it was like. Fortunately, the air was so filled with salt water we couldn’t see across the street at anytime till about noon. 24 • Broward Legacy Gallagher House after the storm. Charlie Flinn Collection. It must have been about 10 o’clock when we caught water that ran down the electric cord and made coffee and postum. It was so salty we drank it tho’. We put our best clothes in trunks and suitcases and so saved most of them. Under the table in the dining room was the only dry spot in the house and we had a blanket, a comfort and suitcases under to keep dry. Every bed and pillow was soaked and didn’t get dried out until Monday. We tho’t every minute from 4 a.m. till after noon that it would be our last and it was sure a relief Charlie Flinn and her older sister Paula. Charlie Flinn Collection. when we began to see men fighting the wind and water to get to every house to know if anyone needed help. The first night (Saturday) there was talk of the hurricane coming back and the wind did blow awful At one time the water was almost four feet deep hard off and on all night but not hard enough to cause around our house and the waves would hit the any damage. There were seventeen lives lost in Fort windows. At 2:30 we had potatoe soup made out of Lauderdale and this seems miraculous in considering some more salty water and then Oral and Genis and the number of homes destroyed. I have never heard of myself started out to see if Lyman and Edna were all a single person that had no damage of any kind. right. We met Lyman wading water more than waist deep coming to see us. We then went to town and we I feel it was a great privilege to have gone thro’ this were about an hour walking seven blocks. We went storm and come thro’ as we all did, without a scratch, back home about 5 p.m. and got some dry clothes and but I am not craving another one. It was no human Mother and the children and took them to the Pioneer power that saved us from injury, but God’s will that Dept. store (where Oral works) for the night. There it be thus, and we are truly thankful for His mercy 152 people spent the first night and not so many the toward us. second. There is a wonderful soft heavy rug on the floor and there we laid two nights and it wasn’t so By Nellie Gallagher bad either. Date unknown Volume 28 • Number 1 • Broward Legacy • 25 Mr. Lester (1916-1996) wrote this article around 1955. It is a first hand account of his and his family’s experiences during the 1926 hurricane. The Lesters owned the Obispo Apartments at 200 S. E. 16th Street in Fort Lauderdale. In later years the Obispo became the nurse’s quarters of Broward General Hospital which was torn down and rebuilt as the north wing of the hospital. The Great Florida Hurricane by Hugh Carver Lester The storm of September 18, which began on Friday, got bad at about eleven o’clock at night. We, of course, were in the penthouse. We were awakened when the wind began to beat out the east windows with the wreckage from the awnings. We huddled in the hallway. As Father looked through the glass door leading to the backstairs, he thought he saw the incinerator stack sway. He called to Mother, “Is that chimney really swaying or is it an optical illusion?” Before she rendered an opinion, the stack made a wide swing and failed to come back. We remembered when the expert out talked Father about the need for The Obispo Apartments anchoring the stack at each floor! All this time the building was shaking as if by an earthquake, the windows were shattering, and the storm shrieking like a blizzard. That penthouse was no longer a suitable place for us. Father picked up Donald and I grabbed Mother by the hand and we stepped out onto the deck of the apartment house. There wind, saturated with salt water from the ocean, was blowing probably at one-hundred-fifty miles an hour. We inched our way to the concrete stairs and crept down to the third floor. The storm was doing to the main house what it was doing to the penthouse, shattering the glass on the east side windows. The inside stairs with their big windows were on the east side and the wind was already blasting the north-south hallway. Though there was temporary refuge in the west side apartments, the safest place appeared to be the ground floor. I do not remember if the third floor tenants preceded or followed us, but going down the stairs was not pleasant with glass flying and glass crumbling under foot. We and the tenants took refuge in the west side apartments on the ground floor. The lower hall had double doors front and back. The rear doors burst open. The adult male tenants and Father tried to shut the doors. They would get them shut and then the next gust of wind would throw the men on their backs and burst the doors open. Finally they had to give up for the wind had more strength than all of them put together. About this time the front of the apartment house blew out down to the top of the front story. The tenant, Mr. Hennessy, in the second story front apartment on the east side later told us his experience. As his apartment was in the northwest corner of the building, they had not had any broken glass. He was sitting in a wicker chair at the north window, smoking and 26 • Broward Legacy looking out at the storm. Suddenly he saw a crack between the front wall and the partition. Like Doubting Thomas of old, he could not believe there was really a crack without walking over and poking his finger into it. As the crack widened, he decided that was no place for John Hennessy. He raced to the hall door and from there saw the front wall go out and his wicker chair follow it. Hennessy said that during the storm he was relieved because his other suit was at the Chinaman’s. Then after the storm he discovered that there was no more Chinaman’s. Hennessy, though a hunchback, had as sunny a disposition as I ever encountered. The storm roared on all night and all the next day, Saturday, until late afternoon. Mrs. Nickles, one of the tenants, kept saying, “Oh! If it would only subside.” The rest of us felt like joining in with the concluding words of a jury verdict, “So say we all.” When the storm did subside, there was from one to two feet of water around the apartment house, depending on where one waded. In other parts of the city the water was deeper. Around our place it was salt water blown in from the ocean, The Obispo Apartments after the 1926 storm, the front wall of 2nd and 3rd floor were destroyed; rugs were hung out to dry. The building was rebuilt thanks to property insurance but the Lesters lost the while the wind was from the east. property during the Great Depression. Our house looked like a pile of rubble, like London after the Blitz. The other buildings in the city looked just