History of Fort Lauderdale, Florida
Encyclopedia
The history of Fort Lauderdale, Florida began more than 4,000 years ago with the arrival of the first aboriginal natives, and later with the Tequesta
Indians, who inhabited the area for more than a thousand years. Though control of the area changed among Spain
, England
, the United States
, and the Confederate States of America
, it remained largely undeveloped until the 20th century. The first settlement in the area was the site of a massacre at the beginning of the Second Seminole War
, an event which precipitated the abandonment of the settlement and set back development in the area by over 50 years. The first United States stockade
named Fort Lauderdale was built in 1838, and subsequently was a site of fighting during the Second Seminole War. The fort was abandoned in 1842, after the end of the war, and the area remained virtually unpopulated until the 1890s.
The Fort Lauderdale area was known as the "New River Settlement" prior to the 20th century. While a few pioneer families lived in the area since the late 1840s, it was not until the Florida East Coast Railroad built tracks through the area in the mid-1890s that any organized development began. The city was incorporated in 1911, and in 1915 was designated the county seat of newly-formed Broward County
.
Fort Lauderdale's first major development began in the 1920s, during the Florida land boom of the 1920s
. The 1926 Miami Hurricane
and the Great Depression
of the 1930s caused a great deal of economic dislocation. When World War II
began, Fort Lauderdale became a major US Navy base, with a Naval Air Station to train pilots, radar and fire control operator training schools, and a Coast Guard base at Port Everglades
. After the war ended, service members returned to the area, spurring an enormous population explosion which dwarfed the 1920s boom. Today, Fort Lauderdale is a major yacht
ing center, one of the nation's biggest tourist destinations, and the center of a metropolitan division of 1.8 million people.
Archaeological evidence indicates that the first natives in the Broward County area arrived approximately 4,000 years ago. At the time of initial Europe
an exploration, the area was occupied by the Tequesta tribe of Native Americans
. Contact by Spanish explorers beginning in the 16th century proved disastrous for native tribes, including the Tequesta, as the Europeans unwittingly brought with them diseases to which the native populations possessed no resistance, such as smallpox. For the Tequesta, disease, coupled with continuing conflict with their Calusa
neighbors, contributed greatly to their decline over the next two centuries. By 1763, there were only a few Tequesta left in Florida, and most of them were evacuated to Cuba when the Spanish ceded Florida to the British in 1763, under the terms of the Treaty of Paris (1763)
, which ended the Seven Years' War
. Bernard Romans
reported sighting many abandoned Tequesta villages when he visited the area in the 1770s. Subsequently, Florida returned to Spanish control under the terms of the Treaty of Paris in 1783
, which ended the American Revolutionary War
.
In the early 18th century, Creek Indians
had moved down from Alabama
and joined the Oconee
, themselves recent immigrants from Georgia
; together, they formed the core of the Seminole
tribe. Settlements by the English, and later Americans, gradually pushed the Seminoles southward. In 1788, roughly the same time that the Seminoles began to arrive in what was eventually to become Broward County
, two families arrived and set up homes along the New River—the Lewis family and the Robbins family, who had arrived in Florida from the Bahamas.
, ratified in 1821 between Spain and the United States, Florida was ceded to the United States in exchange for U.S. forfeiture of a $5 million debt owed by Spain. Florida became a U.S. Territory in 1821. By 1830, the de facto leader among the approximately 70 people living at the "New River Settlement" (present day Fort Lauderdale) was William Cooley
. Cooley was appointed by Governor William Pope Duval
as Justice of the Peace for the region.
In 1835, white settlers killed a Seminole chief named Alibama and burned his hut in a dispute. As Justice of Peace, Cooley jailed the settlers, but they were released after a hearing at the Monroe County
Court in Key West; the justification was insufficient evidence. The Seminoles blamed Cooley, saying he withheld evidence. The growing uneasiness between the Seminoles and the whites led to the Seminole migration to the Lake Okeechobee area. On 28 December 1835, a Seminole ambush known as the Dade Massacre started the Second Seminole War
.
On 3 January 1836, Cooley led a large shipwrecking expedition from the settlement to free the Gil Blas, a ship that had beached the previous September; the scale of the operation required most of the settlement's able men. The following day, a group of 15 to 20 Seminoles invaded the Cooley house, killed Cooley's wife and children, scalped the children's tutor, and burned the house to the ground. Although the Indians did not attack any other families, the massacre triggered the departure of the white settlers from the area. During the second Seminole War, Major William Lauderdale led his Tennessee Volunteers into the area. In 1838, Lauderdale erected a fort on the New River
at the site of the modern city of Fort Lauderdale (where SW 9th Avenue meets SW 4th Court). Lauderdale left after one month, but his name remained. The Seminoles destroyed the fort a few months later. Two more forts were built sequentially, each closer to the ocean. After the end of the Second Seminole War in 1842, the fort was abandoned, and the area remained largely empty, as the remaining Seminoles withdrew to Pine Island, and only a handful of settlers were known to live in all of what eventually became Broward County. While the area was technically a part of the Confederacy during the US Civil War, the only known white settlers in the area during the war was pro-unionist Isaiah Hall and his family, who had been run out of Miami by pro-confederacy sympathizers in 1863, and settled on the New River.
As there was no overland route into or out of the area, no significant settlement was undertaken until the 1890s. In 1892, however, the first road through the county was built, when a road was constructed from Lemon City, a settlement near the town of Miami, to Lantana, on the southern shore of Lake Worth, in Palm Beach County. A ferry crossing was established across the New River.
