April 2011
20 posts
Visit Green Market Pompano
Tomorrow (April 30th) will be the final Saturday Green Market of its eighth season — the longest continually operating green market in Broward County. Come out and enjoy the fun. Located on Flagler Avenue, between NE First and Second Street.
For details visit the Green Market website.
Perhaps the First?
Was Pompano’s first local insurance agency the firm of Hardy, Sours & Walton? The real estate and insurance company, founded in the 1920s, was located in the Walton Hotel. By the 1950s, the agency was located at 210 North Federal Highway.
The Early Traders
One of the earliest white settlers to establish on-going trade with the Seminole Indians was Robert Fletcher, who settled on the south side of the Miami River in the mid 1840s. Fletcher remained at that location through the 1870s.
Another early trader was “French Mike” Sayers, who seemed to specialize in selling whiskey to the local Indians in the mid 1860s.
Alligator Joe
One of South Florida’s earliest tourist attractions was established by Warren Frazee (also known as “Alligator Joe”) in West Palm Beach in 1895.
Frazee acquired his nickname for his exploits with the local saurians, and may have been the first individual to be considered a “professional” alligator wrestler.
He briefly operated a similar tourist attraction in Fort...
Conner's Highway
One of the early toll roads in South Florida was the Conner’s Highway, connecting West Palm Beach and Okeechobee City.
Opened on July 4, 1924, those traveling on the highway passed through three toll booths, each charging $1.50 for a vehicle and driver, and and additional fifty cents per passenger.
In 1925, the road was paved from Okechobee to Sebring, with a ferry crossing at the...
The Lights Go Out
It sounds like a script for a movie, but on February 15, 1966, the lights went out at Pompano Park racetrack just as eight horses were heading for the finish line in the ninth race of the night.
Although bettors may have been suspicious, it turns out their were no sinister motivations behind the black out, but rather a temporary power failure in the area.
An Age-Old Florida Story
The end of Prohibition in 1933 did not put an end to the illegal importation of liquor into the United States. In 1936, the federal collector of customs for Florida, Allie J. Angle, complained that criminal elements, particularly in Miami, were recruiting tourists going to the Bahamas and Cuba to bring back the maximum amount of duty free liquor (at that time $100 worth) that they would then sell...
Historic Cap's
Dating back to the 1920’s, Cap’s Place Island Restaurant in Lighthouse Point is Broward County’s oldest continuously operating restaurant and bar. Although the site came under pressures from development in the 1980s, it was officially listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1990 and the Lighthouse Point designated it as a local historic structure the following...
General Development Corporation
The Pompano Beach Highlands neighborhood was first developed in the 1950s by Miami-based General Development Corporation. Among GAC’s other Florida land developments at that time were the cities of Port St. Lucie, Port Charlotte and Port Malabar, as well as smaller projects such as Sebastian Highlands and Vero Highlands.
Most GAC developments were marketed to retirees or investors.
115 Years Ago Today
On April 15, 1896, Henry Flagler’s Florida East Coast Railway reached Miami. The first train into the city carried building materials, an indication of things to come.
Crime Spree
Pompano Beach Thieves Active
Robbery of three stores in Pompano Beach was reported today by Constable Dan Overton.
He said places entered were the Grum and DeWitt grocery, the Providence drygoods store and the Ross grocery store. At the Crum and DeWitt store the thieves got a .44 calibre revolver and $10 in cash, while eight pairs of blue dungarees were taken from the drygoods store.
A meat...
Renting Firefighters
When Lighthouse Point was incorporated (1956), the new municipality had no fire department. In order to provide fire protection, Lighthouse Point contracted with the Pompano Beach Highlands Volunteer Fire Department until its own city fire department was in place.
Commissioner Saxon
Following the death of long-time Broward County Commissioner S. C. Fox on December 28, 1953, Florida Acting Governor Charley Johns appointed Pompano Beach hardware store owner Vivian Saxon to replace Fox. Saxon served out the rest of Fox’s term and was subsequently elected to the office, continuing to sit on the commission through 1963.
More Packing Houses
In 1909, Albert Smoak and Samuel Slaughter began building a packing house along the FEC railroad tracks. It was reported at that time to be the fourth packing house in Pompano near the tracks, an obvious indication of the agricultural expansion in the area.
La Florida
On this day in 1513, the explorer Juan Ponce de Leon claimed Florida for Spain.
Butler's Ad
The January 10, 1902, edition of the West Palm Beach Tropical Sun newspaper contained an advertisement that read:
George O. Butler
Civil Engineer
And
Deputy County Surveyor
For Dade County
Local agent for the Land Department of the F. E. C. Ry.
POMPANO * FLA
Coach Houston
Purcell Houston (1932 - 2009) grew up in Tampa, Florida, where he attracted considerable attention as a star high school football player. He was recruited by legendary coach Jake Gaither to play at Florida A&M University.
Following his graduation from college, he was hired by Principal Blanche Ely to head the sports program at the new Blanche Ely High School in Pompano Beach. For nearly...
Lorena Hardin Robson
Lorena Hardin Robson was born in Pompano on September 11, 1907. Over her many years working for the city, she was employed as the Tax Assessor, Tax Collector, Registrar, and a Clerk Specialist in the Finance Department before becoming Pompano Beach’s City Clerk, . She served as the first president of the Pompano Junior Women’s Club, and received the “Woodcraft Woman of the...
Not as Easy as it Seems
Before the permit for the Pompano Beach harness racing track was approved by the State of Florida in 1963, the authorization had been before the Florida Legislature twice, been vetoed once by the governor, been delayed by the Florida State Racing Commission, was overruled by the State Supreme Court and had passed a public referendum.
Take the High Ground
In 1956, Robet E. Bateman purchased land south of Hammondville Road and west of the soon to be completed Sunshine State Parkway (Florida Turnpike). The property was on high ground, heavily wooded and, for the most part had not been used for agricultural purposes.
Bateman soon began construction of canals and homesites for the residential development that in 1967 would become the original...