as bad or worse. The stores and the rest of the downtown area were several feet deep in water. In addition to the water blown in from the ocean, the river was obstructed by piled up ocean water at its outlet. In Fort Lauderdale the electric lines were down and would not be restored for several weeks. The water system was disrupted. It would supply polluted water in a few days, but it would not supply (Left to right) Hugh Carver Lester, Donald Gordon Lester and Donald Baker pose on the roof garden drinking water for a week or more. of the Obispo apartments on April 1926 Every house in town was probably unlivable. There was no electricity, no way of cooking, no refrigeration, no water fit to drink. We paid high prices for bottled water from some deep wells south of town, and then after several days were told that the water was polluted. Our car stood out of doors through the storm, and to our surprise it would still run afterwards. Of course, using a car saturated with salt water before it has been taken apart and cleaned of the salt water will ruin it. We did not know that then, but it would have made no difference if we had known it. It would have been impossible to find anyone to work on an automobile or anything else. We were lucky to have had a cheap, second hand car, instead of a good new one. As it was, Father ruined an old car; otherwise, he would have ruined a good one. Volume 28 • Number 1 • Broward Legacy • 27 is listed in the Fort Lauderdale Daily News, September 19, 1926 as “Crowley”, but is listed in the Florida Death Index as “Crawley.” She is also listed in the Miami Herald, September 20, 1926, p. 1 as “Crowley.” 11 Ibid. 12 Ibid., The Florida Death Index lists Alma Thompson and B. A. Thompson as white females from Broward County who died in 1926. 13 Voter registration cards, in the collections of the Broward County Historical Commission, list Mr. Martin as W. L. Martin of Georgia, a laborer living at N. E. 17th St.; he was 52 in 1926. 14 Miami Herald, September 20, The Boat Yards on New River were terribly damaged by the storm. Mrs. Clyde Brown Collection 1926, p. 1. At the various grocery stores one could buy food, Endnotes 15 Daily News, Fort Lauderdale, FL, p. 1. mostly canned goods that the storm had not ruined. For 1 “The Gulf Stream Saved The East a few days we had bread, but that soon spoiled. Father Coast Of Florida,” Fort Lauderdale 16 An oral history interview with Greetings, vol. 1, No. 37-38-39, Ivan Austin January 14, 1985 in the and Mother did a little cooking over a kerosene heater, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, October collections of the Broward County but we lived mostly on canned salmon and the like. 8, 1926, p. 1. Historical Commission explains that the large girl baby, Ivalyn, was 2 Stuart McIver, “1926 Miami: The delivered by forceps. The Austins We slept on mattresses on the ground floor while sand blow that broke the boom”, Stuart were living in Rio Vista at the time, crabs invaded the area by the thousands. They could McIver, Sun-Sentinel, September a few blocks from the hospital in 19, 1993. walk in the house at will day or night. Cooley Hammock. The Doctor Telegraph lines had been destroyed by the storm, but 3 According to the Daily News, and his wife were in the hospital Fort Lauderdale, FL, September during the storm. Ivan came in within a few days we were able to send telegrams. 19, 1926, the Tillmans were from the night to check on his wife and They were taken to West Palm Beach by motorcycle Progresso and according to new baby. The window next to his and the messages wired from there. We sent telegrams cemetery records they are buried wife broke and showered her with in Evergreen Cemetery in Fort glass. The power went off and they to my relatives up North stating that even though the Lauderdale. From the Daily News took her down to the first floor. house was wrecked we were well. of September 26, 1926: “W. A. The hospital ran out of oxygen Tillman, whose wife Fern, and and the baby died at one and a On October 20, 1926, there was another hurricane two children, Robert and Martha, half days old. The Austins are all warning. The storm was said to be as bad as the one of were killed during the hurricane buried in Evergreen Cemetery in last Saturday, wishes to express his Fort Lauderdale; also listed in the September 18. Except for boarding up the open front, appreciation for all the kindness nothing had been done toward repairing our house. Miami Herald September 20, 1926, shown him in the time of his trouble p. 1. and bereavement. His three-year- It was no place to spend another hurricane. We had a 17 Daily News, Fort Lauderdale, old daughter, Anna Beth, is at chance to ride out the storm with another family, so October 7,, 1926, p. 2, “Frank the Edwards hospital in serious Williams, 59, negro, died Tuesday we did. By this time our second hand Chevrolet was condition from injuries received as a result of injuries received completely ruined, and we decided that it was not a during the storm.”(also listed in the during the storm, adding another Miami Herald). suitable vehicle in which to run away from a hurricane. to Fort Lauderdale’s fatalities in We rode with our friends to Daytona Beach, where 4 Miami Herald September 20, the recent catastrophe. According 1926, p. 1 listed as “Tellemer.” we spent the remainder of the night. It seemed that to the report of vital statistics, 5 Ibid. of which Dr. D. L. Campbell is everyone who had experienced the storm had the same 6 Ibid. registrar, this is said to bring the idea, and that was to get as far away from the hurricane 7 Ibid. total number killed to 13. This figure does not include some from area as possible. The road was packed with cars going 8 Ibid. Hollywood whose bodies were sent north. All South Florida, south of West Palm Beach, 9 Riverside and Glade Avenue, Mr. to Fort Lauderdale.” McClure is listed in the 1926 Fort was evacuating. During our flight north our car skidded 18 Miami Herald, September 20, Lauderdale City Directory and to such an extent that it spun completely around 1926, p. 1. Broward County Gazetteer, Volume without hitting anyone and started south. Strangely IV Florida-Piedmont Directory 19 Daily News, Fort Lauderdale, enough no one was hurt and no one saw us. They were Company, Asheville, N. C. on page 11 October 1926, p. 2, “Robert too intent with their own problems of getting away 200 as carpenter living with his Nelson, negro, Died at the local wife Eva on Everglades Avenue, hospital Sunday as a result to worry about us. We managed to get turned around also listed in the Miami Herald, of exposure received after the and proceeded to Daytona Beach. In the morning September 20, 1926, p. 1. hurricane, according to authorities at the institution. He is said to 10 Mrs. R. D. Crawley was found we learned that the hurricane was going to miss Fort have been sick before the storm in Lake Mable, her home was Lauderdale and we returned home. but his death was hastened by originally in Nashville, N. C. and the exposure. According to Dr. she was visiting from Ocala. She 28 • Broward Legacy Campbell, local registrar of vital Hollywood and was married on 63 Daily News, Fort Lauderdale, September 14.” September 19, 1926, 44 Daily News, Fort Lauderdale, 64 Fort Lauderdale City Directory September 22, 1926, p. 2, also and Broward County Gazetteer, listed in the Miami Herald, 1926, vol. IV (Florida-Piedmont September 20, 1926, p. 1. Directory Company, Asheville, N. 45 Daily News, Fort Lauderdale, C.). September 22, 1926, p. 2. 