In 1893 a young Ohioan named Frank Stranahan arrived to operate the ferry across the New River; he built a house that served as the first trading post, post office, bank and hotel in the area. He later built three more houses on the original site along present-day U.S. 1
, the last of which was constructed in 1901. That house stands today as a museum
and is Broward County's
oldest standing structure. In 1896, the Florida East Coast Railway
(FEC) extended its line south from West Palm Beach
to Miami, with a station in Fort Lauderdale. The first train stopped in Fort Lauderdale on 22 February 1896. Further development was spurred by the construction of the first automobile bridge across the New River in 1904.
Fort Lauderdale was incorporated in 1911. In 1915, it became the county seat of the newly-established Broward County, which also consisted of the incorporated towns of Dania
, Deerfield
, Hallandale
,and Pompano
(all four towns later added "Beach" to their names) and the unincorporated settlement of Davie
. The first census after the city's incorporation, the 1920 census, documented a population of 2,065. In 1920, construction of the first canals in the city began, clearing the mangroves and creating the first "finger islands" that became synonymous with the city.
In February 1925, a state-commissioned census recorded 5,625 people in Fort Lauderdale, and a real-estate boom was in progress in South Florida. While the land rush was focused on the Miami area, communities throughout the region, including Fort Lauderdale, Pompano Beach
and Boca Raton
were swept up in the speculative buying frenzy. A census undertaken by the city during the first week of December 1925 counted a population of 15,315, an increase of 300% in less than 10 months.
By the end of the year, however, the region's infrastructure, unable to cope with the sudden influx, began to crack under the strain. Faced with a supply of materials which far exceeded its shipping capacity, the FEC instituted an embargo on shipping on 18 August 1925, restricting transport to fuel, petroleum, livestock, and perishable goods. On 29 October, all shipments except foodstuffs were eliminated, in an effort to reduce the transport backlog the railroad was experiencing.
The Florida land boom collapsed in 1926. At that time, the only methods of bringing supplies into the area were on the FEC's single track or through the Port of Miami
, as Port Everglades was not yet completed. On 10 January 1926, the schooner Prinz Valdemar
sank in the channel of the Port of Miami, trapping eleven vessels and effectively blockading the port until 29 February, when the Army Corps of Engineers dug a new channel around the capsized vessel. Real estate firms solely financed by continuous development began to fail, and the financial crisis began to extend to larger developers. The Miami Hurricane of 1926, with the highest sustained winds ever recorded in the state of Florida, was the final blow. Fort Lauderdale suffered extensive damage from the hurricane, which killed 50 people and destroyed an estimated 3500 structures in the city. In February 1928, Port Everglades was opened.
The city had just begun to recover from the 1926 hurricane when another devastating hurricane struck, this time to the north, in Palm Beach County. The 1928 Okeechobee Hurricane
only slightly damaged Fort Lauderdale, but the enormous death toll contributed to the perception that Florida was not the paradise that had been promoted by developers. When the Great Depression struck in 1929, it had little effect on the city, which was already in a depression from the real estate bubble burst three years earlier.
While the collapse of the land boom and the depression had reversed the sharp growth of 1925, the population of the city began to grow at a moderate pace. In 1930, there were 8666 people in the city. That number had risen to 17,996 by 1940.
The United States did not enter World War II until 1941, but Fort Lauderdale felt the effect of the war sooner than most of the rest of the country. In December 1939, a British cruiser chased the German freighter Arauca into Port Everglades, where she remained until the US seized her in 1941, when Germany declared war on the US.
The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and the United States' subsequent entry into the war had almost immediate effects on the city. Blackouts were imposed, and several allied vessels were torpedoed by German U-boats, including at least one ship within sight of the shoreline. The first Medal of Honor
recipient in World War II was a graduate of Fort Lauderdale High School
; Second Lieutenant Alexander R. Nininger Jr.
was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor on 29 January 1942 for his actions on 12 January 1942 in Abucay, Bataan
, Philippines
, during the Japanese invasion.
By mid-1942, the United States Navy had converted Merle Fogg Field
into Naval Air Station Fort Lauderdale, and had constructed two satellite landing fields, one at West Prospect Field
, and the other in Pompano Beach (which later became Pompano Beach Airpark
, home of one of the Goodyear Blimp
s). By the end of the war, the station had trained thousands of Navy pilots, including future congressman, UN Ambassador
, Director of Central Intelligence
, and President of the United States
George H. W. Bush
. Additional facilities in the city included radar
and range finding schools and a base at Port Everglades.
On 5 December 1945, the five planes of Flight 19
departed on a routine training mission from NAS Fort Lauderdale and were never seen again. It is presumed that the flight leader became disoriented and led the other planes out of range of land, causing the planes to run out of fuel and crash, but no wreckage has been found. The strange disappearance of the flight and the coincidental explosion which destroyed Training 49, a plane involved in a search for the missing squadron, contributed to the Bermuda Triangle
myth.
In 1946, the Navy decommissioned its airfields in the area; NAS Fort Lauderdale became Broward County International Airport (later Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport) and West Prospect Field became Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport, the eleventh-busiest general aviation airport in the country.
