January 2007
23 posts
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I'll Drink to That
The 21st Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, ending prohibition of the sale and consumption of alcoholic beverages, did not take effect until December 5, 1933. Several months before that, on May 8, 1933, the Florida Legislature approved the sale of beer with a 3.2 alcohol content. The bill specified that the 3.2 beer could be sold in any county in the state, since it was considered...
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On this Date
On January 30, 1838, the Seminole warrior and leader Osceola died in captivity at Fort Moultrie, South Carolina. Osceola had been captured by American troops while he was negotiating under a flag of truce in late 1837. He was initially imprisoned at Fort Marion (St. Augustine), but was then transported with other captured Seminole leaders to South Carolina. Following his death, Osceola was buried...
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Back to Broward
By about 1913, a number of the major drainage canals in southeast Florida were completed, including the West Palm Beach, Hillsboro, New River and Miami canals. Although there was some new farmland created, the results were only “modestly successful as the principal canals generally failed to transport the imposed flood load.” Fearful that the efforts to drain the Everglades might...
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A First!
Pompano Beach’s first female mayor was Alice Lindner, who served in that capacity from 1958 to 1960.
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Raising Sand
In the late 1950s and early 1960s, it was estimated that Pompano Beach’s oceanfront was losing up to eight feet of sand per year. Some motels soon found that they had almost no beach, at all. To counter the erosion, the City of Pompano Beach dredged 150,000 cubic yards of material from Hillsboro Inlet and deposited it about one mile south of the inlet.
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Never Seen Again
James Edward Hamilton was 33 years old when he lost his life trying to cross the Hillsboro Inlet in 1887. He was the only Barefoot Mailman to perish while on duty.
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No Room at the Inn
In 1961, Pompano Beach received a good deal of unflattering publicity when a rabbi being interviewed to lead the congregation of Temple Shalom was denied a room at several hotels on the beach, in spite of visible vacancy signs. When the rabbi returned to Miami, he told the press of his experience in Pompano Beach, and the story soon ran in newspapers throughout the nation, including the New York...
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Centennial Meeting
The Pompano Beach Centennial Celebration Committee will meet on Wednesday, January 24th, 6:30 PM at the Dick & Miriam Hood Center, 217 NE 4th Avenue, Pompano Beach. All those interested in participating in planning the programs and activities to commemorate Pompano Beach 100th anniversary in 2008 are invited to attend.
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Oh, the Weather Outside is Frightful
On this date in 1977, for the first time since the Weather Bureau had been keeping records, snow fell in Broward County. That day the temperature fell into the twenties in some area.
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Coming Attraction
The Pompano Theatre was designed by architect C. Hobart Sherwood in a Mediterranean Revival style. Its construction reportedly cost $85,000. When it opened in January, 1927, it was the only movie house between Fort Lauderdale and Delray Beach.
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Coming Attraction
The Pompano Theatre was designed by architect C. Hobart Sherwood in a Mediterranean Revival style. Its construction reportedly cost $85,000. When it opened in January, 1927, it was the only movie house between Fort Lauderdale and Delray Beach.
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What's Out There?
In the 1920s, Pompano’s eastern boundary was NE 13th Avenue. Although a few structures east of that line, the area beyond the boundary was commonly known as “No Man’s Land.”
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By Any Other Name
Now known as the Sample-McDougald House, this landmark structure built in 1916 was once known by the name “Pine Haven.”
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Martin Luther King Day
If you will protest courageously, and yet with dignity and Christian love, when the history books are written in future generations, the historians will have to pause and say, “There lived a great people - a black people - who injected new meaning and dignity into the veins of civilization.”Martin Luther King, Jr.,from an address in Montgomery, Alabama, December 31, 1955.
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Seminole History and Culture
The Historical Society’s public program for January will feature David Blackardspeaking on the history and cultural artifacts of Florida’s Seminole Indians. Mr. Blackard has written on Seminole Folk Arts and was formerly director of the Seminole’s Ah-Tah-Thi-Ki Museum on the Big Cypress Reservation. The program will be held on January 17th, 7:00 PM at the Dick and Miriam Hood...
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Rev. Coleman
Reverend James Emanuel Coleman was pastor of Pompano’s Mount Calvary Baptist Church from 1923 to 1946. During much of this time, he preached at Mount Calvary on the first and third Sundays, and at Mount Zion Baptist Church, in Deerfield Beach, on the second and fourth Sundays. In 1954, Pompano Beach’s black elementary school was named in his honor.
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On This Day
Although still a territory, Florida’s first constitution was adopted on January 10, 1838 - not in Tallahassee, but in the town of St. Joseph on the Gulf coast. At that time, St. Joseph was the most populous town in Florida with about 6,000 residents, but a yellow fever epidemic in 1841 (followed by a hurricane in 1843) led to the town being abandoned.
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From the Horse's Mouth
According to one account, Jack Marqusee was influenced to purchase land that would later become the City of Margate when he was given advanced information on the location of the Sunshine State Parkway’s Pompano exit by Tom Manuel. Marquesee subsequently bought 1,700 acres west of the future turnpike.
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Money Went a Lot Farther in Those Days
In 1959, Pompano Beach’s new city hall was completed at a cost of $57,000.
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A New Market
The opening of the new Pompano State Farmers Market west of town on Hammondville Road in 1939 was not achieved without opposition. Business owners in Pompano’s downtown, as well as the Florida East Coast Railway, were against relocating the market. There was also a proposal to relocate the market north to Palm Beach County. Intense lobbying by Pompano civic leaders, led by Harvey Cheshire,...
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Fresh and Local
The local growing season is in full swing now, and the Pompano Beach Green Market has the very best of South Florida produce. The freshest fruits, vegetables, juices, seafood, baked goods, gourmet items, flowers and herbs, as well as a variety of other items and services are available every Saturday morning at the Green Market. The Market is open every Saturday from 8:00 AM to 1:00 PM in Pompano...
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Squatters' Rights?
During the 1930s, owners of undeveloped land in sparsely-populated north Broward often had problems with “squatters” who surreptitiously grew crops or, in some cases, lived on their property. Pompano businessman William Kester lost a lime grove in the vicinity of today’s Deerfield Beach Cove neighborhood when squatters started a wildfire in the area.
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On This Date
Henry Morrison Flagler, arguably the most important figure in South Florida history, was born on January 2, 1830, in Hopewell, New York. Flagler’s Florida East Coast Railway, and his promotion of tourism on the east coast of Florida, opened the area up for development in the early twentieth century.