65 Fort Lauderdale Greetings, vol. 46 Miami Herald, September 20, 1, no. 37-38-39, Fort Lauderdale, 1926, p. 1. Florida, October 8, 1926, p. 1. 47 Daily News, Fort Lauderdale, 66 Daily News, Fort Lauderdale, September 22, 1926, p. 2, also October 17, 1926, p. 1. listed in the Miami Herald, 67 Daily News, Fort Lauderdale, September 20, 1926, p. 1. September 28, 1926, p. 1. 48 Daily News, Fort Lauderdale, 68 Oral history interview with September 22, 1926, p. 2, also Mercie L. Mims, January 19, listed in the Miami Herald, 1983 interviewed by Erma Allen, September 20, 1926, p. 1 as CD-Rom, in the collections of “Cohy.” the Broward County Historical 49 Daily News, Fort Lauderdale, Commission. September 22, 1926, p. 2, also 69 Daily News, Fort Lauderdale, This image was taken from the top of the 1st National Bank building and listed in the Miami Herald, FL, September 28, 1926, p.3. shows Andrews Avenue looking north. Meeks Collection September 20, 1926, p. 1. 70 Daily News, Fort Lauderdale, statistics, this is the fourteenth also listed in the Miami Herald, 50 Daily News, Fort Lauderdale, FL, September 26, 1926, p. 1. death to occur in this city as a September 25, 1926, p. 13, “Burial September 22, 1926, p. 2. 71 Daily News, Fort Lauderdale, result of the storm, if this may be will be in Naranja cemetery by 51 Ibid. FL, September 30, 1926, p.1. counted.” Mr. Nelson is not listed Kings” (Homestead, Florida). 52 Daily News, Fort Lauderdale, 72 Minerva Hansen (1876-1976) in Woodlawn Cemetery records 29 Daily News, Fort Lauderdale, September 22, 1926, p. 2 lists him but they are far from complete. 73 The Hansen’s had five children: September 22, 1926, p. 2 as Leon “Helem” but the Florida John Howard., Virginia M., Woodlawn is an African-American 30 Ibid. Death Index lists Lorena and cemetery in Fort Lauderdale. Winnifred G., Robert E. and Alice 31 Daily News, Fort Lauderdale Leon her brother as “Helems”; P. Hansen. 20 Miami Herald, September 20, September 22, 1926, p. 2, also they are both buried in the Dania 1926, p. 1. 74 Progresso stretched from today’s listed in the Miami Herald Cemetery, also listed in the Miami NE Sixth Street up to the south 21 Daily News, Fort Lauderdale September 20, 1926, p. 1. Herald, September 20, 1926, p. 1 fork of the New River and from the as “Helem.” September 22, 1926, p. 2, also 32 Daily News, Fort Lauderdale, Intracoastal Waterway westward listed in the Miami Herald, September 22, 1926, p. 2 53 Miami Herald, September 20, to present NW Fourteenth Avenue. September 20, 1926, p. 1. 1926, p. 1. 33 Ibid. The community of Progresso was 22 Daily News, Fort Lauderdale 54 Daily News, Fort Lauderdale, platted in 1896 by the Florida 34 Ibid. September 22, 1926, p. 1 and 2, September 22, 1926, p. 2 lists him Fiber Company. Everglades also listed in the Miami Herald, 35 Ibid. as “H. G. Luther,” also listed in land investor Richard J. Bolles September 20, 1926, p. 1. 36 Ibid. the Miami Herald, September 20, later purchased the land but it 23 “Mrs. Cory, at Hollywood 1926, p. 1. The Florida Death wasn’t until 1908, after the state’s Administration Building,” Daily 37 Daily News, Fort Lauderdale, index lists him as “Henry Grady Everglades drainage program News, Fort Lauderdale, September September 22, 1926, p. 2, also Luther.” began, that the land began to sell. 22, 1926, p. 2, also listed in the listed in the Miami Herald, 55 Daily News, Fort Lauderdale, Bolles sold buyers ten acre tracts Miami Herald, September 20, September 20, 1926, p. 1. as September 22, 1926, p. 2, also of un-drained Everglades land and 1926, p. 1, as “Corory” but Dania “Rhoda” listed in the Miami Herald, threw in a town lot in Progresso as cemetery records indicate three 38 Ibid., Voter registration cards, September 20, 1926, p. 1 as part of the bargain. members of the “Crory” family in the collections of the Broward “Peter.” 75 “Jack” is John Howard Hansen died September, 18, 1926. County Historical Commission, 56 Daily News, Fort Lauderdale, who would have been around 16 at 24 Dania cemetery records indicate list Mr. Peter A. Vighes as farmer September 22, 1926, p. 2. The the time of the storm. three members of this family from Ohio who was 51 in 1926, 1920 Federal Census lists Mr. 76 Mr. and Mrs. J. C. Culver were died September, 18, 1926. In a also listed in the Miami Herald, McFarland as a 70 year-old single former residents of Eau Claire, Historical Commission program September 20, 1926, p. 1 as man from Canada living in Dania. WI and lived in St. Petersburg, FL. held October 30, 1985 Dania “Vigher”. He is buried in the Dania cemetery That city was not hard hit by the resident Verlon Burrell gave an 39 Daily News, Fort Lauderdale, whose records there indicate he storm. account of the death of his sister September 22, 1926, p. 2. was born December 15, 1850. and her two children, a baby girl 40 Ibid. 57 Miami Herald, September 20, who was one year old and a son. 1926, p. 1. 25 Ibid. 41 Daily News, Fort Lauderdale, October 8, 1926, p. 1. 58 Ibid. 26 Daily News, Fort Lauderdale, 59 Daily News, Fort Lauderdale, September 22, 1926, p. 1, listed 42 Daily News, Fort Lauderdale, September 22, 1926, p. 2 September 22, 1926, p. 2, also in Florida Death Index as Jim J. listed in the Miami Herald, 43 “Storm Hurts Fatal to Jordon, also listed in the Miami September 20, 1926, p. 1. Herald, September 20, 1926, p. 1. Hollywood official, West Palm Beach Fla.”, Miami Herald, 60 Miami Herald, September 20, 27 Miami Herald, September 20, 1926, p. 1. 1926, p. 1. September 26, 1926, p. 1,., Sept. 25 “Thomas B. McCarrell, Jr., 22, of 61 Daily News, Fort Lauderdale, 28 Miami Herald, September 20, Hollywood, died here tonight from September 22, 1926, p. 2. 1926, p. 1., also listed in the Miami injuries received in the hurricane. Herald, September 20, 1926, p. 1., 62 Ibid. He was assistant city engineer of Volume 28 • Number 1 • Broward Legacy • 29 s p o t l i g h t