One year later, the 1947 Fort Lauderdale Hurricane
, an unusually large (120 mile radius) Category 4 hurricane, came ashore just north of the city, causing extensive damage due to flooding. Earlier storms that year had saturated the ground, and the tremendous rainfall from this slow-moving storm left the city (and much of the state) under several inches of water for weeks.
In the 1950s, the city became a favorite destination for college students for spring break
, a tradition immortalized in the 1960 film Where the Boys Are
. Every year in February, March, and April, tens of thousands of college students would come to relax at the beaches and party at the many bars along A1A
.
The 1960 Census counted 83,648 people in the city, about 230% of the 1950 figure. A 1967 report estimated that the city was approximately 85% developed, and the 1970 population figure was 139,590
After 1970, as Fort Lauderdale became essentially built out, growth in the area shifted to suburbs to the west. As cities such as Coral Springs
, Miramar
, and Pembroke Pines
experienced explosive growth, Fort Lauderdale's population stagnated, and the city actually shrank by almost 4,000 people between 1980, when the city had 153,279 people, and 1990, when the population was 149,377. A slight rebound brought the population back up to 152,397 at the 2000 census. Since 2000, Fort Lauderdale has gained slightly over 18,000 residents through annexation of seven neighborhoods in unincorporated Broward County.
Beginning in 1986, with the passage of a bond issue, the city of Fort Lauderdale began an aggressive effort to connect the city's arts and entertainment district, the historic downtown area, and the Las Olas shopping and beach district, and to shake its long-standing reputation as a cultural wasteland and college-student party town. The centerpiece of the cultural renaissance was the Riverwalk project, which runs along the New River from the Broward Center for the Performing Arts
to the Stranahan House
, with work in progress to extend the walk to Las Olas Boulevard
. The Museum of Art | Fort Lauderdale
, which moved into its current location in 1986, and the Museum of Discovery and Science
, which opened in its current location in 1992, are cornerstones of the Riverwalk project. A number of upscale high-rise residential towers along the river have encouraged the development of high-end shopping and entertainment throughout the downtown region.
After a rowdy 1985 spring break season, in which an estimated 350,000 college tourists caused disruption for several weeks in the spring, the city passed a series of restrictive laws in an effort to reduce the mayhem caused by the spring break throngs, and the mayor, Robert Dressler
, appeared on Good Morning America
to tell college students they were not welcome any longer in Fort Lauderdale. Overnight parking was banned near the beach and an open-container law prohibiting the consumption of alcohol in public places was enacted. The following spring, the city denied MTV a permit to set up their stage on the beach, and approximately 2,500 people were arrested as the new laws were strictly enforced. In 1985, 350,000 college students spent about $110 million during the nine-week spring break season; by 2004, 700,000 visitors, mostly families or European tourists, spent $800 million during the same period. By 2006, the number of college students visiting for spring break was estimated at approximately 10,000.
Tequesta
The Tequesta Native American tribe, at the time of first European contact, occupied an area along the southeastern Atlantic coast of Florida...
Indians, who inhabited the area for more than a thousand years. Though control of the area changed among Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, and the Confederate States of America
Confederate States of America
The Confederate States of America was a government set up from 1861 to 1865 by 11 Southern slave states of the United States of America that had declared their secession from the U.S...
, it remained largely undeveloped until the 20th century. The first settlement in the area was the site of a massacre at the beginning of the Second Seminole War
Second Seminole War
The Second Seminole War, also known as the Florida War, was a conflict from 1835 to 1842 in Florida between various groups of Native Americans collectively known as Seminoles and the United States, part of a series of conflicts called the Seminole Wars...
, an event which precipitated the abandonment of the settlement and set back development in the area by over 50 years. The first United States stockade
Stockade
A stockade is an enclosure of palisades and tall walls made of logs placed side by side vertically with the tops sharpened to provide security.-Stockade as a security fence:...
named Fort Lauderdale was built in 1838, and subsequently was a site of fighting during the Second Seminole War. The fort was abandoned in 1842, after the end of the war, and the area remained virtually unpopulated until the 1890s.
The Fort Lauderdale area was known as the "New River Settlement" prior to the 20th century. While a few pioneer families lived in the area since the late 1840s, it was not until the Florida East Coast Railroad built tracks through the area in the mid-1890s that any organized development began. The city was incorporated in 1911, and in 1915 was designated the county seat of newly-formed Broward County
Broward County, Florida
-2000 Census:As of the census of 2000, there were 1,623,018 people, 654,445 households, and 411,645 families residing in the county. The population density was 1,346 people per square mile . There were 741,043 housing units at an average density of 615 per square mile...
.
Fort Lauderdale's first major development began in the 1920s, during the Florida land boom of the 1920s
Florida land boom of the 1920s
The Florida land boom of the 1920s was Florida's first real estate bubble, which burst in 1925, leaving behind entire new cities and the remains of failed development projects such as Aladdin City in south Miami-Dade County and Isola di Lolando in north Biscayne Bay...
. The 1926 Miami Hurricane
1926 Miami Hurricane
The 1926 Miami hurricane was a Category 4 hurricane that devastated Miami in September 1926. The storm also caused significant damage in the Florida Panhandle, the U.S. state of Alabama, and the Bahamas...
and the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
of the 1930s caused a great deal of economic dislocation. When World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
began, Fort Lauderdale became a major US Navy base, with a Naval Air Station to train pilots, radar and fire control operator training schools, and a Coast Guard base at Port Everglades
Port Everglades
Port Everglades is a port in Broward County, Florida. As one of South Florida's leading economic powerhouses, Port Everglades is the gateway for international trade and cruise vacations. Already one of the three busiest cruise ports worldwide, Port Everglades is also one of Florida's leading...
