Cardinal Timothy Dolan: "The destruction of monuments only impoverishes our sense of history." (June 29, 2020 WSJ column.)
During the night of June 10-11, 60 protesters marched to Miami's Bayfront Park where seven were arrested after confronting police and defacing the statues of Christopher Columbus and Juan Ponce de Leon with red paint.
The face, tunic and boots of the seven-foot bronze replica of Ponce de Leon, the founding father and first governor of Puerto Rico as well as the Spanish discoverer of Florida, were splashed with the symbolic blood by the vandals. The monument's marble pedestal and inscription plate also were tagged with red paint citing the chosen slogans of the protesters.
A red "Hammer and Sickle" - the insignia used by communists and Soviet Russia during its 70-year repressive history - covered Ponce de Leon's inscription plaque. Below the "Hammer and Sickle" were painted the letters "BLM," the acronym for the organization Black Lives Matter.
The marble pedestal supporting the statue of Ponce de Leon was defaced with the words "Libertad Yo," followed by some incoherent scribbling with red paint that defies translation.
Seven nights later, the statue of Ponce de Leon in the City of St. Augustine, the nation's oldest township established by Spain in the year 1565, was desecrated with rotten eggs by vandals, according to the June 18, 2020 edition of the St. Augustine Record newspaper.
The Ponce de Leon monument in Melbourne Beach was defaced on June 22 with streaks of red paint and the words "Ais Murder" written on its base. (In fact, the Ais Indians attacked the explorer's landing party north of the Indian River Inlet during his voyage of discovery.)
If the anarchists would have taken the time to read the inscription at the base of Ponce de Leon's Bayfront monument, they would have learned; "He arrived on Easter Sunday in 1513 looking for the Fountain of Youth, he found something better, a beautiful land that he claimed for Spain, and he called it Florida (the land of flowers)."
One can only imagine the message Ponce de Leon would have delivered from his grave as the 21st century rage mob vandalized his statue. True to his noble and charitable character, he probably would have said monuments to the past are not the enemy. Ignorance is the enemy. Ignorance of history is the cradle that spawns racism and nourishes it daily with hatred.
The statue honoring Florida's discoverer was designed by the skilled Hispanic sculptor Enrique Monjo. It was dedicated in Bayfront Park on Oct. 12, 1977. The monument is located next to the City of Miami's "Torch of Friendship," and was donated by the government of Spain, according to the Library of Congress.
While a few protesters in Florida have judged Ponce de Leon as a target worthy of their wrath, in Puerto Rico his legacy is still honored by many. The inscription on Ponce de Leon's tomb in Puerto Rico reads, "In this narrow spot lies a gentleman, who was a Lion (Leon) in name and much more in fact."
His tomb is resting in a place of respect within the San Juan Bautista Cathedral. A statue of a guardian angel placed above his tomb protects the founder of Puerto Rico from harm in the afterlife. The city of Ponce, Puerto Rico, was named in honor of the island's first governor.
The admired 16th century Spanish historian-poet Juan de Castellanos (1522 - 1607) wrote the following "Elegy to Juan Ponce de Leon" while he resided in Puerto Rico. This contemporary elegy states;
"He was affable, well loved by his people,
properly balanced in every way,
he suffered his labors admirably;
was prepared in the face of danger,
the most courageous trembled before him,
an enemy to friends of convenience,
and envied even by the worst of men."
Many Puerto Ricans living in Florida and their native island can trace their ancestry back to Ponce de Leon and children born during his two marriages to the Dona Leonora and Juana de Pineda. Protesters may wish to consider this historical fact before they topple his memorial statues. Family matters in Hispanic culture.
The State of Florida recently observed "Viva Florida 500, 1513 - 2013." The event marked the 500th anniversary of the state's discovery by Ponce de Leon. It was year-long celebration of Hispanic history and the numerous cultural contributions of our first settlers.
Landmarks honoring Ponce de Leon are found throughout the State of Florida. In Palm Beach County, for example, there is a Ponce de Leon Street in Royal Palm Beach, a Ponce de Leon Avenue in West Palm Beach, and a Ponce de Leon Road in Boca Raton. The Ponce de Leon Ballroom is the centerpiece of the historic Breakers Hotel in Palm Beach.
During his first voyage in 1513, Ponce de Leon explored the Jupiter Inlet (Rio de Cruz) and the Palm Beach barrier island (Aboioa). The governor of "Bimini and Western Islands" was fatally wounded by a Calusa arrow inflicted during his second voyage to Florida in 1521.
His flagship carried Ponce de Leon to Havana, Cuba, where he died from his infected wound and was buried in July 1521. Thirty-eight years after his death, his grandson and namesake, Juan Ponce de Leon II (1524 - 1591), transferred his grandfather's crypt from Havana to San Juan. It has been in the care of the Catholic Church since the year 1559.
Unknown to Ponce de Leon and other early explorers in Florida, they were the carriers of fatal diseases from Europe, such as smallpox and measles, which would soon kill native Indians by the tens of thousands. Critics of Ponce de Leon are quick to place this burden on the Spanish explorer while absolving their own ancestors from blame.
The anarchists arrested for defacing the Bayfront statues of Columbus and Ponce de Leon were charged with inciting to riot, disorderly conduct, unlawful assembly, battery on police officers, aggravated assault, and criminal mischief. The vandals also have symbolic blood on their hands for not observing CDC guidelines during the incurable COVID-19 viral pandemic.
President Donald Trump issued a presidential order on June 26 titled "An Executive Order on Protection of American Monuments, Memorials and Statues and Combating Recent Criminal Violence." The order sets penalties for both law violators and local government agencies that fail to protect historic monuments.*
The Executive Order (Section D) states; "It is the policy of the United States, as appropriate and consistent with applicable law, to withhold federal support tied to public spaces from state and local governments that have failed to protect public monuments, memorials and statues from destruction or vandalism..."
The moral righteousness of a social movement is diminished in the eyes of the public by those who commit pointless acts of vandalism. If a cause is just, it will win public support on its own merit through peaceful assembly and protests.
Ponce de Leon was not perfect (are you), but he is the symbol of the 286-year period when Florida was not just a colony of Spain, but a time in history when Hispanic culture, traditions, religion and laws helped shape the future of our state as it exists today. For this reason alone his memorials deserve respect.
Hopefully, Hispanic Floridians will have seats at the table during future discussions of social equity and racism in our state to assure their message is heard too.
(c.) Davidsson. 2020.
*NOTE: Article updated on June 29, 2020. See additional articles below and archived in Older Posts.
Friday, June 12, 2020
Friday, May 15, 2020
The Vanderbilts of Manalapan: A Local History
By Bob Davidsson
Consuelo Vanderbilt Spencer-Churchill Balsan, former Duchess of Marlborough and chatelaine of England's Blenheim Palace, purchased five acres of land on the south end of Hypoluxo Island in 1934 to build her new winter home.
She wanted it to face "Eastover," the mansion built four years earlier by younger brother Harold Stirling Vanderbilt (1884 - 1970), located directly across the branch of the Lake Worth Lagoon separating Hypoluxo from Manalapan's seaside barrier island.
Consuelo named her 26,177-square-foot mansion "Casa Alva" (the house of Alva) in honor of their formidable mother, Alva Erskine Vanderbilt Belmont. She hired her brother's Swiss-born architect, Maurice Fatio, to design the Mediterranean-Revival style mansion which the heiress often referred to as "The Cottage".
Harold and Consuelo were the great-grandchildren of Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt, the 19th century shipping and railroad tycoon who during his lifetime was the richest man in America. Both siblings were multi-millionaires through inheritance and family business enterprises.
It was Harold Vanderbilt who in 1931 incorporated Hypoluxo Island and a section of barrier island south of Lantana's East Ocean Avenue into the Town of Manalapan.
Hypoluxo was one of several place names once used to describe the Lake Worth Lagoon. The common meaning is "body of water with no way out" in a Seminole dialect, and dates back to the 19th century when the lagoon was a freshwater lake instead of today's tidal estuary.
Palm Beach County pioneer George Carter was the first settler to homestead Hypoluxo Island in the 1880's. Pineapples, coconuts and alligator meat were the main cash commodities produced during the early history of the island.
Manalapan is a place name shared with a city in New Jersey established in the 1840's. In the native American Lenape language it translates to "a place of good bread," or its less flattering original meaning - "covered swamp with edible roots."
In 1892, the Hypoluxo Beach Company was organized in New Jersey to develop properties east of Lantana. David Baird, a company founder, lived in Manalapan, N.J., and suggested it as a future name for the Florida community. As a result, today there are two cities sharing the same name.
The Ocean-Island Corporation acquired a one-mile strip of land in the 1920's, south of Palm Beach and east of Lantana, to develop an exclusive subdivision by the sea. Harold Vanderbilt was one of the investors acquiring property within this tract.
While his mansion was under construction in Manalapan, the Vanderbilt's purchased and remodeled the "El Solano" estate from 1925-30. The Palm Beach mansion was designed by architect Addison Mizner in 1919. "El Solano" was later acquired by the late John and Yoko Ono Lennon from 1980-86.
When he established the seaside town, Vanderbilt envisioned Manalapan as a low-density community and winter retreat for upscale entrepreneurs like himself. His vision holds true today.
Manalapan residents have a median household income of $216,250. Their median property values are $2 million, and 96.4 percent of the town's residents own their homes, according to 2017 U.S. Census estimates.
A headline in the July 5, 1970 edition of the Palm Beach Post reported, "Manalapan was Vanderbilt's Town." At the time of his death, he was the town's honorary "Mayor Emeritus".
The newspaper's analysis was based on the facts that in addition to incorporating the town in 1931, Harold Vanderbilt served on its governing council for 32 years, and was mayor of Manalapan from 1952 through 1966.
Vanderbilt was a director on the board of the New York Central Railroad for four decades. He also served as president of the board of trustees for Vanderbilt University, founded by his family in Nashville, TN, after the Civil War. A bronze statue of Harold Vanderbilt, created by New York artist Joseph Kiseleweski, was dedicated in 1965 on the university campus for his years of service.
His favorite pastimes were yachting and contract bridge. Many card players consider him the "father of contract bridge" for establishing the rules used today in tournament play back in 1925. The Vanderbilt yacht "Enterprise" defended the "America's Cup" against international challengers during sailing races held in 1930, 1934 and 1937.
The Vanderbilt home, known as "Eastover," is a three-story Italian Renaissance-style mansion completed in 1930. The architectural firm of Treanor and Fatio designed a mansion with imported stone and stucco walls and a clay tile roof. Construction costs at that time totaled about $500,000.
The mansion is located on a beach coastal ridge overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. The estate once occupied a six-acre site extending from the ocean to the Lake Worth Lagoon and was intersected by South Ocean Blvd.