Historic 1916 Cottage Moves to City Park By Diane Greer Smart President, Broward Trust for Historic Preservation

n Sunday, July 27, O2008, an 82 year old craftsman style bungalow was moved from 310 SE 11th Avenue in downtown Fort Lauderdale to Middle River Terrace Park. Russell Building Movers, Miami, carefully guided the fragile structure on its journey along Las Olas Boulevard, Federal Highway, NE 15th Avenue and NE 13th Street to its new home at 1379 North Dixie Highway. A tractor pulled a 45-ton “tricycle” consisting of a steel beam platform resting on three dollies. Each dolly Moving the Annie Beck House. Dave Baber photographer had two axles with 8 wheels, one in front and two behind for stability. Several crews removed and replace overhead lines, wires and cables to allow the house to proceed. Known locally as the “Annie Beck House,” this second escape from demolition is credited to the patience and generosity of current owner Mrs. Diana Heileman. She purchased the choice property near the New River to build a house for her family but could not bring herself to tear it down. The bungalow has become the object of affection for an entire community. Word that Heileman was willing to donate it reached the son of a previous owner.

30 • Broward Legacy “Doc” and Annie Beck on the front porch of their cottage, From the collections of the Fort Lauderdale Historical Society Shelby Grant Smith County architecture. the Annie Beck House. The Trust will manage III approached the They swallowed hard and On January 8, 2008, activities of the center Broward Trust for decided to accept the gift Fort Lauderdale city which will be available Historic Preservation with all its conditions and commissioners approved to qualifying non-profit which he knew had financial responsibilities. the relocation. groups for special events. kept other venerable The Trust’s yearlong When brought up to Public hearings are Lauderdale properties search for a workable code and restored by scheduled to re-zone from demolition—the site came to the attention the Broward Trust for the land parcels as a Lauderdale Beach of the Middle River Historic Preservation park district. The house Hotel (now part of Las Terrace Neighborhood under the supervision has been recommended Olas Beach Club) and Association. They of the Tamara Peacock for historic designation the old Escape Hotel concluded that a building Company, the Annie by the Fort Lauderdale (also known as Tiffany the residents could share Beck Education Center Historic Preservation House). Hesitant at first with other non-profit will serve non-profit Board. A vote by the because of the doubly groups for community conservation and city commission on daunting task of finding activities would bring preservation groups this recommendation is an available site and an energetic presence such as garden clubs, expected later this year raising funds to restore it, to their new park. After landscape architects, at which time the Annie Trust directors eventually months of discussions, an and birding groups as Beck House will become agreed that it was a agreement was reached well as the Middle River the first historic house in perfect fit for the non- and the Trust accepted the Terrace Neighborhood a Fort Lauderdale park. profit corporation’s stated neighborhood’s invitation Association and the mission: to preserve to provide a permanent Broward Trust for significant Broward home in the park for Historic Preservation. Volume 28 • Number 1 • Broward Legacy • 31 THE NEW SITE Middle River Terrace residents are proud of their weekend- after-weekend of volunteer sweat and toil to clean up roughly four acres of drug- infested houses and heaps of trash and garbage, prior to the city’s acquisition of the land. “In the 1950s and 1960s a rare palm and orchid nursery had been replaced by apartment buildings that had become one of the worst drug problems in the city,” says neighborhood president and former city commissioner Dr. A. J. Beck. Beck Collection Annie Beck, ca. 1918, Beck Collection Tim Smith. Starting in 1997 and continuing through 1998, Fort BACKGROUND club’s library, which was named Lauderdale city commissioners The Alfred John “Doc” and after her, and was one of the approved acquisition of several Annie Beck house is a traditional founding members of the 1919 parcels. Construction of a small craftsman bungalow with a small Study Club, which is still in pavilion and finishing work on front-facing gable-end porch. Built existence. After the 1926 hurricane, the grounds were completed in in 1916 of Dade County pine, it Mrs. Beck and the garden club the summer of 2000. remained at 334 East Las Olas led a community-wide effort to Comments Broward Trust Boulevard until August, 1977 when re-landscape the devastated town. president Diane Smart, the property owner, First Broward She planted a yellow trumpet tree “When the Trust formed Federal, decided to build a drive-in (tabebuia) in her front yard that in 2002, it had a vision: to bank on the lot. Mrs. Beck, who became a local landmark. Later the help make Broward a county was then 81, arranged for the house city planted yellow “tabs” in a park that believes in preserving to be moved to the 11th Avenue located on Victoria Park Road in its historical resources. The location where she lived until she her honor. gift from Mrs. Heileman, the passed away in 1985 at age 89. The friendship between Doc Beck cooperation of the City of Fort Doc Beck opened a pharmacy and another prominent pharmacist, Lauderdale, the hospitality of October 6, 1915, on New River Shelby Grant Smith Sr. (Smith the neighborhood, the grant Drive and Andrews Avenue. Drug Stores), led Mrs. Beck to sell approvals from the Broward A charter member of the Fort the bungalow in 1984 to Smith’s County Historical Commission Lauderdale Rotary Club, he was son, realtor and photographer and the Florida Department of treasurer of St. Andrews Episcopal Shelby Grant Smith Jr. With a State, Division of Historical Church for 28 years, and was view to selling it himself, Smith Resources, perfectly illustrate vice-president of the Chamber of immediately made extensive our confidence in this vision.” Commerce and business manager restorations. However, according The Broward Trust for Historic for the Tarpons, the semi-pro to the Fort Lauderdale News on Preservation is a nonprofit, baseball team. Doc Beck died January 24, 1985, “His efforts were 501(c)3 corporation dedicated in 1962. designed to produce a charming house for sale. But Smith, a to identifying, preserving, Born near Ocala in 1896, Annie realtor, fell in love with the finished restoring and maintaining Atkinson Beck was co-founder of product and decided to call it home the architectural heritage of Fort Lauderdale’s first garden club and studio. His work earned him Broward County. as well as the Federated Garden a bronze plaque as a winner of Club Circles. She was president For more information contact: one of the city’s seventh annual Warren Adams, Executive of the Fort Lauderdale Woman’s Community Appearance Awards.” Club and became a nationally Director, Broward Trust for The plaque and porch swing can Historic Preservation accredited flower show judge. still be seen on the front porch. She helped establish the garden 954-522-1606 32 • Broward Legacy The Original Palm Avenue* Swing Bridge *Also known as S.W. 11th Avenue by Robert K. Hathaway New River Crossings©