. After the war ended, service members returned to the area, spurring an enormous population explosion which dwarfed the 1920s boom. Today, Fort Lauderdale is a major yacht
Yacht
A yacht is a recreational boat or ship. The term originated from the Dutch Jacht meaning "hunt". It was originally defined as a light fast sailing vessel used by the Dutch navy to pursue pirates and other transgressors around and into the shallow waters of the Low Countries...
ing center, one of the nation's biggest tourist destinations, and the center of a metropolitan division of 1.8 million people.
Prior to 1820
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
an exploration, the area was occupied by the Tequesta tribe of Native Americans
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
. Contact by Spanish explorers beginning in the 16th century proved disastrous for native tribes, including the Tequesta, as the Europeans unwittingly brought with them diseases to which the native populations possessed no resistance, such as smallpox. For the Tequesta, disease, coupled with continuing conflict with their Calusa
Calusa
The Calusa were a Native American people who lived on the coast and along the inner waterways of Florida's southwest coast. Calusa society developed from that of archaic peoples of the Everglades region; at the time of European contact, the Calusa were the people of the Caloosahatchee culture...
neighbors, contributed greatly to their decline over the next two centuries. By 1763, there were only a few Tequesta left in Florida, and most of them were evacuated to Cuba when the Spanish ceded Florida to the British in 1763, under the terms of the Treaty of Paris (1763)
Treaty of Paris (1763)
The Treaty of Paris, often called the Peace of Paris, or the Treaty of 1763, was signed on 10 February 1763, by the kingdoms of Great Britain, France and Spain, with Portugal in agreement. It ended the French and Indian War/Seven Years' War...
, which ended the Seven Years' War
Seven Years' War
The Seven Years' War was a global military war between 1756 and 1763, involving most of the great powers of the time and affecting Europe, North America, Central America, the West African coast, India, and the Philippines...
. Bernard Romans
Bernard Romans
Bernard Romans was a Dutch-born American navigator, surveyor, cartographer, naturalist, engineer, soldier, promoter and writer. His best known work, A Concise Natural History of East and West Florida, published in 1775, is a valuable source of information about the Floridas during the period of...
reported sighting many abandoned Tequesta villages when he visited the area in the 1770s. Subsequently, Florida returned to Spanish control under the terms of the Treaty of Paris in 1783
Treaty of Paris (1783)
The Treaty of Paris, signed on September 3, 1783, ended the American Revolutionary War between Great Britain on the one hand and the United States of America and its allies on the other. The other combatant nations, France, Spain and the Dutch Republic had separate agreements; for details of...
, which ended the American Revolutionary War
American Revolutionary War
The American Revolutionary War , the American War of Independence, or simply the Revolutionary War, began as a war between the Kingdom of Great Britain and thirteen British colonies in North America, and ended in a global war between several European great powers.The war was the result of the...
.
In the early 18th century, Creek Indians
Creek people
The Muscogee , also known as the Creek or Creeks, are a Native American people traditionally from the southeastern United States. Mvskoke is their name in traditional spelling. The modern Muscogee live primarily in Oklahoma, Alabama, Georgia, and Florida...
had moved down from Alabama
Alabama
Alabama is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west. Alabama ranks 30th in total land area and ranks second in the size of its inland...
and joined the Oconee
Hitchiti
The Hitchiti were a Muskogean-speaking tribe formerly residing chiefly in a town of the same name on the east bank of the Chattahoochee River, 4 miles below Chiaha, in west Georgia. They spoke the Hitchiti language, which was mutually intelligible with Mikasuki; both tribes were part of the loose...
, themselves recent immigrants from Georgia
Georgia (U.S. state)
Georgia is a state located in the southeastern United States. It was established in 1732, the last of the original Thirteen Colonies. The state is named after King George II of Great Britain. Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2, 1788...
; together, they formed the core of the Seminole
Seminole
The Seminole are a Native American people originally of Florida, who now reside primarily in that state and Oklahoma. The Seminole nation emerged in a process of ethnogenesis out of groups of Native Americans, most significantly Creeks from what is now Georgia and Alabama, who settled in Florida in...
tribe. Settlements by the English, and later Americans, gradually pushed the Seminoles southward. In 1788, roughly the same time that the Seminoles began to arrive in what was eventually to become Broward County
Broward County, Florida
-2000 Census:As of the census of 2000, there were 1,623,018 people, 654,445 households, and 411,645 families residing in the county. The population density was 1,346 people per square mile . There were 741,043 housing units at an average density of 615 per square mile...
, two families arrived and set up homes along the New River—the Lewis family and the Robbins family, who had arrived in Florida from the Bahamas.
1820-1892
Under the terms of the Adams-Onís TreatyAdams-Onís Treaty
The Adams–Onís Treaty of 1819, also known as the Transcontinental Treaty or the Purchase of Florida, was a treaty between the United States and Spain in 1819 that gave Florida to the U.S. and set out a boundary between the U.S. and New Spain . It settled a standing border dispute between the two...
