Pompano Beach Historical Society

The growing season in southern Florida was from about October through April. In the months in between, there just wasn’t much income for those who relied entirely on agriculture for their livilyhoods.

It was not uncommon in the early years for pioneer families to move out of Pompano in the summer to grow crops in northern Florida or elsewhere. As time passed, most of the farm owners became permanent residents, but many of the farmworkers had to follow the crops.

Many traveled to northern Florida locations such as Hastings to pick potatoes, or Hawthorne to pick lima beans. When those crops were in, they might continue on north, as far as Virginia or farther, wherever farm work was available.

A number of farmworkers did live in Pompano throughout the year. These families planned for the “down time,” purchasing food in bulk and picking up odd jobs until the time for clearing the land, tilling the soil and planting the seeds came around again.

On this date in 1838, the great Seminole leader Osceola died while imprisoned at Fort Moultrie in Charleston, South Carolina. He had been captured in Florida under a flag of truce.

The Tequesta Indians had not developed an agricultural society; the abundant food sources of southern Florida allowed them to remain hunters and gathers.

Seafood was an important part the Tequesta’s diet — everything from smaller fish to shark and porpoise. They also hunted manatee and turtles, and gathered shellfish such as clams, conchs and oysters.

Other meat sources (bear, deer, wild boar, and small mammals) were hunted inland, in wooded areas as well as the Everglades.

Wild vegetation, such as palmetto berries, cocoplums, sea grapes, palm nuts and roots supplemented the seafood and game. An edible was made by grinding the roots of the coontie (zamia) plant.

The Tequesta Indians were the indigenous inhabitants of southeastern Florida in the early 16th century when European explorers first arrived in this area.

The Tequesta occupied the lands that are now Miami-Dade and Broward counties, although at times their villages were located as far north as Jupiter Inlet.

The first descriptions of the Tequesta indicated that the males were clothed in triangular straw breech cloths attached with a belt around the waist. Women wore skirts of straw, tanned skins or Spanish moss.

They wore their hair rolled up and held in place with pins made of bone.

Jewelry, made of bone, wood, or sharks’ teeth, were worn as a mark of social rank, although they may have had some religious significance, as well.

Pompano’s first bridge across what would become the Intracoastal Waterway was constructed in 1912. It was built of 12 inch square timbers that were cut on the banks of the canal. The steel plates and rods that held the wooden beams in place were purchased out-of-state and shipped to Pompano.

This bridge opened for boat traffic by turning in the middle. It was operated by hand with the use of a large “bridge key.”

The first bridge tender was Captain Walter Smith, who was paid $40 a month.

Dr. Joseph Parry Lee was hired as pastor of Pompano’s First Baptist Church on January 1, 1922. Initially his position at the church was half-time — he also served as the minister at Deerfield’s Baptist church.

On November 25, 1923, Dr. Lee resigned as pastor at Deerfield and was employed full time in Pompano at a salary of $1,800 per year. During his tenure, he oversaw the construction of First Baptist’s sanctuary and pastorium.

Dr. Lee died on December 24, 1933, within days of his twelfth anniversary of service at First Baptist.

In the 1960s, Pompano Beach High School had two students who would make it to the Olympics.

In the 1964 Olympics, held in Tokyo, John Nelson took the silver medal in the 1500 meter freestyle. He was 1.3 seconds behind Australian Bob Windle.

Four years later, at the 1968 games in Mexico City, Pamela Kruse won the silver medal in the 800 meter freestyle. She was bested by Debbie Meyer, who became the first swimmer to win three individual gold medals in a single Olympics.

During the Texas Ranger’s 1986 spring training in Pompano Beach, newly-acquired outfielder Pete Incaviglia became something of a legend when he visibly demonstrated the power in his swing:

Incaviglia arrived at spring training in Pompano Beach, Florida the following spring without a great deal of fanfare, though it wasn’t anything unusual. With the New York Yankees training only 10 minutes away, only the heartiest of followers showed up to watch players field grounders, take their swings in the cages, and all the other rituals of spring.

But Incaviglia was on a mission to become one of baseball’s most feared power hitters, and reported early along with the Rangers’ pitchers and catchers. As the story goes, he hammered three balls out of the park on his first three swings of batting practice. Then, with a crowd of reporters gathered around the batting cage, Incaviglia sent an odd hush over the assembly with a blazing line drive to left field that normally would have hit the outfield fence and bounce back. Instead, it went clear through it.

He had literally knocked a hole in the fence.

The baseball sized hole left in the outfield wall became a tourist stop for visiting fans and media alike, and with that the legend of Inky grew larger.

I refuse to accept the idea that man is mere flotsam and jetsam in the river of life unable to influence the unfolding events which surround him. I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality.

During the its 1927 session, the Florida Legislature “abolished” the Town of Pompano and replaced it with the City of Pompano.

This was a standard legislative function based on the population growth of municipalities, giving the local governments additional powers and responsibilities.

Edna Smith Thurman was born in Pompano before it incorporated — in 1906. She was the daughter of Pompano pioneer Dexter Smith. Her family moved to Homestead in 1921.

In 1999 she returned to Pompano Beach for the dedication of the Pioneer Monument. In a letter to Don Downie, chairman of the Pioneer Monument committee, she related her memories of Pompano’s early days:

There was no high school in Pompano at the time I was ready to attend, so we were bussed on a “ricketty” home made contraption called a bus. Mary Smoak drove —- attending school than driving us home.