Postcard featuring a bird’s eye view of Fort Lauderdale downtown, 1910, original Andrews Avenue Bridge, later to become the Palm Avenue Bridge, at right. Berryhill and Cromartie store in center, looking east, From the collections of the Fort Lauderdale Historical Society

s one of the oldest operating swing bridges (1925) Ain Florida, Fort Lauderdale’s historic Palm (S.W. 11th) Avenue bridge ranks first in the hearts of the people who cross it today.1 But this 83-year-old landmark isn’t the first swing bridge to connect the neighborhoods of Riverside and what is now Sailboat Bend on the North Fork of the New River. There had been another, built some nine years earlier. This is the story of that bridge.

Volume 28 • Number 1 • Broward Legacy • 33 First Swing Bridge Installed existing swing bridge.5 On January U. S. War Department Approves 10 Years Earlier 5, 1915 the town signed a contract Relocation Plans Like many Floridians, Palm with the Dade County Board to On November 20, 1915, the Avenue’s original swing bridge share the cost of building the Town Council voted to sign a was a retiree unexpectedly new Andrews Avenue Bridge (the contract with the Kelleys for the town to contribute $6,000 and the embarked on a new career. Its 6 $150, plus the tax and assessment first job had been just 11 blocks county $10,000). The next day, relief they had requested.12 Two east at Andrews Avenue, where the Champion Bridge Company days later, with drawings in hand it was built and installed in 1905 was awarded the contract to build for the Palm Avenue installation by the Converse Bridge Company the new bridge and to move the (prepared by civil engineer H.C. old swing bridge to a temporary of Chattanooga for $6,640. Until st Davis), the council voted to 1915 it served there as the only location at Osceola (S.E. 1 ) present the plans to the U. S. War pedestrian/vehicular crossing at Avenue, where traffic would Department,13 which soon gave the New River.2 take a one-block detour during its approval under the signature of construction.7 Over the years, traffic at the Henry Breckenridge, then Assistant The Council had much to think Secretary of War under President Andrews Avenue crossing 14 continued to build, reflecting about in 1915, including the Woodrow Wilson. the rapid influx of tourists, creation of Broward County in The Champion Bridge Company new residents, developers, and April, its borders incorporating won the contract to move both commerce along the corridor portions of Palm Beach and Dade the old swing bridge and bridge counties, with Fort Lauderdale as from Palm Beach through Fort 8 tender’s building and to install Lauderdale to Miami. With the the new county seat. them at their new location up river. completion of the Dixie Highway, Meanwhile, Riverside property The cost for the entire project: linking the highway to Andrews owners Jeanie and James Kelley $3,200 (roughly equivalent to Avenue, it became clear that the proposed a creative, cost-saving $66,000 in today’s dollars). The bottleneck created by the swing idea for relocating the swing contract, signed December 10, bridge’s single lane design would bridge once its temporary duties 1915, stipulated that the project only get worse. The bridge would were over. If the town would was to begin December 20 (shortly have to be replaced.3 forgive their back taxes, forgive after the new Andrews Avenue any special new road assessments Bridge had opened) and was to be North Fork Residents Request 15 Old Bridge and pay them $150, the Kelleys completed within 60 days. would donate a 40-foot wide strip With the more efficient swing Opportunity knocked for property of their land for bridge access. owners in Waverly Place (now bridge soon to be in operation at The proposed strip stretched from Palm Avenue, an old fixed bridge Sailboat Bend) and Riverside. the south bank of the North Fork If you’re going to replace the that crossed the North Fork one opposite Palm Avenue south to block west at Seminole Avenue was Andrews Avenue Bridge, they S.W. 4th Street.9 asked in a February, 1914 petition no longer needed. Undoubtedly, to the Fort Lauderdale Town The question of what to do with the cash-strapped commissioners Council, why not let us have the the swing bridge was not decided were delighted with the deal they old one? At the time they wanted until barely one month before struck with contractors Newland it moved to what was then known the new Andrews bridge was and Olson in February of 1916. as West Avenue on the North Fork scheduled for completion. On The contractors agreed to remove November 4, 1915 the Board of the old bridge, accepting only the (now called Lauderdale Trail/S.W. 16 9th Avenue).4 County Commissioners voted to bridge itself as payment. advertise for bids for “the removal The property owners’ request There was still the matter of of the temporary bridge now was, perhaps, somewhat premature paying for the work at the Palm located at Osceola Avenue to a since it wasn’t until September, Avenue site. To fund the project, point where Palm Avenue crosses 1914 that the Town Council as well as other bridges and the North Fork of New River.”10 finally approved the Andrews roadway improvements, Broward The following week (November Avenue project, while moving County floated a bond issue for 11) they voted to pay for the to “investigate the matter” of $175,000. The measure was relocation, noting that the Kelley whether and where to relocate the submitted to voters on March property was the “best location 11 18, 1916, after the Palm Avenue obtainable at a reasonable cost.” project was completed. It passed