, ratified in 1821 between Spain and the United States, Florida was ceded to the United States in exchange for U.S. forfeiture of a $5 million debt owed by Spain. Florida became a U.S. Territory in 1821. By 1830, the de facto leader among the approximately 70 people living at the "New River Settlement" (present day Fort Lauderdale) was William Cooley
William Cooley
William Cooley was one of the first American settlers, and a regional leader, in what is now known as Broward County, in the U.S. state of Florida. His family was killed by Seminoles in 1836, during the Second Seminole War...
. Cooley was appointed by Governor William Pope Duval
William Pope Duval
William Pope Duval was the first civilian governor of Florida Territory, serving from April 17, 1822 until April 24, 1834.-Early life:...
as Justice of the Peace for the region.
In 1835, white settlers killed a Seminole chief named Alibama and burned his hut in a dispute. As Justice of Peace, Cooley jailed the settlers, but they were released after a hearing at the Monroe County
Monroe County, Florida
Monroe County is a county located in the state of Florida. As of 2000, the population was 79,589. The U.S. Census Bureau 2006 estimate for the county was 74,737....
Court in Key West; the justification was insufficient evidence. The Seminoles blamed Cooley, saying he withheld evidence. The growing uneasiness between the Seminoles and the whites led to the Seminole migration to the Lake Okeechobee area. On 28 December 1835, a Seminole ambush known as the Dade Massacre started the Second Seminole War
Second Seminole War
The Second Seminole War, also known as the Florida War, was a conflict from 1835 to 1842 in Florida between various groups of Native Americans collectively known as Seminoles and the United States, part of a series of conflicts called the Seminole Wars...
.
On 3 January 1836, Cooley led a large shipwrecking expedition from the settlement to free the Gil Blas, a ship that had beached the previous September; the scale of the operation required most of the settlement's able men. The following day, a group of 15 to 20 Seminoles invaded the Cooley house, killed Cooley's wife and children, scalped the children's tutor, and burned the house to the ground. Although the Indians did not attack any other families, the massacre triggered the departure of the white settlers from the area. During the second Seminole War, Major William Lauderdale led his Tennessee Volunteers into the area. In 1838, Lauderdale erected a fort on the New River
New River (Broward County, Florida)
The New River is a river in South Florida, USA. The river originates in the Everglades and flows east. After passing through Fort Lauderdale, the river enters the Atlantic Ocean at Port Everglades cut. The river is entirely within Broward County and is composed from the junction of three main...
at the site of the modern city of Fort Lauderdale (where SW 9th Avenue meets SW 4th Court). Lauderdale left after one month, but his name remained. The Seminoles destroyed the fort a few months later. Two more forts were built sequentially, each closer to the ocean. After the end of the Second Seminole War in 1842, the fort was abandoned, and the area remained largely empty, as the remaining Seminoles withdrew to Pine Island, and only a handful of settlers were known to live in all of what eventually became Broward County. While the area was technically a part of the Confederacy during the US Civil War, the only known white settlers in the area during the war was pro-unionist Isaiah Hall and his family, who had been run out of Miami by pro-confederacy sympathizers in 1863, and settled on the New River.
As there was no overland route into or out of the area, no significant settlement was undertaken until the 1890s. In 1892, however, the first road through the county was built, when a road was constructed from Lemon City, a settlement near the town of Miami, to Lantana, on the southern shore of Lake Worth, in Palm Beach County. A ferry crossing was established across the New River.
1893-1925
U.S. Route 1 in Florida
U.S. Route 1 in Florida runs along the state's east coast from Key West to its crossing of the St. Marys River into Georgia north of Boulogne, and south of Folkston. US 1 was designated through Florida when the U.S. Highway System was established in 1926.US 1 runs in the state of Florida, and...
, the last of which was constructed in 1901. That house stands today as a museum
Stranahan House
The Stranahan House, also known as the Pioneer House, is an historic building located at 335 Southeast 6th Avenue in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, United States....
and is Broward County's
Broward County, Florida
-2000 Census:As of the census of 2000, there were 1,623,018 people, 654,445 households, and 411,645 families residing in the county. The population density was 1,346 people per square mile . There were 741,043 housing units at an average density of 615 per square mile...
oldest standing structure. In 1896, the Florida East Coast Railway
Florida East Coast Railway
The Florida East Coast Railway is a Class II railroad operating in the U.S. state of Florida; in the past, it has been a Class I railroad.Built primarily in the last quarter of the 19th century and the first decade of the 20th century, the FEC was a project of Standard Oil principal Henry Morrison...
(FEC) extended its line south from West Palm Beach
West Palm Beach, Florida
West Palm Beach, is a city located on the Atlantic coast in southeastern Florida and is the most populous city in and county seat of Palm Beach County, the third most populous county in Florida with a 2010 population of 1,320,134. The city is also the oldest incorporated municipality in South Florida...
to Miami, with a station in Fort Lauderdale. The first train stopped in Fort Lauderdale on 22 February 1896. Further development was spurred by the construction of the first automobile bridge across the New River in 1904.
Fort Lauderdale was incorporated in 1911. In 1915, it became the county seat of the newly-established Broward County, which also consisted of the incorporated towns of Dania
Dania Beach, Florida
Dania Beach is a city in Broward County, Florida, United States. As of the 2010 census, the city's population was 29,639. It is part of the South Florida metropolitan area, which was home to 5,564,635 people at the 2010 census. Dania Beach is the location of one of the largest jai alai frontons in...
, Deerfield
Deerfield Beach, Florida
Deerfield Beach is a city in Broward County, Florida, USA. The city is named for the numerous deer that once roamed the area. As of the 2010 United States Census, the population was 75,018...