"Eastover" was approved in December 2002 for inclusion in the National Register of Historic Places. It was selected for both its architectural design and historic significance to the Town of Manalapan.
Harold Vanderbilt died in July 1970 at age 85 at his Rock Cliff estate in Newport, R.I. He was buried in St. Mary's Churchyard at Portsmouth, R.I.
His "Eastover" estate in Manalapan has changed ownership several times since his passing. In the year 2000, Veronica Hearst, the third wife and widow of publishing company heir Randolph Apperson Hearst, purchased "Eastover".
Unfortunately, the mansion proved to be a costly investment. The publishing heiress and New York socialite soon overextended her finances. The estate was subdivided, and 150 feet of oceanfront property was sold. The mansion went into foreclosure in 2008, but survives under private ownership as an historic landmark today.
Consuelo Vanderbilt and the Churchill Family
Railroad heiress Consuelo Vanderbilt (1877 - 1964) of Manalapan married twice - once for royal titles and a second time for love. Her second husband was aviation pioneer and textile company heir Lt. Col. Jacques Balsan, whom she married in 1921 and remained with until his death in 1956 at age 88.
Her first husband was Great Britain's 9th Duke of Marlborough, Charles Spencer-Churchill (1871 - 1934). They were wed in a New York City high-society ceremony Nov. 6, 1895, following tough prenuptial negotiations between her ambitious mother, Alva Vanderbilt, and the Churchill family at the St. Thomas Episcopal Church.
Consuelo, blessed with natural beauty and inherited wealth, was considered the most successful of the Gilded Age "Dollar Princesses" in the 1890's. They were marriages of convenience and social status. American women sought the titles of European nobility. Impoverished Europeans shared their family titles in exchange for American dollars. The American duchess had a net worth of $20 million in 1895.
Between 1895 and their divorce in 1921, Consuelo became the Duchess of Marlborough and the chatelaine of the Churchill's time-worn Blenheim Palace in England. In exchange, Charles Spencer-Churchill received a dowry of $2.5 million from the Vanderbilt's and annual dividends from their railroads.
John Churchill, the First Duke of Marlborough, was one of England's most famous warrior-heroes. As England's field marshal in Europe, he defeated the armies of France's Sun King, Louis XIV, during the War of Spanish Succession. Construction of Blenheim Palace began during the final years of his life.
In 1897, Consuelo gave birth to the first of her two sons, John Albert William Spencer-Churchill. He became the next in line to become the 10th Duke of Marlborough, replacing his older cousin, Sir Winston Churchill, who would have inherited the title if Consuelo's husband, Charles, died without an heir.
Some historians speculate that Sir Winston's loss of the hereditary title of Duke of Marlborough was one factor motivating him to pursue a career in public service and politics. Despite his titular demotion, Consuelo and Winston remained friends throughout their long lives.
After her divorce to Charles Spencer-Churchill in 1921, Consuelo lived in Europe with her second husband, Jacques Balsan, until 1939. Sir Winston was a frequent visitor to their home in Dreux, France, and once made a painting of their St. Georges Hotel residence while a guest.
At the end of World War II, Churchill was defeated in his bid for reelection as prime minister of England. He visited South Florida in the winter of 1946, and stayed at Consuelo's "Casa Alva" as a guest of his American friends in Manalapan while preparing a speech to be given at Westminster College.
His "Sinews of Peace" message, delivered March 5, 1946 as a guest lecturer at the college, served as a warning of future aggression by Soviet Russia in Eastern Europe and became known to history as the "Iron Curtain Speech":
"From Stettin in Baltic
to Trieste in the Adriatic,
an 'Iron Curtain' has descended
across the continent..."
Consuelo Vanderbilt sold "Casa Alva" after the death of her second husband in 1956. It was purchased by William and Maura Benjamin. The Point Manalapan mansion was converted into the private "Manalapan Club" for several years, then restored to a family residence, as it remains today.
After the sale of "Case Alva" for $6.8 million, Consuelo Vanderbilt moved to the Town of Palm Beach. She bought the 1940 neo-classical villa of heiress Audrey Emory, located on East Verdado Road, to use as her new winter residence.
The former Duchess of Marlborough died Dec. 6, 1964 in Southampton, Long Island. She was buried next to her younger son at St. Martin's Church, Oxfordshire, England, a short distance from Blenheim Palace.
As for "Eastover" and "Casa Alva," they remain the architectural centerpieces of a time in history when Manalapan was "Vanderbilt's Town".
(c.) Davidsson. 2020.
Consuelo Vanderbilt Spencer-Churchill Balsan, former Duchess of Marlborough and chatelaine of England's Blenheim Palace, purchased five acres of land on the south end of Hypoluxo Island in 1934 to build her new winter home.
She wanted it to face "Eastover," the mansion built four years earlier by younger brother Harold Stirling Vanderbilt (1884 - 1970), located directly across the branch of the Lake Worth Lagoon separating Hypoluxo from Manalapan's seaside barrier island.
Consuelo named her 26,177-square-foot mansion "Casa Alva" (the house of Alva) in honor of their formidable mother, Alva Erskine Vanderbilt Belmont. She hired her brother's Swiss-born architect, Maurice Fatio, to design the Mediterranean-Revival style mansion which the heiress often referred to as "The Cottage".
Harold and Consuelo were the great-grandchildren of Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt, the 19th century shipping and railroad tycoon who during his lifetime was the richest man in America. Both siblings were multi-millionaires through inheritance and family business enterprises.
It was Harold Vanderbilt who in 1931 incorporated Hypoluxo Island and a section of barrier island south of Lantana's East Ocean Avenue into the Town of Manalapan.
Hypoluxo was one of several place names once used to describe the Lake Worth Lagoon. The common meaning is "body of water with no way out" in a Seminole dialect, and dates back to the 19th century when the lagoon was a freshwater lake instead of today's tidal estuary.
Palm Beach County pioneer George Carter was the first settler to homestead Hypoluxo Island in the 1880's. Pineapples, coconuts and alligator meat were the main cash commodities produced during the early history of the island.
Manalapan is a place name shared with a city in New Jersey established in the 1840's. In the native American Lenape language it translates to "a place of good bread," or its less flattering original meaning - "covered swamp with edible roots."
In 1892, the Hypoluxo Beach Company was organized in New Jersey to develop properties east of Lantana. David Baird, a company founder, lived in Manalapan, N.J., and suggested it as a future name for the Florida community. As a result, today there are two cities sharing the same name.
The Ocean-Island Corporation acquired a one-mile strip of land in the 1920's, south of Palm Beach and east of Lantana, to develop an exclusive subdivision by the sea. Harold Vanderbilt was one of the investors acquiring property within this tract.
While his mansion was under construction in Manalapan, the Vanderbilt's purchased and remodeled the "El Solano" estate from 1925-30. The Palm Beach mansion was designed by architect Addison Mizner in 1919. "El Solano" was later acquired by the late John and Yoko Ono Lennon from 1980-86.
When he established the seaside town, Vanderbilt envisioned Manalapan as a low-density community and winter retreat for upscale entrepreneurs like himself. His vision holds true today.
Manalapan residents have a median household income of $216,250. Their median property values are $2 million, and 96.4 percent of the town's residents own their homes, according to 2017 U.S. Census estimates.
A headline in the July 5, 1970 edition of the Palm Beach Post reported, "Manalapan was Vanderbilt's Town." At the time of his death, he was the town's honorary "Mayor Emeritus".
The newspaper's analysis was based on the facts that in addition to incorporating the town in 1931, Harold Vanderbilt served on its governing council for 32 years, and was mayor of Manalapan from 1952 through 1966.
Vanderbilt was a director on the board of the New York Central Railroad for four decades. He also served as president of the board of trustees for Vanderbilt University, founded by his family in Nashville, TN, after the Civil War. A bronze statue of Harold Vanderbilt, created by New York artist Joseph Kiseleweski, was dedicated in 1965 on the university campus for his years of service.
His favorite pastimes were yachting and contract bridge. Many card players consider him the "father of contract bridge" for establishing the rules used today in tournament play back in 1925. The Vanderbilt yacht "Enterprise" defended the "America's Cup" against international challengers during sailing races held in 1930, 1934 and 1937.
The Vanderbilt home, known as "Eastover," is a three-story Italian Renaissance-style mansion completed in 1930. The architectural firm of Treanor and Fatio designed a mansion with imported stone and stucco walls and a clay tile roof. Construction costs at that time totaled about $500,000.
The mansion is located on a beach coastal ridge overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. The estate once occupied a six-acre site extending from the ocean to the Lake Worth Lagoon and was intersected by South Ocean Blvd.
"Eastover" was approved in December 2002 for inclusion in the National Register of Historic Places. It was selected for both its architectural design and historic significance to the Town of Manalapan.
Harold Vanderbilt died in July 1970 at age 85 at his Rock Cliff estate in Newport, R.I. He was buried in St. Mary's Churchyard at Portsmouth, R.I.
His "Eastover" estate in Manalapan has changed ownership several times since his passing. In the year 2000, Veronica Hearst, the third wife and widow of publishing company heir Randolph Apperson Hearst, purchased "Eastover".
Unfortunately, the mansion proved to be a costly investment. The publishing heiress and New York socialite soon overextended her finances. The estate was subdivided, and 150 feet of oceanfront property was sold. The mansion went into foreclosure in 2008, but survives under private ownership as an historic landmark today.
Consuelo Vanderbilt and the Churchill Family
Railroad heiress Consuelo Vanderbilt (1877 - 1964) of Manalapan married twice - once for royal titles and a second time for love. Her second husband was aviation pioneer and textile company heir Lt. Col. Jacques Balsan, whom she married in 1921 and remained with until his death in 1956 at age 88.
Her first husband was Great Britain's 9th Duke of Marlborough, Charles Spencer-Churchill (1871 - 1934). They were wed in a New York City high-society ceremony Nov. 6, 1895, following tough prenuptial negotiations between her ambitious mother, Alva Vanderbilt, and the Churchill family at the St. Thomas Episcopal Church.
Consuelo, blessed with natural beauty and inherited wealth, was considered the most successful of the Gilded Age "Dollar Princesses" in the 1890's. They were marriages of convenience and social status. American women sought the titles of European nobility. Impoverished Europeans shared their family titles in exchange for American dollars. The American duchess had a net worth of $20 million in 1895.
Between 1895 and their divorce in 1921, Consuelo became the Duchess of Marlborough and the chatelaine of the Churchill's time-worn Blenheim Palace in England. In exchange, Charles Spencer-Churchill received a dowry of $2.5 million from the Vanderbilt's and annual dividends from their railroads.