34 • Broward Legacy Figure 1: Palm Avenue Location; H.C. Davis Sketch, “File No. 12-5” overwhelmingly, but funds didn’t extended northwest roughly to How They Did It become available until after May the area known today as Martin Figure 1: Palm Avenue Location; 25, when the F. L. Fuller Company Luther King Jr. Avenue at Sunrise H.C. Davis Sketch, “File No. of Cleveland, Ohio was awarded Boulevard19 17 12-5” its bid to purchase the bonds. Epilogue Fortunately, the Champion Bridge Figure 1. “Sketch” of proposed Company was patient. The final retirement of the location of bridge to be relocated original Palm Avenue swing from Osceola Avenue to Palm While initially agreeing to wait bridge was decided on December Avenue. The drawing, dated for their check until May 1, 1916, 3, 1924, when the Broward County December, 1915, shows a fixed it was not until September 11, Commissioners acknowledged that 18-foot wide wooden trestle 1916 that the Broward County the old bridge was “in a dangerous crossing the North Fork of New Commissioners finally approved 18 condition and unsafe for traffic.” River just one block west at payment. Also acknowledging that the Seminole (S.W. 12th) Avenue. And so this single lane swing county did not have the funds to According to the drawing and the bridge from Andrews Avenue, build a new one, they resolved to War Department’s approval for the first public bridge across the accept a proposal from the City the Palm Avenue bridge, the fixed New River, had gained a useful of Fort Lauderdale to take over wooden bridge was to be removed new life. The refurbished bridge both the reconstruction and control immediately upon completion of faithfully served the growing of the replacement bridge.20 The the Palm Avenue Swing bridge.22 neighborhoods of Waverly Place Champion Bridge Company won Drawing courtesy Broward County and Riverside for ten years. It also the contract to build the bridge, Historical Commission. provided more convenient access completing the project in 1925.21 to the remaining waters of the This is the two-lane swing bridge North Fork, which then, as now, at S.W. 11th Avenue that continues in service today. Volume 28 • Number 1 • Broward Legacy • 35 Figure 2: Bridge Profile at Palm Avenue H.C. Davis Sketch, “File No. 12-6” Figure 2: Bridge Profile at Palm First a new substructure had to be poured into the form, filling it to Avenue H.C. Davis Sketch, “File built at the site, beginning with the top. Anchor bolts were then No. 12-6” the “center pier,” the critical pivot embedded in the wet concrete to be Figure 2. Drawing of bridge at point that would support the draw used for securing the base and track its proposed new location at Palm span. When completed, the center castings to the center pier. Avenue. It also illustrates the pier would be a tight cluster of New rest piers were installed at distance to the Mean Low Water 23 pilings surrounded by a steel either end of the draw span, each line to the top of the bridge deck casing filled with concrete. The consisting of two piling bents or (9.4 feet). Dated December, 23 pilings were strategically caps used to hold the piles in their 1915. Courtesy Broward County located and driven down to the correct position. Historical Commission.23 firm bearing rock beneath the river. The three piles nearest the The original span that was to be Only the steel draw span, the center of the cluster were drawn mounted atop the new substructure entire moveable section of the closely together and secured with was repaired and retrofitted to original swing bridge was to be steel wire cable at the top. assure its safety and operability. detached, transported one mile to Davis specified that all floor joists the west, and reinstalled at Palm A 12-foot diameter sheet metal that were not “sound and suitable” Avenue. Davis was concerned casing provided the form for the be replaced with new timbers. that the bridge be installed at a center pier. It consisted of “sheet He also called for the deck to be precise elevation above the water metal three-sixteenths inches in “entirely removed and replaced line, specifying that “the plane thickness . . . securely riveted with two inch ‘Dade County’ pine” of reference shall be mean low together” to minimize leakage. and that the existing sidewalks be water at New River Inlet and the The upper edge of the casing was replaced with new sidewalks “of ENGINEER shall keep a suitable set level with the finished top of the same design and dimension,” tide gauge plainly showing such the center pier, while the lower also using the Dade County elevation at the site of the work at edge was “set at least 12 feet lumber. In addition, brackets, joists all times during the progress of the below the plane of reference.” and hand rails were replaced, as work.” When “all sand, mud and debris needed.24 were removed” concrete was 36 • Broward Legacy H.C. Davis et. al.

Andrews Bridge c. 1912-15. Herbert C. Davis: The Man (Hallandale), A. B. Lowe (Dania), for a larger bridge at Andrews Behind the Designs J. J. Joyce (Fort Lauderdale) and Avenue, this versatile little bridge H.C. Davis, served as both County Attorney W. I. Evans. took on two more jobs – first as the Town Engineer for Fort Photo (#5-5444) courtesy Fort the temporary detour bridge at Lauderdale and the first County Lauderdale Historical Society. Osceola Avenue for a few months Engineer for Broward County. The Traveling Bridge while the new Andrews Bridge was being built and then, for ten His designs were pivotal in the The original Palm Avenue swing early development of roadways, years, as the original swing bridge bridge had a career on the move in at Palm (S.W. 11th) Avenue, the bridges and sidewalks in the more ways than one. This photo, area.25 In this 1915 photo taken precursor to the larger swing taken circa 1912-1915, shows bridge currently operating at that shortly after Broward County was the bridge at its original Andrews created, he is shown with other location. Photo (#5-4561) courtesy Avenue location where it was in Fort Lauderdale Historical Society. county officials (left to right): use from early1905 to late 1914. Davis, commissioners C. E. Ingalls After its removal to make room Volume 28 • Number 1 • Broward Legacy • 37 (Figure 3: Pratt’s drawing of Waverly Place) 38 • Broward Legacy On October, 1910, Charles Pratt, a civil engineer, laid (Figure 4: Pratt’s drawing of Riverside ) out a new addition to Fort Lauderdale, called Waverly Place.26 Five months later, in its March 15, 1911 edition, the (Miami) Daily Herald announced that Development Spurs Improved Access “The sale at Waverly Place [now Sailboat Bend] Figures 3 & 4. 1910 and 1911 drawings by located five blocks west of the FEC railroad station, engineer Charles Pratt showing two new residential was proving to be a great success.” In January, 1911 developments on either side of the North Fork of the Pratt laid out another addition called Riverside, across New River in Fort Lauderdale where the Palm Avenue the river from Waverly Place.27 Bridge would be installed a few years later. Drawings th Two years later a “want ad” in the December 31, courtesy of web site for Clerk of Courts, 11 Judicial 1912 edition of the Miami Metropolis, proclaimed: Circuit of Florida, Miami-Dade “Old Plat Book Image “All live wires in Fort Lauderdale, no knockers there. Search.” That’s why its growth has been so wonderful. Fort What prompted the relocation of an eleven year old Lauderdale has its start and you CAN’T STOP IT. Fort bridge to Palm Avenue at the east end of the New Lauderdale, city of Destiny. Growing faster possibly River’s North Fork? Simply stated: the need for than any other town in U.S. All Fort Lauderdale improved navigation and access in the face of rapidly boosters are requested to meet Willingham in front of expanding settlement. Osceola Hotel New Year’s morning at 10 o’clock.”28