I am told, by my parents, without any documentation, that I was the first white girl born in Pompano — March 3, 1906. There were white boys — the Saxons. There was no doctor [in Pompano] so Dr. Kennedy came from Fort Lauderdale to deliver all my brothers and sisters except the last one.

When my Dad worked on the [Florida East Coast Railway] there were no grocery stores there. On Saturday night he and mama and his railroad track repair crew would get out the “hand car,” and pump off to Ft. Lauderdale for a week’s supply of groceries.

In December, 1913, the Pompano Town Council passed an ordinance requiring residents to obtain building permits for new construction and certain repairs to existing structures.

The Silver Thatch Inn was opened on Pompano’s beach in 1939 on property owned by the Jelks family just north of the then recently-built Kester cottages that lined A1A.

Designed by Fort Lauderdale architect Courtney Stewart, the first unit built contained 16 bedrooms with private baths, as well as a lobby, dining room and sun deck.

Additional units were added in the following years.

In the 1950s, a new phenomenon swept the nation — drive-in church services.

Not to be left behind, Pompano Beach’s First Baptist Church initiated such a program on November 4, 1956, at the Gold Coast drive-in theater, located on Federal Highway, north of 54th Street. The location was considered advantageous as the newly-developed subdivisions north of the Pompano Beach city limits had few churches at that time, and the Baptists were organizing a congregation in the area.

Rev. John Pelham, mission pastor at First Baptist conducted the services. He would become the minister of North Pompano Baptist Church when it opened.

Before the Pompano’s white Baptists and Methodists built their own churches, they met in a community church located on NE First Avenue, just north of Atlantic Boulevard.

Originally church services were held in the one-room school house, but in 1907 Andrew Saxon donated property for the church building. The wood-framed building was contructed with a tower that gave it a church-like appearance. The cost of construction was $400.

The church building survived until 1926 when it was damaged beyond repair by the devastating hurricane that hit southern Florida that year.

Bud Garner will be the featured speaker at the Historical Society’s monthly public program on Wednesday, January 16th. The program will take place at the Dick & Miriam Hood Center (217 NE 4th Avenue, Pompano Beach) and will begin at 7:00 PM.

Mr. Garner will discuss several people from Pompano’s past who played a significant role in the community but are little remembered today.

The program is open to the public and refreshments will be served.

The City of Pompano Beach purchased much of what is today its public beach in 1951 from William Kester for $80 a front foot.

Kester sold the oceanfront property at a discounted price; at that time beach frontage lots were selling at between $200 and $300 a foot.

A 100 pound cake was the featured attraction at Beacon Light Shopping Center’s 2nd anniversary celebration on November 8, 1958.

Baked by the Little German Bakery, the cake was four-foot square at its base, with two-foot high tiers. A sugar “beacon light” rose another two feet at from the top.

Lighthouse Point Mayor Russell Clarke cut the cake, which was served to the public by Miss Beacon Light, Diane Chebi, and ten hostesses representing surrounding communities.

In November, 1956, the City of Pompano Beach added five and one-half acres to the original section of the Pompano Beach Cemetery, creating approximately 3,500 additional graves sites.

Purchase price of burial plots in the new section was $75.

Unlike the original section of the cemetery, the new section restricted monuments to bronze tablets or markers that did not extend above the ground.

Until fairly recently, local farmers combated South Florida’s occasional winter freezes by deploying smudge pots.

Smudge pots were portable oil heaters that were placed around the fields and lighted on nights when the temperature was likely to drop below freezing. The protection for the crops came not from the heat generated, which wasn’t enough to keep any significant area warm, but rather through the thick clouds of black smoke produced by the pots.

The smoke reflected heat being radiated from the fields, thus trapping heat between the smoke cloud and the ground.

Smudge pots fell out of favor due to environmental concerns, as well as rising fuel and labor costs.

On January 3, 1905, Napoleon Bonaparte Broward was inaugurated as Florida’s 19th governor.

Broward had battled Robert W. Davis for the Democratic nomination, which was as good as being elected since the Republican party was almost non-existent in Florida at that time.

Davis represented the interests of the railroads and business, while Broward concentrated on the rural vote. Broward explained his campaign strategy thusly:

I don’t intend to go after the cities. Their newspapers are against me and they don’t take me seriously. But I’m going to stump every crossroads village between Fernandina and Pensacola and talk to the farmers and the crackers and show them their top ends were meant to be used for something better than hatracks. I’m going to make ‘em sit up and think. They won’t mind mistakes in grammar if they find I’m talking horse sense.

The First Christian Church of Pompano was organized on April 15, 1956, when twenty-eight people gathered at the Pompano Beach Chamber of Commerce building for that purpose.

Harry Stinson was the church’s first minister.

The new church built a sanctuary at its current site, 1860 NE 39th Street, and occupied the building on June 28, 1957.

The St. Elizabeth of Hungary Catholic parish was officially established in July, 1959, by Archbishop Coleman F. Carroll. Father John McAtavey was selected to be the first pastor.

As was the practice, Father McAtavey was expected to build a congregation from scratch, and to develop the resources to construct a church building.

The first service was held in the dining room at McFadden’s Restaurant on Federal Highway in Deerfield Beach, but an expanding congregation forced a move to larger quarters — a skating rink on NE 12th Avenue, just north of Sample Road.

On August 4, 1960, the cornerstone was laid for a permanent facility in Pompano Beach at 3331 NE 10th Terrace. That November the 900-seat church was officially dedicated.