John Churchill, the First Duke of Marlborough, was one of England's most famous warrior-heroes. As England's field marshal in Europe, he defeated the armies of France's Sun King, Louis XIV, during the War of Spanish Succession. Construction of Blenheim Palace began during the final years of his life.
In 1897, Consuelo gave birth to the first of her two sons, John Albert William Spencer-Churchill. He became the next in line to become the 10th Duke of Marlborough, replacing his older cousin, Sir Winston Churchill, who would have inherited the title if Consuelo's husband, Charles, died without an heir.
Some historians speculate that Sir Winston's loss of the hereditary title of Duke of Marlborough was one factor motivating him to pursue a career in public service and politics. Despite his titular demotion, Consuelo and Winston remained friends throughout their long lives.
After her divorce to Charles Spencer-Churchill in 1921, Consuelo lived in Europe with her second husband, Jacques Balsan, until 1939. Sir Winston was a frequent visitor to their home in Dreux, France, and once made a painting of their St. Georges Hotel residence while a guest.
At the end of World War II, Churchill was defeated in his bid for reelection as prime minister of England. He visited South Florida in the winter of 1946, and stayed at Consuelo's "Casa Alva" as a guest of his American friends in Manalapan while preparing a speech to be given at Westminster College.
His "Sinews of Peace" message, delivered March 5, 1946 as a guest lecturer at the college, served as a warning of future aggression by Soviet Russia in Eastern Europe and became known to history as the "Iron Curtain Speech":
"From Stettin in Baltic
to Trieste in the Adriatic,
an 'Iron Curtain' has descended
across the continent..."
Consuelo Vanderbilt sold "Casa Alva" after the death of her second husband in 1956. It was purchased by William and Maura Benjamin. The Point Manalapan mansion was converted into the private "Manalapan Club" for several years, then restored to a family residence, as it remains today.
After the sale of "Case Alva" for $6.8 million, Consuelo Vanderbilt moved to the Town of Palm Beach. She bought the 1940 neo-classical villa of heiress Audrey Emory, located on East Verdado Road, to use as her new winter residence.
The former Duchess of Marlborough died Dec. 6, 1964 in Southampton, Long Island. She was buried next to her younger son at St. Martin's Church, Oxfordshire, England, a short distance from Blenheim Palace.
As for "Eastover" and "Casa Alva," they remain the architectural centerpieces of a time in history when Manalapan was "Vanderbilt's Town".
(c.) Davidsson. 2020.
Thursday, April 23, 2020
'Waveland' - Life in Our Border Town, 1880 - 1925
By Bob Davidsson
Waveland was Palm Beach County's northernmost border town from 1909 to 1925. Today, it is a ghost town from the past, but one with a history worth remembering.
The riverfront community, built on 100 acres of land between the Indian and St. Lucie rivers, was purchased by pioneer Henry William Racey in 1855. His land tract was located southwest of Jensen Beach, east of the community of Rio, and extended south onto Sewell's Point.
The history of Waveland predates the establishment of its first post office in 1880 by nearly 4,500 years. The region's first inhabitants were the ancestors of the Ais Indians. Mount Elizabeth, the native tribe's southernmost ceremonial site, rose 60 feet above the 19th century pioneer community.
During the Second Spanish Colonial Period (from 1785 - 1821), Waveland was the terminus of two Spanish Land Grants. The Kingdom of Spain awarded sections of land along the Treasure Coast to James Hutchinson, Samuel Miles and Eusebio Gomez as payment for their services to its struggling Florida colony.
The Waveland community made its topographical debut on the A.J. Johnson and Company "Map of Florida" in 1878. Its first appearance on a Dade County map was documented two years later. For the next 45 years confused mapmakers alternately placed the border town in Dade County, St. Lucie County and Palm Beach County after 1909.
Martin County, created out of the northern third of Palm Beach County in 1925, ended the conflicting border affiliations in 1925 by replacing the Waveland place name with Jensen Beach.
The Hanson-Miles Land Grant
John M. Hanson petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court in 1842 to confirm a "Florida Land Claim" for five square miles or 16,000 acres of land, originally granted to Samuel Miles by the governor of Spanish East Florida in 1813. He purchased the land from Miles in August 1823. The huge tract of land became known as the Hanson-Miles Land Grant.
In his court petition, Hanson wrote, "Samuel Miles, a new settler, admitted (to Florida) under the protection of the King of Spain, on July 18, 1813 presented a petition to Governor Sebastian Kindelan y O'Regan of East Florida (1812-15) setting forth the great services performed by him for the supply of troops of Spain in the province, and severe loses and suffering sustained by him in the service of the crown, and considering himself entitled to some favor, asked for a grant of five miles square of land for the construction of a water saw mill at a place fit for this purpose."
Hanson described the site as "vacant, situated at the mouth of the River Santaluces". Although the saw mill was never built, the land grant included the future site of Waveland, and extended as far south as Tequesta, west of the Gomez Jupiter Island Grant.*
The Supreme Court withheld its final decision in the land grant case entitled "U.S. vs. Hanson and Others" and ordered a new survey. It would not be accepted until 1889. Meanwhile, the land grant remained an unsettled wilderness.
William Racey Discovers His 'Land of Waves'
In 1855, novice explorer William Henry Racey of New York sailed to Jacksonville in search of adventure and a future homestead for his family in Florida. His timing couldn't have been worse. He arrived at the start of the Third Seminole War (1855-58).
Racey purchased a section of land 35 miles south of Jacksonville called "Racey Point" on the St. Johns River, then sailed south into a war zone between the U.S. Army and the Seminole tribe. Good fortune was with him and he experienced no hostile encounters during his travels.
He entered the Indian River and examined the land granted to James Hutchinson of Georgia and his heirs in 1803 by Spanish East Florida Governor Enrique White (1796 - 1811). The Hutchinsons acquired 2,000 acres of land on what is today called the North and South Hutchinson barrier islands, as well as an original mainland section north of the Hanson-Miles Land Grant.
The Spanish land grantee homesteaded a section north of Waveland on the west shore of the Indian River until fear of Indian attacks forced him to relocate his family to the barrier island bearing his name in April 1807. His bad luck continued with trespassing vessels and pirates plaguing his seaside plantation.
Hutchinson drowned at sea when his ship encountered a storm in September 1808 while sailing from St. Augustine to his island plantation during the peak of hurricane season. His land grant remained with the Hutchinson family throughout most of the 19th century.
South of the Hutchinson Land Grant, Racey noted a large wooded mound looming above the western shoreline of the Indian River. He christened it "Mount Elizabeth" in honor of his mother, Elizabeth Hiscox Racey. Its original name in the Ais Indian dialect is unknown.
Continuing south along the Indian River, Racey reached the site where Samuel Miles once planned to build a saw mill, the point of land where the Indian and St. Lucie rivers merged as one. Racey discovered his Florida paradise at this land of waves and purchased a 100-acre tract on May 1, 1855.
Racey returned to New York with the intent of relocating his family to the Indian River property. He never made the journey. The Civil War and family responsibilities delayed his return. He died in 1874 with his Florida retirement dream unfulfilled.
During the absence of the Racey family, a Waveland post office was established at the home of Dr. William M. Baker on Sept. 2, 1880. Waveland maintained a post office, with a brief relocation of service in 1891, until U.S. mail deliveries were moved to Jensen Beach on Aug. 31, 1918.
Charles Henry Racey (1861 - 1933), William Racey's son and an optician by trade, lived in New York City until he received word in 1890 that settlers were attempting to obtain his Florida inheritance through the purchasing of delinquent property taxes.
To defend his property rights, Charles Racey relocated his family in Waveland. They arrived on an Indian River Steamship Company transport vessel and stayed at the home of the postmaster, Dr. Baker, until construction of the Racey estate on Mount Elizabeth was completed in 1891.
The Racey estate's mansion was a three-story wooden structure, with a 40-by-50 foot ballroom, observation tower, and boathouse with a 400-foot dock extending into the Indian River. During the construction, the top of the ancient Ais Indian mound was leveled, reducing the height of Mount Elizabeth from 60 to 40 feet.
To promote settlement in Waveland, Racey subdivided his property in 1891, christening the homesteaded site as Arbela. He donated five acres of land for an Episcopalian church and cemetery located at the Crossroads Hill in Waveland.
The "All Saints Church" was built in 1898 and opened its doors to a congregation of 42 settlers in Waveland. Today, the historic "All Saints Church" remains the oldest continuous religious site in Martin County. The church was added to the Martin County Historic Register during its 120th anniversary on March 12, 2018.
Fields of pineapples were planted at the base of Mount Elizabeth. Racey recorded his occupation as a "fruit grower" in both the 1900 U.S. Census and in the 1916-18 City Directories.
Racey was named president of the "East Coast Good Roads League" in 1898. Through his initiative, the first road was built connecting Waveland to Ft. Pierce. He also co-founded the "South Florida Navigation Company" in 1907 to keep inlets and coastal waterways open.
On Jan. 21, 1921, a kitchen fire quickly spread throughout Racey's estate, destroying the 30-year-old wooden buildings. Charles Racey moved with his family to property he owned in Dade County. The Waveland pioneer resided in Miami until his death in December 1933.
The Mount Elizabeth Archaeological Site
After the departure of Charles Racey's family, the Mount Elizabeth estate changed ownership several times. Willaford Leach of Chicago, and his wife, Ann, a Coca-Cola company heiress, purchased Mount Elizabeth and surrounding property in 1936. They built a Mediterranean Revival-style mansion named "Tuckahoe" (welcome). It remains at the site today.
When the Leach family moved to Palm Beach in 1950, their 54-acre property was sold to the Catholic Church. It was the site of St. Joseph's College in the 1970s, and later used for the Florida Institute of Technology which closed in 1987.
Martin County obtained the Mount Elizabeth property in 1997 and created the "Indian RiverSide Park" for public use. It includes both the ancient mound site and the adjacent "Tuckahoe" mansion.
The home of Capt. Henry Sewell, built at Sewell's Point in 1889, was relocated by barge from Port Sewell to Indian Riverside Park in 2007-08. Captain Sewell served as a postmaster and legislative representative for Dade County's northern district in the 1890s.
The archaeological importance of Mount Elizabeth as a native American "East Okeechobee Culture" religious ceremonial center and village site during the Late Archaic Period was acknowledged by the federal government in 2002 by placing it on the Federal Register of Historic Places.
Archaeologists discovered the mound itself consists of shells and marine life residue from the Indian River and nearby Atlantic Ocean. Mount Elizabeth, the highest remaining Indian mound in South Florida, also contains village pottery fragments and those of neighboring tribes obtained in trade.
As for Waveland, most of the former community is now county park land or included within the borders of Jensen Beach. The "All Saints Church" and "Waveland Avenue" remain reminders of its history.