, Hallandale
Hallandale Beach, Florida
Hallandale Beach is a city in Broward County, Florida, United States. The city is named after Luther Halland, a worker for Henry Flagler's Florida East Coast Railroad. As of the 2010 census, the population was 37,113...
,and Pompano
Pompano Beach, Florida
Pompano Beach ) is a city in Broward County, Florida, along the coast of the Atlantic Ocean just to the north of Fort Lauderdale. The nearby Hillsboro Inlet forms part of the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway. As of the 2010 census, the city's population was 99,845...
(all four towns later added "Beach" to their names) and the unincorporated settlement of Davie
Davie, Florida
Davie is a town in Broward County, Florida, United States. The town's population was 91,992 at the 2010 census.- History :Davie was founded by Jake Tannebaum and Tamara Toussaint. The original name of the town was Zona. In 1909 R.P. Davie assisted then Governor Broward by draining the swamplands...
. The first census after the city's incorporation, the 1920 census, documented a population of 2,065. In 1920, construction of the first canals in the city began, clearing the mangroves and creating the first "finger islands" that became synonymous with the city.
In February 1925, a state-commissioned census recorded 5,625 people in Fort Lauderdale, and a real-estate boom was in progress in South Florida. While the land rush was focused on the Miami area, communities throughout the region, including Fort Lauderdale, Pompano Beach
Pompano Beach, Florida
Pompano Beach ) is a city in Broward County, Florida, along the coast of the Atlantic Ocean just to the north of Fort Lauderdale. The nearby Hillsboro Inlet forms part of the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway. As of the 2010 census, the city's population was 99,845...
and Boca Raton
Boca Raton, Florida
Boca Raton is a city in Palm Beach County, Florida, USA, incorporated in May 1925. In the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 74,764; the 2006 population recorded by the U.S. Census Bureau was 86,396. However, the majority of the people under the postal address of Boca Raton, about...
were swept up in the speculative buying frenzy. A census undertaken by the city during the first week of December 1925 counted a population of 15,315, an increase of 300% in less than 10 months.
By the end of the year, however, the region's infrastructure, unable to cope with the sudden influx, began to crack under the strain. Faced with a supply of materials which far exceeded its shipping capacity, the FEC instituted an embargo on shipping on 18 August 1925, restricting transport to fuel, petroleum, livestock, and perishable goods. On 29 October, all shipments except foodstuffs were eliminated, in an effort to reduce the transport backlog the railroad was experiencing.
1926-1945
Port of Miami
The Dante B. Fascell Port of Miami is a seaport located in Biscayne Bay in Miami, Florida, United States. It is connected to Downtown Miami by Port Boulevard, a bridge over the Intracoastal Waterway. The port is located on Dodge Island, which is the combination of three historic islands that have...
, as Port Everglades was not yet completed. On 10 January 1926, the schooner Prinz Valdemar
Prinz Valdemar
The Prinz Valdemar was a 241' steel hulled schooner named after Prince Valdemar of Denmark. It was built in 1891 in Elsinore, Denmark along with its sister ship Prinsesse Marie, as one of the last great ships of the sailing ship era. It was based in Esbjerg, although registered on the nearby island...
sank in the channel of the Port of Miami, trapping eleven vessels and effectively blockading the port until 29 February, when the Army Corps of Engineers dug a new channel around the capsized vessel. Real estate firms solely financed by continuous development began to fail, and the financial crisis began to extend to larger developers. The Miami Hurricane of 1926, with the highest sustained winds ever recorded in the state of Florida, was the final blow. Fort Lauderdale suffered extensive damage from the hurricane, which killed 50 people and destroyed an estimated 3500 structures in the city. In February 1928, Port Everglades was opened.
The city had just begun to recover from the 1926 hurricane when another devastating hurricane struck, this time to the north, in Palm Beach County. The 1928 Okeechobee Hurricane
1928 Okeechobee Hurricane
The Okeechobee hurricane, or San Felipe Segundo hurricane, was a deadly hurricane that struck the Leeward Islands, Puerto Rico, the Bahamas, and Florida in September of the 1928 Atlantic hurricane season...
only slightly damaged Fort Lauderdale, but the enormous death toll contributed to the perception that Florida was not the paradise that had been promoted by developers. When the Great Depression struck in 1929, it had little effect on the city, which was already in a depression from the real estate bubble burst three years earlier.
While the collapse of the land boom and the depression had reversed the sharp growth of 1925, the population of the city began to grow at a moderate pace. In 1930, there were 8666 people in the city. That number had risen to 17,996 by 1940.
The United States did not enter World War II until 1941, but Fort Lauderdale felt the effect of the war sooner than most of the rest of the country. In December 1939, a British cruiser chased the German freighter Arauca into Port Everglades, where she remained until the US seized her in 1941, when Germany declared war on the US.
The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and the United States' subsequent entry into the war had almost immediate effects on the city. Blackouts were imposed, and several allied vessels were torpedoed by German U-boats, including at least one ship within sight of the shoreline. The first Medal of Honor
Medal of Honor
The Medal of Honor is the highest military decoration awarded by the United States government. It is bestowed by the President, in the name of Congress, upon members of the United States Armed Forces who distinguish themselves through "conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his or her...
recipient in World War II was a graduate of Fort Lauderdale High School
Fort Lauderdale High School
school song = sang to the tune of "Flow Gently Sweet Afton" Fort Lauderdale High School is a secondary school located in Fort Lauderdale, Florida serving students in grades 9 through 12...
