March 2011
22 posts
Free World Center
In the early 1960s, an idea was floated that grabbed the attention of Pompano Beach residents, businesses and the local media: “Free World Center.”
Supposedly the project was to be something like a permanent world’s fair. According to an article int he New York Times (3-18-62), “About twenty-five or thirty countries would be invited to show their wares in the center; in...
The Ives Map
In the 1850s, U.S. Army Lieutenant J.C. Ives conducted a topographical survey of southern Florida to aid soldiers fighting during the third Seminole War (1855-1858). The resulting map was the first to provide detailed topographical information on the Everglades, Big Cypress Swamp and Lake Okeechobee.
Less Than Three Dozen Voters
Dade County voter registration records for 1902 indicated there were 32 registered voters in District 6 (Pompano and Deerfield area).
Bean And Pepper Jamboree this Saturday
This Saturday (April 2nd), the Green Market hosts the New Bean and Pepper Jamboree!
A joint project of the Broward Farm Bureau and local Kiwanis Clubs, the B&P Jamboree features games, entertainment, talent contests, displays and food.
The original Beach & Pepper Jamboree was established in the 1940s to celebrate the end of the harvest season in Pompano Beach and was held at the State...
St. Stephen's
Pompano Beach’s St. Stephen Evangelical Lutheran Church on NE 14th Street was organized on April 12, 1964. Initially the congregation met at in the auditorium at Pompano Beach High School, but in 1966 moved into what is now its fellowship hall at its current location. The sanctuary now in use was dedicated on February 6, 1976.
The church’s first pastor was David H. Schmid, who...
Cassels Tower
The first high-rise residential building in John Knox Village was Cassels Tower. It was named for Lloyd C. Cassels (1912 - 1968), a Pompano Beach realtor and land developer who was actively involved in the continuing care retirement complex’s early growth and development.
Broward Gains Fame
Napoleon Bonaparte Broward, for whom our county was named, first gained statewide fame for allegedly running guns to the Cuban rebels during their revolt against Spain’s colonial rule:
Broward’s interest in boats and boating also led to his becoming well known up and down the St. Johns [River]. When he and his brother and George DeCottes joined forces in 1895 to build a powerful...
The River of Grass
Marjorie Stoneman Douglas’ classic book The Everglades: River of Grass was published in 1947 and helped draw public attention to what was then still a little-known area, much of which already had been drastically altered by developers and government agencies through drainage and flood control projects. The book’s popularity helped generate public support for President Harry Truman’s...
The Blount's Beach
Around 1920, George, William and DeVotie Blount formed the Blount Brothers Realty Company to develop 83 acres of beachfront property they owned. According to at least one account the Blounts subdivided the property, then installed electric lights and a water system.
Like most others who sought to develop the beach area during the Florida Land Boom, the Blounts were unable to attract...
McNair Park
Ronald E McNair Park, located at 951 NW 27 Avenue in Pompano Beach, was named in honor of the African-American astronaut who died when the space shuttle Challenger crashed during its launch on January 28, 1986.
The park’s original name was Wade Hampton Horn Park. Horn was the original developer of the Collier City area in the 1950s, and donated the land for the park.
Trying to Tee Up in the 1930s
Pompano Beach’s municipal golf course opened on January 10, 1955, but it was not the first effort to bring a course to the city. In 1938, a committee was established to look into the feasibility of building a golf course in Pompano, but apparently the obstacles at that time were too great to overcome.
One obvious problem confronting the committee would have been finding affordable land...
Arthur and Annie Johnson
Arthur Johnson (born ca. 1878) arrived in Pompano from elsewhere in Florida sometime before 1920. Although listed in the 1920 census as a laborer, he was known as a skilled carpenter who constructed a number of houses in the black community.
His wife, Annie, who was 12 years his junior, served as one of the first teachers at Pompano’s Negro school. The school was located in the 400 block...
Our March Program
The Pompano Beach Historical Society will hold its monthly public program on Wednesday, March 16th, 7:00 PM, at the Dick & Miriam Hood Center, 217 NE 4th Avenue, Pompano Beach.
This year Fort Lauderdale is celebrating its centennial and March’s program will feature Susan Gillis talking about what Fort Lauderdale was like 100 years ago and what activities the Fort Lauderdale Centennial...
Electronic Purchases
Want to purchase the Historical Society’s new history of Pompano Beach or its centennial cookbook? Want to join the Historical Society or renew your membership?
Now you can do it electronically right here on the Pompano Beach Historical Society’s website.
Purchases can be made by following on the links to the left, and clicking the PayPal button. You don’t have to be a PayPal member — you can...
Rev. Coleman
The 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 of the month, and at Mount Zion Baptist Church in Deerfield Beach on the second and fourth Sundays.
Ted Hull
George Ted Hull served on the Pompano Beach City Commission during the pivotal post-war period. He was first elected in 1946, just a year before Pompano became Pompano Beach. He lost his seat on the commission in the 1947 election, when the new beach district was established, but regained it the following year. He served continuously through 1955 and then again from 1957 through 1961. He...
The Business Plan
In addition to building a railroad down Florida’s east coast, Henry Flagler actively encouraged people to move to this area. He is quoted as saying, “Every new settler is worth $300 a year to me. He has to bring in everything he uses and send out everything he produces over my railroad.” Flagler also profited from the sale of land he acquired from the State of Florida as a...
Downsizing
Although Henry Flagler was promised as much as 2,000,000 acres of public land from the State of Florida as an inducement to build his railroad down the state’s east coast, political objections and lawsuits reduced the amount of land received by Flagler to 260,000 acres.
The First Boat Parade?
As part of Pompano Beach’s Golden Jubilee in 1958, residents organized a boat parade (termed a “boatacade”) on the Intracoastal, complete with a reviewing stand at the Sands Harbor marina.
This nautical event preceded the local Christmas boat parade by either 8 months or several years (depending on which version of the holiday activity is accurate) — could it have been the...
Happy Birthday Florida!
On March 3, 1845, Florida was admitted to the United States as the 27th state.
Prior to its admission, there was a significant minority sentiment within the territory that Florida should be admitted as two states — East Florida and West Florida. Northern members of Congress, however, were opposed to admitting two new slave-holding states and the entire territory was included in the new...
Buy a Ford
Pompano’s first automobile sales and service facility was a Ford dealership located on North Dixie Highway (around 11th Street) in the 1920s. The building was destroyed in the 1928 hurricane and the business closed as the Great Depression settled on South Florida.
The Smoak House
If you cross the FEC Railway tracks going east on NE 3rd Street, the first building on your left is the Pompano Supermarket, an independently-owned grocery store. The structure was built in the late 1940s for the Margaret Ann grocery. But prior to that, the property was the site of a large two-story house built in the 1920s and owned by the Smoak family.
At some point this house was moved east...