(c.) Davidsson, 2020.
*NOTE: A related article by the author titled "Eusebio Maria Gomez and the Jupiter Land Grant" was published in the August 2010 edition of The Florida Genealogist. Read additional articles posted below and archived in Older Posts.
Waveland was Palm Beach County's northernmost border town from 1909 to 1925. Today, it is a ghost town from the past, but one with a history worth remembering.
The riverfront community, built on 100 acres of land between the Indian and St. Lucie rivers, was purchased by pioneer Henry William Racey in 1855. His land tract was located southwest of Jensen Beach, east of the community of Rio, and extended south onto Sewell's Point.
The history of Waveland predates the establishment of its first post office in 1880 by nearly 4,500 years. The region's first inhabitants were the ancestors of the Ais Indians. Mount Elizabeth, the native tribe's southernmost ceremonial site, rose 60 feet above the 19th century pioneer community.
During the Second Spanish Colonial Period (from 1785 - 1821), Waveland was the terminus of two Spanish Land Grants. The Kingdom of Spain awarded sections of land along the Treasure Coast to James Hutchinson, Samuel Miles and Eusebio Gomez as payment for their services to its struggling Florida colony.
The Waveland community made its topographical debut on the A.J. Johnson and Company "Map of Florida" in 1878. Its first appearance on a Dade County map was documented two years later. For the next 45 years confused mapmakers alternately placed the border town in Dade County, St. Lucie County and Palm Beach County after 1909.
Martin County, created out of the northern third of Palm Beach County in 1925, ended the conflicting border affiliations in 1925 by replacing the Waveland place name with Jensen Beach.
The Hanson-Miles Land Grant
John M. Hanson petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court in 1842 to confirm a "Florida Land Claim" for five square miles or 16,000 acres of land, originally granted to Samuel Miles by the governor of Spanish East Florida in 1813. He purchased the land from Miles in August 1823. The huge tract of land became known as the Hanson-Miles Land Grant.
In his court petition, Hanson wrote, "Samuel Miles, a new settler, admitted (to Florida) under the protection of the King of Spain, on July 18, 1813 presented a petition to Governor Sebastian Kindelan y O'Regan of East Florida (1812-15) setting forth the great services performed by him for the supply of troops of Spain in the province, and severe loses and suffering sustained by him in the service of the crown, and considering himself entitled to some favor, asked for a grant of five miles square of land for the construction of a water saw mill at a place fit for this purpose."
Hanson described the site as "vacant, situated at the mouth of the River Santaluces". Although the saw mill was never built, the land grant included the future site of Waveland, and extended as far south as Tequesta, west of the Gomez Jupiter Island Grant.*
The Supreme Court withheld its final decision in the land grant case entitled "U.S. vs. Hanson and Others" and ordered a new survey. It would not be accepted until 1889. Meanwhile, the land grant remained an unsettled wilderness.
William Racey Discovers His 'Land of Waves'
In 1855, novice explorer William Henry Racey of New York sailed to Jacksonville in search of adventure and a future homestead for his family in Florida. His timing couldn't have been worse. He arrived at the start of the Third Seminole War (1855-58).
Racey purchased a section of land 35 miles south of Jacksonville called "Racey Point" on the St. Johns River, then sailed south into a war zone between the U.S. Army and the Seminole tribe. Good fortune was with him and he experienced no hostile encounters during his travels.
He entered the Indian River and examined the land granted to James Hutchinson of Georgia and his heirs in 1803 by Spanish East Florida Governor Enrique White (1796 - 1811). The Hutchinsons acquired 2,000 acres of land on what is today called the North and South Hutchinson barrier islands, as well as an original mainland section north of the Hanson-Miles Land Grant.
The Spanish land grantee homesteaded a section north of Waveland on the west shore of the Indian River until fear of Indian attacks forced him to relocate his family to the barrier island bearing his name in April 1807. His bad luck continued with trespassing vessels and pirates plaguing his seaside plantation.
Hutchinson drowned at sea when his ship encountered a storm in September 1808 while sailing from St. Augustine to his island plantation during the peak of hurricane season. His land grant remained with the Hutchinson family throughout most of the 19th century.
South of the Hutchinson Land Grant, Racey noted a large wooded mound looming above the western shoreline of the Indian River. He christened it "Mount Elizabeth" in honor of his mother, Elizabeth Hiscox Racey. Its original name in the Ais Indian dialect is unknown.
Continuing south along the Indian River, Racey reached the site where Samuel Miles once planned to build a saw mill, the point of land where the Indian and St. Lucie rivers merged as one. Racey discovered his Florida paradise at this land of waves and purchased a 100-acre tract on May 1, 1855.
Racey returned to New York with the intent of relocating his family to the Indian River property. He never made the journey. The Civil War and family responsibilities delayed his return. He died in 1874 with his Florida retirement dream unfulfilled.
During the absence of the Racey family, a Waveland post office was established at the home of Dr. William M. Baker on Sept. 2, 1880. Waveland maintained a post office, with a brief relocation of service in 1891, until U.S. mail deliveries were moved to Jensen Beach on Aug. 31, 1918.
Charles Henry Racey (1861 - 1933), William Racey's son and an optician by trade, lived in New York City until he received word in 1890 that settlers were attempting to obtain his Florida inheritance through the purchasing of delinquent property taxes.
To defend his property rights, Charles Racey relocated his family in Waveland. They arrived on an Indian River Steamship Company transport vessel and stayed at the home of the postmaster, Dr. Baker, until construction of the Racey estate on Mount Elizabeth was completed in 1891.
The Racey estate's mansion was a three-story wooden structure, with a 40-by-50 foot ballroom, observation tower, and boathouse with a 400-foot dock extending into the Indian River. During the construction, the top of the ancient Ais Indian mound was leveled, reducing the height of Mount Elizabeth from 60 to 40 feet.
To promote settlement in Waveland, Racey subdivided his property in 1891, christening the homesteaded site as Arbela. He donated five acres of land for an Episcopalian church and cemetery located at the Crossroads Hill in Waveland.
The "All Saints Church" was built in 1898 and opened its doors to a congregation of 42 settlers in Waveland. Today, the historic "All Saints Church" remains the oldest continuous religious site in Martin County. The church was added to the Martin County Historic Register during its 120th anniversary on March 12, 2018.
Fields of pineapples were planted at the base of Mount Elizabeth. Racey recorded his occupation as a "fruit grower" in both the 1900 U.S. Census and in the 1916-18 City Directories.
Racey was named president of the "East Coast Good Roads League" in 1898. Through his initiative, the first road was built connecting Waveland to Ft. Pierce. He also co-founded the "South Florida Navigation Company" in 1907 to keep inlets and coastal waterways open.
On Jan. 21, 1921, a kitchen fire quickly spread throughout Racey's estate, destroying the 30-year-old wooden buildings. Charles Racey moved with his family to property he owned in Dade County. The Waveland pioneer resided in Miami until his death in December 1933.
The Mount Elizabeth Archaeological Site
After the departure of Charles Racey's family, the Mount Elizabeth estate changed ownership several times. Willaford Leach of Chicago, and his wife, Ann, a Coca-Cola company heiress, purchased Mount Elizabeth and surrounding property in 1936. They built a Mediterranean Revival-style mansion named "Tuckahoe" (welcome). It remains at the site today.
When the Leach family moved to Palm Beach in 1950, their 54-acre property was sold to the Catholic Church. It was the site of St. Joseph's College in the 1970s, and later used for the Florida Institute of Technology which closed in 1987.
Martin County obtained the Mount Elizabeth property in 1997 and created the "Indian RiverSide Park" for public use. It includes both the ancient mound site and the adjacent "Tuckahoe" mansion.
The home of Capt. Henry Sewell, built at Sewell's Point in 1889, was relocated by barge from Port Sewell to Indian Riverside Park in 2007-08. Captain Sewell served as a postmaster and legislative representative for Dade County's northern district in the 1890s.
The archaeological importance of Mount Elizabeth as a native American "East Okeechobee Culture" religious ceremonial center and village site during the Late Archaic Period was acknowledged by the federal government in 2002 by placing it on the Federal Register of Historic Places.
Archaeologists discovered the mound itself consists of shells and marine life residue from the Indian River and nearby Atlantic Ocean. Mount Elizabeth, the highest remaining Indian mound in South Florida, also contains village pottery fragments and those of neighboring tribes obtained in trade.
As for Waveland, most of the former community is now county park land or included within the borders of Jensen Beach. The "All Saints Church" and "Waveland Avenue" remain reminders of its history.
(c.) Davidsson, 2020.
*NOTE: A related article by the author titled "Eusebio Maria Gomez and the Jupiter Land Grant" was published in the August 2010 edition of The Florida Genealogist. Read additional articles posted below and archived in Older Posts.
Tuesday, March 31, 2020
Lake Osborne: The 'Shining Spirit of Fresh Water'
By Bob Davidsson
Lake Osborne is the center of a popular Palm Beach County recreational area for fishing, boating and camping with a hiking trail encircling most of its extent. .
The inland lake, located west of the cities of Lake Worth Beach and Lantana, was introduced to the nation by the name "Osborn" on the 1882 "Map of Dade County," distributed by the C.B. Colton and Company of New York. The Palm Beaches were part of Dade County between the 1860s and 1909.
Subsequent maps and pioneer documents would continue to refer to it as "Lake Osborn" until 1917, when the "Lake Osborne Addition" plat became the first to use the alternate common spelling of "Osborne". Originally called the "Osborne Colored Addition," the plat was changed to the less derogatory name of Osborne Addition in 1994.
Two families shared the same surname with the lake in the 19th century. Florida Sen. Thomas Ward Osborn (1868-73), and his older brother, The Rev. Abraham Coles Osborn, president of the Great Southern Railway Company, planned a railroad passing through Palm Beach County in the 1870s. The proposed route of the failed business venture was west of Lake Osborne.
The first known legal deed-holders on the lake belonged to a second New Jersey family, Ezra Asher Osborn (1823-95) of Monmouth County, and his son Frank. The father-son team headed a business syndicate in the 1880s that sought to enrich its investors by planting coconut groves on unoccupied coastal land purchased from Biscayne Bay to the Jupiter Inlet. A plague of rabbits led to its bankruptcy.
Early History of Lake Osborne
To the Seminole Indians, who hunted and fished along its shores, the lake was known by the poetic name of "Matal-ka-oska" or shining spirit of fresh water. Geologically, Lake Osborne is part of a 30-mile interconnected chain of lakes and sloughs located west of the Atlantic Coastal Ridge in Palm Beach County.
