When today’s Broward College opened its doors in 1960 as the Junior College of Broward County, the new educational institution had 28 faculty members teaching 701 students. Classes were held in temporary facilities that had served as the Fort Lauderdale Naval Air Station during World War II (now a part of Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport).
In World War II, battles were fought in the shadow of the [Hillsboro] lighthouse. German subs patrolled offshore; one grounded on the reefs. IN may 1942, the tanker Lubrofol was torpedoed off Hillsboro Beach. A naval patrol boat rescued all but two of the crew. In 1943, a German sub was captured close to shore; later, another was bombed and sunk south of the light.
Excerpted from The Florida Lighthouse Trail, edited by Thomas W. Taylor (Pineapple Press, 2001), p.60.
When Coral Ridge Properties began developing Coral Springs in the early 1960s, one of the first buildings to be constructed was a real estate office. In 1966, after CRP had finished a new administration building, the real estate office was moved by the City of Coral Springs and used as the city’s first police station.
Henry M. Flagler was often heard to say, “I would have been a rich man if it hadn’t been for Florida.”
Although his Florida enterprises may not have been as profitable as was his work with Standard Oil Company, while he was making this comment he was still one of the wealthiest men in America.
On December 14, 1911, a celebration was held in Deerfield to mark the beginning of construction of the Hillsboro Canal, which would run from the Florida East Coast Canal (today’s Intracoastal Waterway) to Lake Okeechobee. Florida Governor Albert Gilchrist was in attendance at the event.
When Pompano Beach’s southeastern neighbor, Lauderdale-by-the-Sea, was incorporated in 1927, Melvin I. Anglin was elected to be its first mayor. Presumably, he could count on at least one vote on the new city commission — his wife Sarah served as one of the five commissioners.
In 1969, the famous author and screen writer Elmore Leonard (Hombre, Get Shorty, 3:10 to Yuma, Freaky Deaky to name just a few) purchased a small motel on Pompano Beach for his mother . It is claimed that this was the inspiration for the Coconut Palms Resort Motel (which had no palms on the grounds) in Leonard’s 1982 novel the Cat Chaser.
When the first section of Pompano Beach Highlands was platted in the early 1950s, the streets were given names that have since been changed. Whereas the roads now have numbers conforming to the Pompano Beach street grid, they had previously been more imaginative:
James Emanuel Coleman, who served as the pastor of Pompano’s Mount Calvary Baptist Church from 1923 through 1946, was also, during that period, the pastor of Mount Zion Baptist Church in Deerfield Beach. He would preach on the first and third Sundays in Pompano and on the second and fourth Sundays in Deerfield.
Although Rev. Coleman was active in the north Broward communities for over two decades, he maintained his residence in Miami.
Wynmoor, he large retirement community located just west of Pompano Beach on Coconut Creek Parkway, was originally named Rossmoor Village. The name was derived from the founder of the development company that started the complex, Ross Cortese.
In 1973, Rossmoor Land Development Corporation purchased 640 acres from local land owners Kenneth Parker and Neil Tillotson for nine million dollars. Construction began on January 1, 1974.