; Second Lieutenant Alexander R. Nininger Jr.
Alexander R. Nininger
Alexander R. Nininger Jr. was a Second Lieutenant of the Philippine Scouts who received the Medal of Honor during World War II.-Biography:...
was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor on 29 January 1942 for his actions on 12 January 1942 in Abucay, Bataan
Abucay, Bataan
Abucay is a 3rd class municipality in the province of Bataan, Philippines. According to the latest census, it has a population of 38,554 people.-Barangays:Abucay is politically subdivided into 9 barangays.* Bangkal* Calaylayan * Capitangan...
, Philippines
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
, during the Japanese invasion.
Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport
Fort Lauderdale – Hollywood International Airport is an international commercial airport located in unincorporated Broward County, Florida, three miles southwest of the central business district of Fort Lauderdale...
into Naval Air Station Fort Lauderdale, and had constructed two satellite landing fields, one at West Prospect Field
Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport
Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport is a general aviation airport located within the city limits of Fort Lauderdale, in Broward County, Florida, United States, five miles north of downtown Fort Lauderdale...
, and the other in Pompano Beach (which later became Pompano Beach Airpark
Pompano Beach Airpark
Pompano Beach Airpark is a public airport located one mile northeast of the central business district of Pompano Beach, in Broward County, Florida, United States. This airport is publicly owned by City of Pompano Beach.Although most U.S...
, home of one of the Goodyear Blimp
Goodyear Blimp
The Goodyear Blimp is the collective name for a fleet of blimps operated by Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company for advertising purposes and for use as a television camera platform for aerial views of sporting events...
s). By the end of the war, the station had trained thousands of Navy pilots, including future congressman, UN Ambassador
United States Ambassador to the United Nations
The United States Ambassador to the United Nations is the leader of the U.S. delegation, the U.S. Mission to the United Nations. The position is more formally known as the "Permanent Representative of the United States of America to the United Nations, with the rank and status of Ambassador...
, Director of Central Intelligence
Director of Central Intelligence
The Office of United States Director of Central Intelligence was the head of the United States Central Intelligence Agency, the principal intelligence advisor to the President and the National Security Council, and the coordinator of intelligence activities among and between the various United...
, and President of the United States
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
George H. W. Bush
George H. W. Bush
George Herbert Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 41st President of the United States . He had previously served as the 43rd Vice President of the United States , a congressman, an ambassador, and Director of Central Intelligence.Bush was born in Milton, Massachusetts, to...
. Additional facilities in the city included radar
Radar
Radar is an object-detection system which uses radio waves to determine the range, altitude, direction, or speed of objects. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, weather formations, and terrain. The radar dish or antenna transmits pulses of radio...
and range finding schools and a base at Port Everglades.
On 5 December 1945, the five planes of Flight 19
Flight 19
Flight 19 was the designation of five TBM Avenger torpedo bombers that disappeared on December 5, 1945 during a United States Navy-authorized overwater navigation training flight from Naval Air Station Fort Lauderdale, Florida. All 14 airmen on the flight were lost, as were all 13 crew members of a...
departed on a routine training mission from NAS Fort Lauderdale and were never seen again. It is presumed that the flight leader became disoriented and led the other planes out of range of land, causing the planes to run out of fuel and crash, but no wreckage has been found. The strange disappearance of the flight and the coincidental explosion which destroyed Training 49, a plane involved in a search for the missing squadron, contributed to the Bermuda Triangle
Bermuda Triangle
The Bermuda Triangle, also known as the Devil's Triangle, is a region in the western part of the North Atlantic Ocean where a number of aircraft and surface vessels allegedly disappeared under mysterious circumstances....
myth.
After 1945
One year later, the 1947 Fort Lauderdale Hurricane
1947 Fort Lauderdale Hurricane
The Fort Lauderdale Hurricane was an intense Category 5 hurricane that affected the Bahamas, Florida, Louisiana, and Mississippi in September of the 1947 Atlantic hurricane season...
, an unusually large (120 mile radius) Category 4 hurricane, came ashore just north of the city, causing extensive damage due to flooding. Earlier storms that year had saturated the ground, and the tremendous rainfall from this slow-moving storm left the city (and much of the state) under several inches of water for weeks.
In the 1950s, the city became a favorite destination for college students for spring break
Spring break
Spring break – also known as March break, Study week or Reading week in the United Kingdom and some parts of Canada – is a recess in early spring at universities and schools in the United States, Canada, mainland China, Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Mexico, the Dominican Republic, the United...
, a tradition immortalized in the 1960 film Where the Boys Are
Where the Boys Are
The kind of cool modern jazz popularized by such acts as Dave Brubeck, Gerry Mulligan, and Chico Hamilton, then in the vanguard of the college music market, features in a number of scenes with Basil...
. Every year in February, March, and April, tens of thousands of college students would come to relax at the beaches and party at the many bars along A1A
Florida State Road A1A
State Road A1A is a Florida State Road that runs mostly along the Atlantic Ocean, with sections from Key West at the southern tip of Florida, to Callahan, just south of Georgia. It is the main road through most oceanfront towns. SR A1A is designated the A1A Scenic and Historic Coastal Highway, a...
.