The nearest Seminole village, known as "Cha-Chi's Town," was located about five miles north of Lake Osborne, near the chain-of-lakes site today called Clear Lake in West Palm Beach. During the Second Seminole War, Capt. Richard Wade, leading a force of 60 men in 12 canoes, sacked Cha-chi's Town on Nov. 8, 1841, capturing 27 villagers in the raid.
He returned to the abandoned village one month later during a reconnaissance patrol of the Lake Worth Lagoon. Wade's engineer and topographer, Lt. Andrew A. Humphreys, made the following observation of the chain of lakes including Lake Osborne in his "Memoirs" on Dec. 19, 1841.
"Lagoons of deep water, covered by spatterdocks, are here and there met with, he wrote. "In many places, canoes have to be pushed and hauled, but at others the water expands into grassy lakes, a quarter of a mile in extent and generally one to two miles apart."
Spatterdocks (Nuphur Lutea) is a term used for a common aquatic plant found along the edges of the chain of lakes. The Seminoles used spatterdocks to stop bleeding and as a pain killer. It is edible and also is used as a natural tea.
The journal of early Palm Beach County pioneer Charles Pierce credits German emigrant Michael Merkel of Alsace-Lorraine as the first settler to homestead along the eastern shore of Lake Osborne. He sailed to the Palm Beaches in November 1878. The first pioneer to farm on the west shore of the lake was Benjamin "Uncle Ben" Lanehart.
Pierce wrote, "He (Merkel) built a very small palmetto shack on the south side of a large bay running eastward from the main body of the lake." Merkel lived most of his austere life as a hermit, living on fish, game and palm berries gathered along the shores of Lake Osborne. Neighbors to the east in the pioneering community of Jewell (Lake Worth) often heard him chanting in Latin, leading to the popular belief that he was a defrocked priest who had fled Europe.
The development of Lake Osborne began after the arrival of Morris Benson Lyman in 1884. Lyman served as the postmaster of the fledgling community of Lantana in 1889, and was appointed the first treasurer of Palm Beach County by Gov. Albert Gilchrist when it separated from Dade County in 1909.
Lyman became president of the "Lake Osborne Development Company," with his wife, Mary, working as vice president. The corporation acquired 770 acres of land between Lantana and Lake Osborne valued at about $75,000. The property was divided into tracts for the sale of homes and farming sites.
Lantana's founding father also served as one of the first supervisors appointed to the Lake Worth Drainage District (LWDD). Beginning in 1916 and continuing through the 1930s, the LWDD sponsored a series of projects lowering the water levels in the chain of freshwater lakes to clear their adjacent wetlands for agriculture and development.
Lakes Webster, Jackson, Bessie and Boynton vanished. The water levels in Lake Osborne were reduced by the completion of the E-4 canal in the 1930s. Today, the lake covers 378 acres, with an average depth of 6 to 8 feet.
Most of the western shore of Lake Osborne was acquired by Palm Beach County in the 1940s through the Florida Lands Acquisition Act and the lobbying efforts of Commissioner John Prince. Lake Osborne is utilized as both the John Prince Park recreational area, created in 1952, and as a reservoir within the C-16 drainage district.
(c.) Davidsson. 2020.
*NOTE: Read additional articles below and archived in Older Posts
Thursday, February 27, 2020
The 'WPB Canal' and the City's Inland Port: 1917-25
By Bob Davidsson
The peaceful tranquility of Howard Park in downtown West Palm Beach today belies the site's history 100 years ago as the city's center of commerce and the hub of Palm Beach County's agricultural export industry.
It was the vision of the city's business leaders that transformed an Everglades drainage canal into a commercial transportation network connecting the agricultural communities of Lake Okeechobee to the heart of West Palm Beach between the years 1917-25.
The completion of the West Palm Beach Canal in 1917, connecting Lake Okeechobee at Canal Point with the Lake Worth Lagoon, provided farmers with a direct route to the coastal city, where they could ship their produce to northern markets via Henry Flagler's Florida East Coast (FEC) Railway.
The City of West Palm Beach enhanced the transportation waterway on May 17, 1918 with the opening of a canal extension or "stub" leading north to a ship turning basin in the city's business district.
The city's inland port featured docks for steamships and barges, boat slips and an agricultural produce market. An FEC railroad spur connected the basin to the main rail line for rapid shipment of produce.
It was reported on the opening day of the city's turning basin (today a small pond in Howard Park) that 5,000 crates of agricultural products were loaded onto 10 railroad freight cars for transport to northern cities.
Origin of the West Palm Beach Canal
In the year 1907, the Florida Legislature created the Everglades Drainage District (EDD) with a mission of increasing agricultural production in South Florida by draining submerged marsh lands through a series of canals leading to the coast.
Between the years 1915-28, the Hillsboro, New and Miami rivers became drainage outlets to the sea through interconnecting canals originating in Lake Okeechobee and the northern Everglades.
In 1911, West Palm Beach attorney and developer George Currie (1858-1926) successfully petitioned Florida Gov. Albert Gilchrist on the behalf of the chamber of commerce to include a canal from Lake Okeechobee to the Lake Worth Lagoon as part of the Everglades Drainage District.
Currie served two terms as mayor of West Palm Beach in 1903-05, and was the treasurer of Dade County prior to the creation of Palm Beach County in 1909. He later donated a strip of land along the Lake Worth Lagoon to the City of West Palm Beach in 1920 known today as "Currie Park".
The dredging of the West Palm Beach Canal was approved by the State of Florida in 1913. The engineering project was awarded to the firm of Johnson & Company of Miami.
The July 1914 edition of the "Water Chronicle" (Vol. 4) entitled "Inland Navigation" reported, "Johnson & Co., engineers and contractors of Miami, are progressing with their contract to complete the West Palm Beach Canal, extending from Lake Worth to Lake Okeechobee."
"They soon will install two additional dredges, a dipper and a suction," the report continues. "This equipment will complete the canal to 42 miles long and require 7 million cubic yards of excavation. The first half is to be completed within two and a half years, and the entire work within four years."
Soon after the completion of the West Palm Beach Canal in 1917, the West Palm Beach City Commission approved $14,000 in construction bonds to finance the dredging of the northern extension (stub) and ship turning basin.
The stub canal (today located parallel to Parker Avenue) was dredged to a depth of 20 feet and was 50 feet in width when it opened in May 1918. The depth of the stub canal and turning basin was adequate for use by passenger steamships and motorized barges making the journey from Canal Point to West Palm Beach.
The passage of vessels from Lake Okeechobee into the West Palm Beach Canal required the deepening of the lake's channel in 1921, and the construction of a lock to maintain uniform water levels for shipping. The Florida Legislature approved funds for the construction of "Lock #1" at Canal Point on June 2, 1919. Work on the project began in September of that year.
As recorded in the 1919 Laws of Florida, the authorizing legislation reads, "The Board of Drainage Commissioners of the Everglades Drainage District out of funds coming into their hands as such are hereby authorized, empowered and directed to build, erect and construct in the West Palm Beach Canal...a suitable lock so as to furnish safe, convenient and practical means of transportation for vessels navigating Lake Worth and the West Palm Beach Canal between Lake Worth and Lake Okeechobee."
To help pay the salaries of the lock tenders, the state allowed the collection of tolls ranging from two to five cents per linear foot for passenger boats entering the canals. Local farmers shipping produce to market usually paid half that rate.
On Jan. 1, 1914, one year after the opening of the Hillsboro Canal in southern Palm Beach County, the first speed limits were enforced by the State of Florida to reduce erosion in the canals. Craft traveling "upriver" toward Lake Okeechobee had a speed limit of 5 mph, while "downriver" ship traffic could power up to 6 mph.
The Years of Prosperity: 1920-24
By the year 1920, the population of Palm Beach County increased to 18,154. West Palm Beach was the county seat and largest city with 8,659 residents, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
New farming communities such as Belle Glade, Chosen, Ritta, Utopia and Port Mayaca dotted the shores of Lake Okeechobee. The Florida Department of Agriculture reported in 1920 that Palm Beach County led the state in truck farming.
The West Palm Beach Canal, dredged to a depth of 12 feet and with a new lock in operation, was open for both passenger service and the barging of agricultural products between Lake Okeechobee and West Palm Beach.
In the comprehensive "History of Florida Past and Present, Historical and Biographical," published in 1923, author Harry Gardner Cutlers reported, "During the year 1921, there were unloaded at the canal dock in West Palm Beach for shipment to northern cities, 191,796 hampers or crates of vegetables including cabbage, string beans, tomatoes, egg plants and peppers."
"In the month of December 1921," he reported, "16,088 crates or hampers of vegetables were shipped from the city, as compared to 16,824 during the same month of the preceding year (1920); which is a fair illustration of the practical value of development in the district."
The developers of the Palm Beach Loxahatchee Company purchased 6,500 acres of land adjacent to the West Palm Beach Canal to create an accessible farming community called "Loxahatchee Farms". Today the township is incorporated as Loxahatchee Groves.
The completion of the Everglades Drainage District canal system in South Florida formed a new inland transportation network connecting the Lake Okeechobee communities to West Palm Beach, Fort Lauderdale and Fort Myers. During the early 1920s, more than 150 commercial vessels - including passenger steamships, barges and fishing tenders - plied Lake Okeechobee and its outlets to coastal cities.
The annual "Report of the Chief Engineer, U.S. Army (Part 2)" recorded a total of 1,612 passengers boarded ships for transport in the West Palm Beach Canal during the year 1924.
Brothers Bill and Ben McCoy of West Palm Beach operated a nautical transport service for passengers commuting between Moore Haven, located on the western shore of Lake Okeechobee, and their home port. The Menge Brothers Steamboat Company, based in Fort Myers, operated a flotilla of eight steamships and three barges on Lake Okeechobee and its canals.
For a brief period, the Holland and Butterworth Company of Miami promoted a passenger service up the Hillsboro Canal from Deerfield to Lake Okeechobee. The company charged $3 for a three-day cruise that left Deerfield on Saturdays and returned on Mondays.
Beginning in 2019, the "Foreverglades," a 41-foot replica of a 1920s-era freight steamboat, was displayed by artist Sofia Valiente in Howard Park, site of the former West Palm Beach turning basin and inland port.
The "Foreverglades" replica used the steamboat "La Roseada" as its design model. The "La Roseada" was a typical stern-wheeled, steam-powered freight vessel that cruised the West Palm Beach Canal and the waters of Lake Okeechobee in the 1920s.
Side-wheeled steamships were too wide to navigate the narrow drainage canals of South Florida. The stern-wheelers were more maneuverable and could reverse from obstacles in the waterways.
The End of the Canal Era
The age of inland commercial navigation along the West Palm Beach Canal entered a period of steep decline beginning in 1925. By the time the Hurricane of 1928 destroyed the docks at the West Palm Beach turning basin, its downtown agricultural market was already deserted.
