May 2009
20 posts
1 tag
Tough on Drugs
Southeast Florida has been a major area for drug trafficking … and yet, adjacent counties have very different policies [in regard to incarceration]. Broward County — notorious in Florida for its willingness to arrest and prosecute drug users — had 12.7 percent of the state’s population, but accounted for 12.7 of the prison inmates in 1991. Nearby Dade County had a higher...
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Eastern Star
The Pompano Chapter of the Eastern Star, a women’s organization affiliated with the Masonic Lodge, was organized in 1929 and chartered in 1930. Nationally, the Eastern Star dates back to the 1850s, and is dedicated to charitable, educational, fraternal and scientific activities. Emma Cohill was elected the first “Worthy Matron” (leader) of the Pompano Chapter of Eastern Star. ...
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Not to Remain Nameless
Soon after it was founded in 1930, the Pompano Beach Rotary Club began publishing a newsletter for its members. When the first issue was ready, the Club had not decided on a name, so it was given the title, “Nameless.” The second and third issues were named, respectively, “Also Nameless” and “No Name Yet” before the newsletter officially became known as...
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Bethel A.M.E.
Greater Bethel A. M. E. Church was dates it origins to 1909. Initially the church, which met in borrowed facilities, was not affiliated with any denomination. In 1911, the church was accepted into membership by the African Methodist Episcopal Conference. The church was named Psalter Temple, A.M.E., and the Reverend R. D. Hall was appointed its first pastor. The church’s name was changed in...
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Home of the Masons
The Pompano Masonic Lodge was formed in 1928, and in 1932 it purchased the hurricane-damaged building at 100 SW First Street from the Cypress Lumber Company for $3,600. The Lodge made payments of $30 a month. In 2005, the building was acquired by the City of Pompano Beach under eminent domain for $970,000, but the Masonic Lodge was allowed to meet on the second floor of the building until...
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Let's Get Together and Grow
The Florida Farm Bureau was established in 1941. Its most immediate purpose was to form a coalition of farmers and growers that would be able to bargain with transportation companies for better shipping prices. The following year, the Broward County Farm Bureau was formed with 45 members. Its first president was Oakland Park farmer and political leader, Dewey Hawkins. At the time of the local...
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Company Town
The City of Coral Springs was incorporated by the Coral Ridge Properties [CRP] company in 1963. For several years thereafter, the municipal government was virtually indistinguishable from Coral Ridge Properties’ management. City Hall was housed in the CRP administration building and CRP employees functioned as city staff. CRP executive Werner Buntemeyer served as Coral Spring’s City...
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A Nickle for a Shine
Don Downie, Pompano’s chief “Beanpicker,” remembers a couple of young entrepreneurs: In the 1940s, downtown Pompano, by the railroad tracks, was in the waning days of the farming sales activity [the Pompano State Farmers market had opened west of town in 1939] but the “old” market still had some sales and trucks being loaded. These trucks had drivers and they and...
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South Florida Steamships
Following the completion of the New River Canal in 1912, it was possible to take a riverboat from Fort Lauderdale to Fort Myers. Passengers would travel from Fort Lauderdale up the New River Canal to Lake Okeechobee, cross the southern edge of the lake and enter the Caloosahatchee River. It was then about a 75 mile cruise to Fort Myers. The steamships ended their run within a decade, when silting...
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On This Date
On May 15, 1947, Florida State College for Women, located in Tallahassee, was reorganized as a coed institution and renamed Florida State University. For a brief period, 1901 - 1905, the school had gone by a similar name — Florida State College. However, in 1905 the Florida Legislature passed the Buckman Act which made the college an all-female school, and the name was changed to the...
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Hopewell's Moves
Founded in 1946, Hopewell Missionary Baptist Church built its first church in 1948 at 1001 NW 6th Street. In the early 1970s,the church purchased land at 890 NW 15th Street for $30,000. The new church was built largely through its members donation of material and labor, with dedication of the new facility taking place in 1984. In subsequent years Hopewell purchased over 11 acres...
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St. Elizabeth School
St. Elizabeth of Hungary Catholic School, located at 901 NE 33rd Street in Pompano Beach, was established in 1963 with 200 students. Originally, the school was staffed with Dominican nuns; its first principal was Sister Claire Daniels.
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The Samples Come to Florida
The original owner of the Sample-McDougald House in Pompano Beach was Albert Neal Sample (1868 - 1941), the oldest of six sons born to David and Rebecca Sample. The Sample family came from the area of the North Carolina - South Carolina border around Charlotte, NC, and Greenville SC. Other members of the Sample family settled in Ft. Pierce, Florida, soon after the beginning of the twentieth...
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A Long Bike Ride
Joe Courson first came to Pompano in 1905 to plant a winter crop. He returned to his home near the southeastern Georgia town of Blackshear, but the following year moved his family to Pompano and lived here until his death in 1977. Although he came to Pompano to farm, for most of his life he made his living as a carpenter. Work was not always plentiful, and according to his obituary, Some of his...
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Covered Dish Supper
As is its tradition, the Historical Society’s final public program of the season will take place on Wednesday, May 20th, at 6:30 PM. It will be the organization’s old-fashion covered dish supper. Members and friends are invited to bring some food to share to the Dick & Miriam Hood Center (217 NE 4th Avenue, Pompano Beach) for dinner and a look back at the year. Officers and...
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Home Front Memories
In a personal history written in 1990, Lois Tillis Courson, who moved to Pompano as a young girl in 1920, remembers the area during World War II:I had a paper route for the Miami Herald. Ernest [her husband] delivered the papers for me some mornings. One morning at a house on A1A he was met at the gate by a Secret Service Man and escorted to the house to deliver the paper because President...
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Carless
In 1905, the Florida Legislature passed a law regulating the ownership of automobiles and instituted a $2.00 fee for vehicle registration. At that time, no one who lived in Pompano owned an automobile.
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Florida's Racial Minefield
In 1872, the Florida Legislature passes the so-called “Sheats Law,” named for Representative William N. Sheats of Alachua County. The law mandated that black and white students could not dine or lodge in the same building or receive instruction in the same classroom in any school in the state whether private, public or parochial. In 1892, Sheats was elected to the office of...
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Collier City
Pompano Beach’s Collier City neighborhood was first developed by Pompano Beach Lands, Inc., in 1951. The company was a family-run operation, with Wade Hampton Horn serving as president. Although there were scattered residents already in the area, for the most part they lived in small, substandard housing. Homes in the new Collier City subdivision were built with concrete block on...
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Fire Light
Within Pompano’s African-American community, a significant number of households had no electricity or indoor plumbing until the late-1940s and early 1950s. One method of providing lighting at night was sometimes called a “flambo.” It was a cola bottle filled with kerosene with a cloth rage stuffed into the top. The cloth was lighted, providing some illumination. Open flames for...