Volume 28 • Number 1 • Broward Legacy • 39 Endnotes 1. Florida Department of 11. FLTC Meeting Minutes, 22. H.C. Davis, Civil Engineer, Transportation, Environmental November 11, 1915. Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Management Office, Historic 12. FLTC Meeting Minutes, November, 1915, file number Highway Bridges of Florida, pp. November 20, 1915. 12-5, Sketch showing location of 79-88. Tallahassee, 2004. proposed bridge crossing North 13. FLTC Meeting Minutes, Fork of New River, Florida at 2. Fort Lauderdale Town Council November 22, 1915. H.C. Davis Palm Avenue in the Town of (FLTC) Meeting Minutes sketches (2) showing the proposed Fort Lauderdale. Sketch also February 3, 1914. Contract location of the bridge across shows soundings in North Fork. between the Champion Bridge North Fork of New River and the [BCHC]. Company and the Board of span and its clearance. [BCHC]. County Commissioners, Broward 23. H.C. Davis, Civil Engineer, County, Florida, December 14. Copy of letter and Fort Lauderdale, Florida, 10, 1915. Courtesy of Broward signed document from Henry November, 1915, file number County Historical Commission Breckinridge, Assistant Secretary 12-6, Sketch showing span and (“BCHC”). Cooper Kirk, of War, to Frank A. Bryan, Clerk, clearance of proposed bridge Foundations of Broward County Board of County Commissioners crossing North Fork of New Waterways, Broward Legacy, of Broward County, approving River, Florida at Palm Avenue Vol. 8, Numbers 1 and 2, page 8. the map of location and plans of in the Town of Fort Lauderdale. [BCHC]. a bridge to be constructed across [BCHC]. the North Fork of New River at 3. Wesley Stout Newspaper Palm Avenue, dated December 8, 24. Specifications for the Erection Notes (WSNN), Vol. I, page 479 1915. Among the conditions of of Swing Draw Span with transcription of Miami Daily approval was the stipulation “that Substructure and Approaches Metropolis, December 31, 1912. the bridge at Seminole Avenue Crossing North Fork of New River, [BCHC]. Stuart B. McIver, Fort shall be promptly and entirely Fla. at Palm Avenue in the Town Lauderdale and Broward County removed ... .” [BCHC]. of Fort Lauderdale, H.C. Davis, (Woodland Hills, Calif. 1983), Civil Engineer, November 13, page 67. 15. Copy of Contract between The 1915. [BCHC]. Champion Bridge Company of 4. FLTC Meeting Minutes, Wilmington, OH and the Board of 25. FLCC Meeting Minutes, February 3, 1914. County Commissioners, Broward November 13, 1924. Copy of Contract between H.C. Davis 5. FLTC Meeting Minutes, County, Florida, December 10, and the Board of County September 1, 1914. 1915. [BCHC]. Commissioners of Broward 6. WSNN, Vol. I, page 506 16. BCC Meeting Minutes, County, June 9, 1916 [BCHC]. transcription of Miami Daily February 3, 1916, page 61. 26. Charles Pratt, Civil Engineer, Metropolis, September 2, 1914. 17. BCC Meeting Minutes, drawing of Waverly Place an [BCHC]. FLTC Meeting Minutes, February 4, 1916, page 68; March addition to Fort Lauderdale, January 5, 1915. 15, 1916, page 81; March 21, pp. Fla., October, 1910, Miami-Dade 7. David H. Miars, A Century 82-83; May 25, 1916, page 109. County “Old Plat Book” 2, page of Bridges; the History of the 18. Copy of Contract between The 11. Champion Bridge Company and Champion Bridge Company of 27. Charles Pratt, Civil Engineer, the Development of Industrial Wilmington, OH and the Board of Manufacturing in Wilmington, drawing of Riverside an County Commissioners, Broward addition to Fort Lauderdale, Ohio, Cox Print. Co., 1972, page County, Florida, December 10, 27. Fla., owned by Home Investment 1915. [BCHC]. BCC Meeting Company, January, 1911, Miami- 8. Allen Morris and Joan Perry Minutes, September 11, 1916, Dade County “Old Plat Book” 2, Morris, The Florida Handbook page 156. page 14. 1999-2000, 27th Biennial Edition, 19. Aerial Photo CJF-ID-205, 28. WSNN, Vol. I, page 497 The Peninsular Publishing March 26, 1947, showing North Company, 1999, page 436. transcription of Miami Daily Fork of New River extending Metropolis. 9. FLTC Meeting Minutes, north and ending at C-12 Canal at November 11, 1915 and December Sunrise Blvd.[BCHC]. 18, 1915. 20. BCC Meeting Minutes, 10. Broward County Commission December 3, 1924, Book 2, page (“BCC”) Meeting Minutes, 273. November 4, 1915. FLTC Meeting 21. Fort Lauderdale City Council Minutes, November 11, 1915. (FLCC) Meeting Minutes July 29, 1924.