The West Palm Beach Canal could not compete as a transportation network with the first cross-county highway and a new railroad extension linking the coastal city to the Glades and Lake Okeechobee farm communities.
On July 4, 1924, William J."Fingy" Conners' new toll highway opened to traffic between West Palm Beach and the City of Okeechobee. The highway followed the route to Canal Point blazed by the West Palm Beach Canal.*
One year after the opening of the Conners Toll Highway, the Seaboard Coast Line railroad completed an extension from West Palm Beach to Okeechobee City in 1925. Growers began shipping their produce by truck and on the new rail line.
With the building of the Herbert Hoover Dike in the 1930s, access to the West Palm Beach Canal from Lake Okeechobee was further restricted for boat traffic. The waterway became the drainage ditch as it is known today - the C-51 canal.
Fortunately, in its second century, the West Palm Beach Canal may once again become part of a transportation network. A public-private partnership called the "Palm Beach County Blueway Trail" is working on a plan to connect the canal to the county's inland chain of freshwater lakes as well as the Lake Worth Lagoon via a boat lift.
(c.) Davidsson. 2020.
*NOTE: Read related article below. Additional articles are indexed and archived below in "Older Posts".
The peaceful tranquility of Howard Park in downtown West Palm Beach today belies the site's history 100 years ago as the city's center of commerce and the hub of Palm Beach County's agricultural export industry.
It was the vision of the city's business leaders that transformed an Everglades drainage canal into a commercial transportation network connecting the agricultural communities of Lake Okeechobee to the heart of West Palm Beach between the years 1917-25.
The completion of the West Palm Beach Canal in 1917, connecting Lake Okeechobee at Canal Point with the Lake Worth Lagoon, provided farmers with a direct route to the coastal city, where they could ship their produce to northern markets via Henry Flagler's Florida East Coast (FEC) Railway.
The City of West Palm Beach enhanced the transportation waterway on May 17, 1918 with the opening of a canal extension or "stub" leading north to a ship turning basin in the city's business district.
The city's inland port featured docks for steamships and barges, boat slips and an agricultural produce market. An FEC railroad spur connected the basin to the main rail line for rapid shipment of produce.
It was reported on the opening day of the city's turning basin (today a small pond in Howard Park) that 5,000 crates of agricultural products were loaded onto 10 railroad freight cars for transport to northern cities.
Origin of the West Palm Beach Canal
In the year 1907, the Florida Legislature created the Everglades Drainage District (EDD) with a mission of increasing agricultural production in South Florida by draining submerged marsh lands through a series of canals leading to the coast.
Between the years 1915-28, the Hillsboro, New and Miami rivers became drainage outlets to the sea through interconnecting canals originating in Lake Okeechobee and the northern Everglades.
In 1911, West Palm Beach attorney and developer George Currie (1858-1926) successfully petitioned Florida Gov. Albert Gilchrist on the behalf of the chamber of commerce to include a canal from Lake Okeechobee to the Lake Worth Lagoon as part of the Everglades Drainage District.
Currie served two terms as mayor of West Palm Beach in 1903-05, and was the treasurer of Dade County prior to the creation of Palm Beach County in 1909. He later donated a strip of land along the Lake Worth Lagoon to the City of West Palm Beach in 1920 known today as "Currie Park".
The dredging of the West Palm Beach Canal was approved by the State of Florida in 1913. The engineering project was awarded to the firm of Johnson & Company of Miami.
The July 1914 edition of the "Water Chronicle" (Vol. 4) entitled "Inland Navigation" reported, "Johnson & Co., engineers and contractors of Miami, are progressing with their contract to complete the West Palm Beach Canal, extending from Lake Worth to Lake Okeechobee."
"They soon will install two additional dredges, a dipper and a suction," the report continues. "This equipment will complete the canal to 42 miles long and require 7 million cubic yards of excavation. The first half is to be completed within two and a half years, and the entire work within four years."
Soon after the completion of the West Palm Beach Canal in 1917, the West Palm Beach City Commission approved $14,000 in construction bonds to finance the dredging of the northern extension (stub) and ship turning basin.
The stub canal (today located parallel to Parker Avenue) was dredged to a depth of 20 feet and was 50 feet in width when it opened in May 1918. The depth of the stub canal and turning basin was adequate for use by passenger steamships and motorized barges making the journey from Canal Point to West Palm Beach.
The passage of vessels from Lake Okeechobee into the West Palm Beach Canal required the deepening of the lake's channel in 1921, and the construction of a lock to maintain uniform water levels for shipping. The Florida Legislature approved funds for the construction of "Lock #1" at Canal Point on June 2, 1919. Work on the project began in September of that year.
As recorded in the 1919 Laws of Florida, the authorizing legislation reads, "The Board of Drainage Commissioners of the Everglades Drainage District out of funds coming into their hands as such are hereby authorized, empowered and directed to build, erect and construct in the West Palm Beach Canal...a suitable lock so as to furnish safe, convenient and practical means of transportation for vessels navigating Lake Worth and the West Palm Beach Canal between Lake Worth and Lake Okeechobee."
To help pay the salaries of the lock tenders, the state allowed the collection of tolls ranging from two to five cents per linear foot for passenger boats entering the canals. Local farmers shipping produce to market usually paid half that rate.
On Jan. 1, 1914, one year after the opening of the Hillsboro Canal in southern Palm Beach County, the first speed limits were enforced by the State of Florida to reduce erosion in the canals. Craft traveling "upriver" toward Lake Okeechobee had a speed limit of 5 mph, while "downriver" ship traffic could power up to 6 mph.
The Years of Prosperity: 1920-24
By the year 1920, the population of Palm Beach County increased to 18,154. West Palm Beach was the county seat and largest city with 8,659 residents, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
New farming communities such as Belle Glade, Chosen, Ritta, Utopia and Port Mayaca dotted the shores of Lake Okeechobee. The Florida Department of Agriculture reported in 1920 that Palm Beach County led the state in truck farming.
The West Palm Beach Canal, dredged to a depth of 12 feet and with a new lock in operation, was open for both passenger service and the barging of agricultural products between Lake Okeechobee and West Palm Beach.
In the comprehensive "History of Florida Past and Present, Historical and Biographical," published in 1923, author Harry Gardner Cutlers reported, "During the year 1921, there were unloaded at the canal dock in West Palm Beach for shipment to northern cities, 191,796 hampers or crates of vegetables including cabbage, string beans, tomatoes, egg plants and peppers."
"In the month of December 1921," he reported, "16,088 crates or hampers of vegetables were shipped from the city, as compared to 16,824 during the same month of the preceding year (1920); which is a fair illustration of the practical value of development in the district."
The developers of the Palm Beach Loxahatchee Company purchased 6,500 acres of land adjacent to the West Palm Beach Canal to create an accessible farming community called "Loxahatchee Farms". Today the township is incorporated as Loxahatchee Groves.
The completion of the Everglades Drainage District canal system in South Florida formed a new inland transportation network connecting the Lake Okeechobee communities to West Palm Beach, Fort Lauderdale and Fort Myers. During the early 1920s, more than 150 commercial vessels - including passenger steamships, barges and fishing tenders - plied Lake Okeechobee and its outlets to coastal cities.
The annual "Report of the Chief Engineer, U.S. Army (Part 2)" recorded a total of 1,612 passengers boarded ships for transport in the West Palm Beach Canal during the year 1924.
Brothers Bill and Ben McCoy of West Palm Beach operated a nautical transport service for passengers commuting between Moore Haven, located on the western shore of Lake Okeechobee, and their home port. The Menge Brothers Steamboat Company, based in Fort Myers, operated a flotilla of eight steamships and three barges on Lake Okeechobee and its canals.
For a brief period, the Holland and Butterworth Company of Miami promoted a passenger service up the Hillsboro Canal from Deerfield to Lake Okeechobee. The company charged $3 for a three-day cruise that left Deerfield on Saturdays and returned on Mondays.
Beginning in 2019, the "Foreverglades," a 41-foot replica of a 1920s-era freight steamboat, was displayed by artist Sofia Valiente in Howard Park, site of the former West Palm Beach turning basin and inland port.
The "Foreverglades" replica used the steamboat "La Roseada" as its design model. The "La Roseada" was a typical stern-wheeled, steam-powered freight vessel that cruised the West Palm Beach Canal and the waters of Lake Okeechobee in the 1920s.
Side-wheeled steamships were too wide to navigate the narrow drainage canals of South Florida. The stern-wheelers were more maneuverable and could reverse from obstacles in the waterways.
The End of the Canal Era
The age of inland commercial navigation along the West Palm Beach Canal entered a period of steep decline beginning in 1925. By the time the Hurricane of 1928 destroyed the docks at the West Palm Beach turning basin, its downtown agricultural market was already deserted.
The West Palm Beach Canal could not compete as a transportation network with the first cross-county highway and a new railroad extension linking the coastal city to the Glades and Lake Okeechobee farm communities.
On July 4, 1924, William J."Fingy" Conners' new toll highway opened to traffic between West Palm Beach and the City of Okeechobee. The highway followed the route to Canal Point blazed by the West Palm Beach Canal.*
One year after the opening of the Conners Toll Highway, the Seaboard Coast Line railroad completed an extension from West Palm Beach to Okeechobee City in 1925. Growers began shipping their produce by truck and on the new rail line.
With the building of the Herbert Hoover Dike in the 1930s, access to the West Palm Beach Canal from Lake Okeechobee was further restricted for boat traffic. The waterway became the drainage ditch as it is known today - the C-51 canal.
Fortunately, in its second century, the West Palm Beach Canal may once again become part of a transportation network. A public-private partnership called the "Palm Beach County Blueway Trail" is working on a plan to connect the canal to the county's inland chain of freshwater lakes as well as the Lake Worth Lagoon via a boat lift.
(c.) Davidsson. 2020.
*NOTE: Read related article below. Additional articles are indexed and archived below in "Older Posts".
Saturday, February 8, 2020
The 'Flagler of Okeechobee' Connects WPB, Glades
By Bob Davidsson
An estimated 20,000 residents of Palm Beach, Okeechobee and the future Martin counties gathered in the City of Okeechobee on July 4, 1924 to celebrate the grand opening of a new highway connecting their Everglades farming communities to the coastal city of West Palm Beach.
Amid the Fourth of July parade, fireworks and political speeches, one man above all was honored at the event - the guiding force and financier of the new Okeechobee-to-West Palm Beach toll road, William James "Fingy" Conners Sr.
Okeechobee City Mayor T.W. Conley boasted, "What Henry Morrison Flagler is to the East Coast of Florida, Conners is to Lake Okeechobee."