The 1960 Census counted 83,648 people in the city, about 230% of the 1950 figure. A 1967 report estimated that the city was approximately 85% developed, and the 1970 population figure was 139,590
After 1970, as Fort Lauderdale became essentially built out, growth in the area shifted to suburbs to the west. As cities such as Coral Springs
Coral Springs, Florida
Coral Springs, officially chartered July 10, 1963, is a city in Broward County, Florida, United States, approximately northwest of Fort Lauderdale. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city had a population of 121,096...
, Miramar
Miramar, Florida
Miramar is a city in Broward County, Florida, United States. The city was named after the Miramar district of Havana, Cuba. As of the 2010 census, the population was 122,041...
, and Pembroke Pines
Pembroke Pines, Florida
Pembroke Pines is a city in Broward County, Florida, United States. The city had a population of 154,750 at the 2010 census, making it the second most populous city in Broward County, the tenth most populous in Florida, and the 150th most populous in the United States...
experienced explosive growth, Fort Lauderdale's population stagnated, and the city actually shrank by almost 4,000 people between 1980, when the city had 153,279 people, and 1990, when the population was 149,377. A slight rebound brought the population back up to 152,397 at the 2000 census. Since 2000, Fort Lauderdale has gained slightly over 18,000 residents through annexation of seven neighborhoods in unincorporated Broward County.
Beginning in 1986, with the passage of a bond issue, the city of Fort Lauderdale began an aggressive effort to connect the city's arts and entertainment district, the historic downtown area, and the Las Olas shopping and beach district, and to shake its long-standing reputation as a cultural wasteland and college-student party town. The centerpiece of the cultural renaissance was the Riverwalk project, which runs along the New River from the Broward Center for the Performing Arts
Broward Center for the Performing Arts
The Broward Center for the Performing Arts is a large multi-venue theater and entertainment complex located in the heart of downtown Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA....
to the Stranahan House
Stranahan House
The Stranahan House, also known as the Pioneer House, is an historic building located at 335 Southeast 6th Avenue in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, United States....
, with work in progress to extend the walk to Las Olas Boulevard
Las Olas Boulevard
Las Olas Boulevard is a popular thoroughfare in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, United States that runs from Andrews Avenue in the Central Business District to A1A and Fort Lauderdale Beach. The easternmost section of the boulevard is interlaced with canals and waterfront homes...
. The Museum of Art | Fort Lauderdale
Museum of Art Fort Lauderdale
The Museum of Art | Fort Lauderdale is an art museum in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Originating in 1958 as the Fort Lauderdale Art Center, the museum is located in a modernist building designed by Edward Larrabee Barnes. The current building was constructed in 1986, with a wing added in 2001...
, which moved into its current location in 1986, and the Museum of Discovery and Science
Museum of Discovery and Science
The Museum of Discovery and Science is a museum located in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. It is one of the largest museums of its kind in Florida, and has the most visitors of any museum in the state. The museum features its own AutoNation IMAX theater, and shows 3-D IMAX films in which viewers wear...
, which opened in its current location in 1992, are cornerstones of the Riverwalk project. A number of upscale high-rise residential towers along the river have encouraged the development of high-end shopping and entertainment throughout the downtown region.
After a rowdy 1985 spring break season, in which an estimated 350,000 college tourists caused disruption for several weeks in the spring, the city passed a series of restrictive laws in an effort to reduce the mayhem caused by the spring break throngs, and the mayor, Robert Dressler
Robert A. Dressler
Robert A. Dressler is a lawyer and politician. His most prominent public office was mayor of Fort Lauderdale, Florida.-Early life:...
, appeared on Good Morning America
Good Morning America
Good Morning America is an American morning news and talk show that is broadcast on the ABC television network; it debuted on November 3, 1975. The weekday program airs for two hours; a third hour aired between 2007 and 2008 exclusively on ABC News Now...
to tell college students they were not welcome any longer in Fort Lauderdale. Overnight parking was banned near the beach and an open-container law prohibiting the consumption of alcohol in public places was enacted. The following spring, the city denied MTV a permit to set up their stage on the beach, and approximately 2,500 people were arrested as the new laws were strictly enforced. In 1985, 350,000 college students spent about $110 million during the nine-week spring break season; by 2004, 700,000 visitors, mostly families or European tourists, spent $800 million during the same period. By 2006, the number of college students visiting for spring break was estimated at approximately 10,000.
See also
- Fort Lauderdale, FloridaFort Lauderdale, FloridaFort Lauderdale is a city in the U.S. state of Florida, on the Atlantic coast. It is the county seat of Broward County. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 165,521. It is a principal city of the South Florida metropolitan area, which was home to 5,564,635 people at the 2010...
- South Florida metropolitan areaSouth Florida metropolitan areaThe South Florida metropolitan area, also known as the Miami metropolitan area, and designated the Miami–Fort Lauderdale–Pompano Beach, FL Metropolitan Statistical Area by the U.S...
- Broward County, FloridaBroward County, Florida-2000 Census:As of the census of 2000, there were 1,623,018 people, 654,445 households, and 411,645 families residing in the county. The population density was 1,346 people per square mile . There were 741,043 housing units at an average density of 615 per square mile...
- History of FloridaHistory of FloridaThe history of Florida can be traced back to when the first Native Americans began to inhabit the peninsula as early as 14,000 years ago. Recorded history begins with the arrival of Europeans to Florida, beginning with the Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de León, who explored the area in 1513...
- New River, Broward County, FL