40 • Broward Legacy book review FLORIDA’S BIG DIG The Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway from Jacksonville to Miami, 1881 to 1935. By William G. Crawford, Jr., Fort Lauderdale, Florida, 2006. Florida Historical Society Press, 371 pages. Reviewed by Donald C. Gaby Daytona Beach, Florida This is a remarkable book, written by a lawyer rather than an historian, and represents a monumental amount of research. It is long overdue and fills a large gap in Florida’s history. Bill Crawford provides a detailed account of the development of Florida’s Intracoastal Waterway. He traces its origins from its initial recommendation by the Florida Territorial Council, through the Second Seminole War when the Army’s need for improved transportation was evident, the Swamp and Over- flowed Lands Act of Congress in 1850, legislative creation of Florida’s Internal Improvement Fund in 1855, and on to legislative creation of the Florida Inland Navigation District in 1927. The Congressional act gave the states millions of acres of land that could be used by them. Florida’s legislation provided for the granting of such land to private investors to actually dig the waterway, and eventually for selling the waterway to the federal government. How the needed land was gradually granted and how the money was actually provided, mostly from Northeastern and Canadian individuals or companies, and how the excavations proceeded, are described in great detail. The actual project began in 1882 and was not completed until 1912. Some 268 miles of waterway were dug. Of special interest to this reviewer is that the section connecting Ormond with St. Augustine — the Halifax and Matanzas Rivers — was the most difficult and the last portion to be completed. Tolls collected from passing vessels were not adequate to repay the private investors Cover design by Ana Larrauri and also to maintain the waterway. In 1929 — 47 years after the effort began — the state purchased the waterway and gave it to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to operate and maintain.

Volume 28 • Number 1 • Broward Legacy • 41 Barge bridge over the Florida East Coast Canal ca 1920s at Johnson Street. A. C. Mickelson Collection This book is very informative and fills a large gap in Florida’s history. Parts dealing with the William G. Crawford, Jr., many individual investors and is past president of the their money might be difficult Fort Lauderdale Historical reading for some. For others they Society and long-time will prove fascinating. The book member and past-chair of the is highly recommended to anyone Broward County Historical interested in how the Intracoastal Commission. His book is the Waterway came about. winner of the 2008 Florida Donald C. Gaby Historical Society Rembert Daytona Beach, Florida Patrick Award for best book in Florida History. This is the top prize in the state. The award, named for a longtime University of Florida history professor, was presented at the William G. Crawford, Jr. Florida Historical Society’s Annual Meeting awards luncheon in Sarasota on May 23, 2008.

42 • Broward Legacy in memoriam

In Memoriam: Stuart B. McIver (1921-2008)

Sun-Tattler Collection he Historical Commission mourns the loss of TStuart Betts McIver, one of South Florida’s most prolific and popular historians, who passed away on April 24. Author of fourteen books on Florida history, Stuart was born on Christmas Day, 1921, in Sanford, North Carolina, to Dr. Lynn McIver, a physician, and Maude M. McIver (Betts). After graduating from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Stuart worked as a journalist for The Greensboro Daily News, Charlotte News, and later for the Baltimore Sun, before moving with his wife, Joan, to South Florida in 1962. They have been residents of Lighthouse Point since 1968. He is survived by his wife and five children: Stuart Jr., Jan Hammett, Laurel McIver, Barbara McIver, and Margery Horrigan. Author of Death in the Everglades: The Murder of Guy Bradley, America’s First Martyr to Environmentalism (2003), Stuart also wrote Fort Lauderdale and Broward County: An Illustrated History (1983) and Glimpses of South Florida History (1988) as well as hundreds of stories for local publications, including Sunshine magazine, and authoritative community histories for the cities of Plantation, Coral Springs, and Wilton Manors. In 1990 and 1991, he received the Florida Historical Society’s Golden Quill Award for his historical series, “The Way We Were.” He served three years as president of the Florida Chapter of the Mystery Writers of America, served as regional vice president, was president of the Book Group of South Florida, and served on the Board of Directors of the Florida Historical Society.

Volume 28 • Number 1 • Broward Legacy • 43 in memoriam

In 2002, Stuart was appointed to the Broward County Historical Commission by Broward County Commissioner Jim Scott and was re-appointed by Commissioner Ken Keechl. In 2003, the Broward County Historical Commission presented Stuart with the Dr. Cooper Kirk Memorial Award. Named in honor of the first Broward County Historian, the award was first given in 1992 and traditionally presented to prominent local history writers and significant persons involved in preserving our history. Past recipients include Donald Lester, Cathleen Anderson, Joe Knetsch, Patricia Smith, Gerald Thompson, Ray Collier, Lowell Showalter, Carmen McGarry, the Stuart McIver. From the collection of the Fort Lauderdale Historical Society, Julia Fort Lauderdale Historical Society. Jones, Gypsy Graves, Susan Gillis, and Joan Mickelson. In addition to his book and newspaper writing, Stuart wrote scripts and directed more than eighty documentary films, one of which received a Silver Medal at the Venice Film Festival. He made films for many organizations such as the Florida Department of Transportation and Florida Development Commission, Pratt and Whitney Aircraft, Sikorsky Aircraft, and Perry Submarines. Over the years, Stuart unstintingly volunteered his time to speak to the community on a variety of subjects. Almost without exception, Stuart would tell a story or two about some of the “Dreamers, Schemers, and Scalawags” who contributed to our local history and who even provided the title of a book he published on many of them in 1994. Stuart always loved a good story. At age 81, Stuart contributed to the Fort Lauderdale Historical Society as a panel member at one of the Society’s “Hotels of Fort Lauderdale” lunchtime programs on October 7, 2003. His story about Tom Watson and the Las Olas Inn ranks among his very best: short, concise, descriptive, and a great punch line. Stuart always told a good story. All of us in the historical community admired his warm smile, gentle manner, and ready wit, Stuart will be sorely missed but not forgotten. William G. Crawford, Jr.

44 • Broward Legacy Past President, 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 954-765-4671.

Monetary donations may be made to: Broward County Historical Commission Trust Fund 151 SW 2 Street Fort Lauderdale, Florida 33301

Christopher Eck Collection A p u b l i c a tion of the B r o w a r d C o u n t y H i s t o r i c a l C o m m i s s i o n

volume 28 • number 1 • summer 2008

The Big Blow Broward County and the 1926 Hurricane The “Original” Palm Avenue Swing Bridge Book Review: Florida’s Big Dig