Present at the milestone celebration were Florida Governor Cary Hardee (1921-25), who signed Conners' private toll road franchise into law, and Governor-elect John Martin (1925-28), the namesake of the new county that would soon be carved out of the northern third of the Palm Beaches.
Both governors concurred that the "William J. Conners Toll Highway" was a "great work of engineering" uniting the Glades communities with the coast.
The June 22, 1924 edition of the New York Times announced the importance of the new highway to the State of Florida and the nation.
"What a pioneer from New York State has done and is doing for Florida," the Times reported, "will be rewarded in the form of a public celebration on July 4 when Okeechobee City will take official notice of the opening of traffic of the Conners Florida Highway, connecting the West and East Coasts and affording a straight route from Miami or Tampa to Palm Beach for automobiles, horses or pedestrians."
William James 'Fingy' Conners Sr.
Fingy Conners was an unlikely pioneer in the transportation history of Florida. He was born Jan. 3, 1857 to Irish-Canadian immigrant parents in the poor blue-collar First Ward of Buffalo, N.Y. By the time he was 19, both of his parents and his sister were dead.
As a youth, Conners worked as a stevedore, unloading the grain ships that carried their products from throughout the Great Lakes to the mills and storage facilities in Buffalo. He formed a gang of young toughs like himself along the waterfront.
According to the urban legend, Conners' left thumb was cut off during a gang ceremony. He reportedly shouted, "I lost my fingy!" Thus, he earned his nickname for life - "Fingy Conners".
Conners first business venture was the opening of a saloon catering to the dock and mill workers. He soon expanded it to a "Labor Contracting Office" supplying (and exploiting) immigrant laborers from New York City for projects in Buffalo.
Fingy became a force to reckon with among the city's political and business leadership. He was known as the "uncrowned king of the docks." However, when his efforts to organize Buffalo's dock workers into a private monopoly failed in the 1890s, he invested in real estate and purchased two of Buffalo's daily newspapers.
After the turn of the 20th century, Conners made his fortune as chairman of the Great Lakes Transit Corporation, which controlled 85 percent of the packaged freight trade by ship and rail along the Great Lakes. His company also was one of the largest employers in the State of New York.
Conners and his wife visited Palm Beach in 1917 and thereafter became seasonal residents of the Palm Beaches until his death in 1929. He purchased 4,000 acres of undeveloped muck land east of Canal Point as part of Everglades land boom.
There were no roads connecting the Glades agricultural communities to coastal Palm Beach County. Produce was barged from Lake Okeechobee to the City of West Palm Beach via the West Palm Beach Canal (today known as the C-51).
Conners decided to build a highway extending along the east shore of Lake Okeechobee from Okeechobee City to Canal Point (today U.S. 98), then continuing southeast across Palm Beach County to the 20-Mile Bend where a rough unpaved road existed along the West Palm Beach Canal.
To pay for the project, Conners successfully lobbied the Florida Legislature for the approval of his private toll road in less than three hours.
The Conners Toll Highway
The 1924 edition of the Engineers News-Record (v. 93) reported, "A private toll road is being built through the Everglades and along the shore of Lake Okeechobee to afford a cross-state connection for lower Florida. Tampa and Miami are remote from each other simply for lack of a direct connection."
Conners' vision was to upgrade the existing 19-miles of rutted unpaved road (the future S.R. 80) with a new 33-mile toll highway starting at 20-Mile Bend with Canal Point and Okeechobee City as its destinations. He established the "Conners Toll Highway Company" to manage the project.
Conners hired engineer R.Y. Patterson to build the highway. Constructing a paved roadway through the Everglades marshes required the use of a dredge and temporary rail system to transport shell-rock fill for the 24-foot-wide road bed.
To complete the project, Conners purchased of 72,000-acres of land along the east shore of Lake Okeechobee for $700,000. He cut his expenses by selling farm property along the new route. The total cost of the project surpassed $1.8 million.
Work on the highway began on Oct. 16, 1923. Conners hard-driving engineer completed the first leg of the highway to Okeechobee City in just eight months, in time for the July 4, 1924 grand opening celebration.
In 1925, Conners received a contract from the State of Florida to continue building a paved highway extension from Okeechobee City to Sebring. This included the replacement of a ferry crossing with the construction of the "Hardee Memorial Bridge" spanning the Kissimmee River.
For the first time, a direct cross-state roadway existed between Tampa and Southeast Florida. The estimated drive from West Palm Beach to Tampa, via the existing central Florida route, was reduced from 11 hours to four hours.
Three toll booths were set up at the 20-Mile Bend and Canal Point in Palm Beach County and south of Okeechobee City. The fees were $1.50 per car and 50 cents per passenger on the state's private toll highway. For agricultural haulers, the toll averaged .03 cents per mile.
It didn't take long for local pride in the new Glades-to-East Coast highway to turn to resentment over the issue of tolls. An average of $2,000 per day filled the private coffers of Fingy Conners. Commissioners began fielding complaints in both Palm Beach and Okeechobee counties. Local politicians lobbied their legislators to remove the tolls.
However, Fingy Conners continued to profit from his toll highway until his death on Oct. 5, 1929. Following the stock market crash, the Conners Toll Highway Company sold its investment to the State of Florida for $660,000. The tolls were permanently removed on June 10, 1930.
An official "Conners Toll Highway Historical Marker" was erected in 1986 by the Glades Historical Society, in cooperation with Florida Department of State, along U.S. 98, north of Third Street, in the community of Canal Point.
*NOTE: Read additional articles below or archived in Older Posts.
(c.) Davidsson. 2020.
An estimated 20,000 residents of Palm Beach, Okeechobee and the future Martin counties gathered in the City of Okeechobee on July 4, 1924 to celebrate the grand opening of a new highway connecting their Everglades farming communities to the coastal city of West Palm Beach.
Amid the Fourth of July parade, fireworks and political speeches, one man above all was honored at the event - the guiding force and financier of the new Okeechobee-to-West Palm Beach toll road, William James "Fingy" Conners Sr.
Okeechobee City Mayor T.W. Conley boasted, "What Henry Morrison Flagler is to the East Coast of Florida, Conners is to Lake Okeechobee."
Present at the milestone celebration were Florida Governor Cary Hardee (1921-25), who signed Conners' private toll road franchise into law, and Governor-elect John Martin (1925-28), the namesake of the new county that would soon be carved out of the northern third of the Palm Beaches.
Both governors concurred that the "William J. Conners Toll Highway" was a "great work of engineering" uniting the Glades communities with the coast.
The June 22, 1924 edition of the New York Times announced the importance of the new highway to the State of Florida and the nation.
"What a pioneer from New York State has done and is doing for Florida," the Times reported, "will be rewarded in the form of a public celebration on July 4 when Okeechobee City will take official notice of the opening of traffic of the Conners Florida Highway, connecting the West and East Coasts and affording a straight route from Miami or Tampa to Palm Beach for automobiles, horses or pedestrians."
William James 'Fingy' Conners Sr.
Fingy Conners was an unlikely pioneer in the transportation history of Florida. He was born Jan. 3, 1857 to Irish-Canadian immigrant parents in the poor blue-collar First Ward of Buffalo, N.Y. By the time he was 19, both of his parents and his sister were dead.
As a youth, Conners worked as a stevedore, unloading the grain ships that carried their products from throughout the Great Lakes to the mills and storage facilities in Buffalo. He formed a gang of young toughs like himself along the waterfront.
According to the urban legend, Conners' left thumb was cut off during a gang ceremony. He reportedly shouted, "I lost my fingy!" Thus, he earned his nickname for life - "Fingy Conners".
Conners first business venture was the opening of a saloon catering to the dock and mill workers. He soon expanded it to a "Labor Contracting Office" supplying (and exploiting) immigrant laborers from New York City for projects in Buffalo.
Fingy became a force to reckon with among the city's political and business leadership. He was known as the "uncrowned king of the docks." However, when his efforts to organize Buffalo's dock workers into a private monopoly failed in the 1890s, he invested in real estate and purchased two of Buffalo's daily newspapers.
After the turn of the 20th century, Conners made his fortune as chairman of the Great Lakes Transit Corporation, which controlled 85 percent of the packaged freight trade by ship and rail along the Great Lakes. His company also was one of the largest employers in the State of New York.
Conners and his wife visited Palm Beach in 1917 and thereafter became seasonal residents of the Palm Beaches until his death in 1929. He purchased 4,000 acres of undeveloped muck land east of Canal Point as part of Everglades land boom.
There were no roads connecting the Glades agricultural communities to coastal Palm Beach County. Produce was barged from Lake Okeechobee to the City of West Palm Beach via the West Palm Beach Canal (today known as the C-51).
Conners decided to build a highway extending along the east shore of Lake Okeechobee from Okeechobee City to Canal Point (today U.S. 98), then continuing southeast across Palm Beach County to the 20-Mile Bend where a rough unpaved road existed along the West Palm Beach Canal.
To pay for the project, Conners successfully lobbied the Florida Legislature for the approval of his private toll road in less than three hours.
The Conners Toll Highway
The 1924 edition of the Engineers News-Record (v. 93) reported, "A private toll road is being built through the Everglades and along the shore of Lake Okeechobee to afford a cross-state connection for lower Florida. Tampa and Miami are remote from each other simply for lack of a direct connection."
Conners' vision was to upgrade the existing 19-miles of rutted unpaved road (the future S.R. 80) with a new 33-mile toll highway starting at 20-Mile Bend with Canal Point and Okeechobee City as its destinations. He established the "Conners Toll Highway Company" to manage the project.
Conners hired engineer R.Y. Patterson to build the highway. Constructing a paved roadway through the Everglades marshes required the use of a dredge and temporary rail system to transport shell-rock fill for the 24-foot-wide road bed.
To complete the project, Conners purchased of 72,000-acres of land along the east shore of Lake Okeechobee for $700,000. He cut his expenses by selling farm property along the new route. The total cost of the project surpassed $1.8 million.
Work on the highway began on Oct. 16, 1923. Conners hard-driving engineer completed the first leg of the highway to Okeechobee City in just eight months, in time for the July 4, 1924 grand opening celebration.
In 1925, Conners received a contract from the State of Florida to continue building a paved highway extension from Okeechobee City to Sebring. This included the replacement of a ferry crossing with the construction of the "Hardee Memorial Bridge" spanning the Kissimmee River.
For the first time, a direct cross-state roadway existed between Tampa and Southeast Florida. The estimated drive from West Palm Beach to Tampa, via the existing central Florida route, was reduced from 11 hours to four hours.
Three toll booths were set up at the 20-Mile Bend and Canal Point in Palm Beach County and south of Okeechobee City. The fees were $1.50 per car and 50 cents per passenger on the state's private toll highway. For agricultural haulers, the toll averaged .03 cents per mile.
It didn't take long for local pride in the new Glades-to-East Coast highway to turn to resentment over the issue of tolls. An average of $2,000 per day filled the private coffers of Fingy Conners. Commissioners began fielding complaints in both Palm Beach and Okeechobee counties. Local politicians lobbied their legislators to remove the tolls.
However, Fingy Conners continued to profit from his toll highway until his death on Oct. 5, 1929. Following the stock market crash, the Conners Toll Highway Company sold its investment to the State of Florida for $660,000. The tolls were permanently removed on June 10, 1930.
An official "Conners Toll Highway Historical Marker" was erected in 1986 by the Glades Historical Society, in cooperation with Florida Department of State, along U.S. 98, north of Third Street, in the community of Canal Point.
*NOTE: Read additional articles below or archived in Older Posts.
(c.) Davidsson. 2020.
Wednesday, January 1, 2020
A1A, Sloan's Curve and the 'Hurricane of 1947'
By Bob Davidsson
Each month thousands of resident and visiting drivers choose to escape the high-speed anxiety of I-95 by motoring at a more leisurely pace along the oceanfront highway known as A1A.
A1A is Florida's 375-mile coastal state road extending from Key West to Amelia Island near the Georgia border. It is a highway that evolved with many name and route changes during its 73-year history.
Sections of A1A opened in 1927 as "Atlantic Avenue". It was designated "State Road 1 (S.R. 1)" in 1945 as part of a state highway renumbering system. As the easternmost road in Florida, the highway became S.R. 1.
The enumeration caused confusion for motorists. A few miles west of S.R. 1 on the mainland, the federal government identified its Florida-to-Maine highway as "U.S. 1". To end future wrong turns by drivers, the State of Florida changed its coastal road's identifier from S.R. 1 to A1A in November 1946.
A1A also has acquired many local street names. At its place of origin in Key West, the state road is South Roosevelt Blvd. The coastal highway is known as South Ocean Blvd. in the Town of Palm Beach.
A1A is firmly imbedded in Florida's popular literature and folklore. It is the theme of mystery writers and musicians. Jimmy Buffett, South Florida's unofficial musical poet laureate, was inspired to record an album entitled "A1A" in 1974.
The highway is mentioned in the lyrics of a song written by Buffett, "Trying to Reason in Hurricane Season." The composer wrote:
"Strollin' down the avenue that's known as A1A,
Feelin' tired, then I get inspired,
I know it won't last long;
So all alone I walked back home,
Sat on the beach
And then I wrote this song..."
Jimmy Buffett recorded "A1A" while living in Key West between 1971 and 1998. The musician and author later became a Town of Palm Beach resident, purchasing local properties in 2002, 2011 and 2015.
Sloan's Curve and the 1947 Hurricane
Hurricanes have often impacted the history of A1A, temporarily closing the highway and even forcing permanent route changes. One of the most noteworthy is the deadly twist-and-turn known as "Sloan's Curve" in the Town of Palm Beach.
There are many local legends and theories about the Sloan's Curve name origin. The consensus is its named for a nearby "Billionaires Row" property owner, Alfred P. Sloan Jr. (1875 - 1966), the former chairman and CEO of General Motors and the foundation that bears his name today.
Although the primary residence of Alfred and Irene Sloan was in New York, they also owned an estate on South Ocean Blvd., according to the 1948 Palm Beach City Directory. The 1936 Palm Beach Street Atlas, updated by the publisher in 1948, confirms Sloan's Curve was built on a State of Florida right-of-way adjacent to property (Section 108) listed under the name Irene Jackson Sloan.
Prior to 1947, A1A rested on the crest of the dune line extending from Palm Beach to the Town of Manalapan. The oceanfront route south of Sloan's Curve permanently closed on Sept. 20 when the highway was washed out to sea by a hurricane.
The Category 4 tropical cyclone commonly called the "Fort Lauderdale Hurricane of 1947," but classified by the U.S. Weather Bureau as "Hurricane 4 - George," slammed into the city with 145 mph winds. It spiraled northwest across the state before entering the Gulf of Mexico between Naples and Fort Myers.
North of the hurricane's eye wall, tropical winds destroyed the Boca Raton Army Air Field's hangars, barracks and aircraft, resulting in $4.5 million in damages. Following an assessment of the destruction, the military base was closed in December 1947.
As the storm passed south of Lake Okeechobee, 15,000 Glades residents were evacuated. Storm surge reached 21 feet in the big lake, but the new Herbert Hoover Dike held back the flood waters.
A concerned Florida Legislature created the "Central and Southern Florida Flood Control District" in response to the 1947 hurricane to prevent future storm-related flooding. It became the "South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD)" in 1972, with its headquarters in West Palm Beach.
A1A was not spared the wrath of the 1947 hurricane in central Palm Beach County. Storm tides surpassed 11 feet along the coastal Palm Beaches, destroying large sections of A1A between Palm Beach and Boynton Beach. A five-mile segment of coastal A1A north of the Lake Worth Casino vanished "as if no road existed," according to one news report.
Category 2 sustained winds tore the roof off of the historic 1922 casino building. The Lake Worth Beach landmark was rebuilt minus many of the original architectural features on the casino's exterior. The last remaining stretch of the original coastal beach road, between Lantana Beach and Manalapan, succumbed to Hurricane Cleo in 1964.
A1A was closed to traffic in September 1947 until a new highway could be built at a location less exposed to ocean tides and surf on the barrier island.
The December 1919 Palm Beach Sanborn Map traced a pathway along the Lake Worth Lagoon called the "Lake Trail". The Lake Trail was infilled and expanded in width to become the new route for A1A. The highway passed west of the Phipps Family property (Phipps Ocean Park), and cut through the future Palm Beach Par 3 Golf Course, built by Michael Phipps in 1961.
To realign the new section of A1A with South Ocean Blvd. required a 90-degree turn in the replacement highway. This became "Sloan's Curve".
The 'Condominium Row'
Today, it is hard to believe that 70 years ago the prime coastal property between Sloan's Curve and Lake Worth Beach was nearly uninhabited and considered of little value. Much of the property was held in the John and Annie Phipps Family's "Bessemer Properties Trust," according to the Palm Beach Real Estate Atlas.
The poor assessment of barrier island land values was shared by the City of Lake Worth. The city decided to retain its profitable casino complex, pier and public beach. The remainder of its barrier island jurisdiction was ceded to the Town of Palm Beach.
The first condominium project south of Sloan's Curve in Palm Beach was not built until the 1960s. Eight developments were platted between 1967-69. The current "Condominium Row" extending from the Town of South Palm Beach north to Sloan's Curve would eventually expand to 40 condominium and townhouse developments.
The Town of Palm Beach belatedly approved building height limits of five stories in 1970 to reduce high-rise canyon impacts. With the completion of the Sloan's Curve luxury complex, between 1980 and 2006, the last undeveloped section of Palm Beach would reach "build out".
(c.) R.I. Davidsson, 2020.
*NOTE: Read additional articles archived below and indexed by dates in Older Posts.
Each month thousands of resident and visiting drivers choose to escape the high-speed anxiety of I-95 by motoring at a more leisurely pace along the oceanfront highway known as A1A.
A1A is Florida's 375-mile coastal state road extending from Key West to Amelia Island near the Georgia border. It is a highway that evolved with many name and route changes during its 73-year history.
Sections of A1A opened in 1927 as "Atlantic Avenue". It was designated "State Road 1 (S.R. 1)" in 1945 as part of a state highway renumbering system. As the easternmost road in Florida, the highway became S.R. 1.
The enumeration caused confusion for motorists. A few miles west of S.R. 1 on the mainland, the federal government identified its Florida-to-Maine highway as "U.S. 1". To end future wrong turns by drivers, the State of Florida changed its coastal road's identifier from S.R. 1 to A1A in November 1946.
A1A also has acquired many local street names. At its place of origin in Key West, the state road is South Roosevelt Blvd. The coastal highway is known as South Ocean Blvd. in the Town of Palm Beach.
A1A is firmly imbedded in Florida's popular literature and folklore. It is the theme of mystery writers and musicians. Jimmy Buffett, South Florida's unofficial musical poet laureate, was inspired to record an album entitled "A1A" in 1974.
The highway is mentioned in the lyrics of a song written by Buffett, "Trying to Reason in Hurricane Season." The composer wrote:
"Strollin' down the avenue that's known as A1A,
Feelin' tired, then I get inspired,
I know it won't last long;
So all alone I walked back home,
Sat on the beach
And then I wrote this song..."
Jimmy Buffett recorded "A1A" while living in Key West between 1971 and 1998. The musician and author later became a Town of Palm Beach resident, purchasing local properties in 2002, 2011 and 2015.
Sloan's Curve and the 1947 Hurricane
Hurricanes have often impacted the history of A1A, temporarily closing the highway and even forcing permanent route changes. One of the most noteworthy is the deadly twist-and-turn known as "Sloan's Curve" in the Town of Palm Beach.
There are many local legends and theories about the Sloan's Curve name origin. The consensus is its named for a nearby "Billionaires Row" property owner, Alfred P. Sloan Jr. (1875 - 1966), the former chairman and CEO of General Motors and the foundation that bears his name today.
Although the primary residence of Alfred and Irene Sloan was in New York, they also owned an estate on South Ocean Blvd., according to the 1948 Palm Beach City Directory. The 1936 Palm Beach Street Atlas, updated by the publisher in 1948, confirms Sloan's Curve was built on a State of Florida right-of-way adjacent to property (Section 108) listed under the name Irene Jackson Sloan.
Prior to 1947, A1A rested on the crest of the dune line extending from Palm Beach to the Town of Manalapan. The oceanfront route south of Sloan's Curve permanently closed on Sept. 20 when the highway was washed out to sea by a hurricane.
The Category 4 tropical cyclone commonly called the "Fort Lauderdale Hurricane of 1947," but classified by the U.S. Weather Bureau as "Hurricane 4 - George," slammed into the city with 145 mph winds. It spiraled northwest across the state before entering the Gulf of Mexico between Naples and Fort Myers.
North of the hurricane's eye wall, tropical winds destroyed the Boca Raton Army Air Field's hangars, barracks and aircraft, resulting in $4.5 million in damages. Following an assessment of the destruction, the military base was closed in December 1947.
As the storm passed south of Lake Okeechobee, 15,000 Glades residents were evacuated. Storm surge reached 21 feet in the big lake, but the new Herbert Hoover Dike held back the flood waters.
A concerned Florida Legislature created the "Central and Southern Florida Flood Control District" in response to the 1947 hurricane to prevent future storm-related flooding. It became the "South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD)" in 1972, with its headquarters in West Palm Beach.
A1A was not spared the wrath of the 1947 hurricane in central Palm Beach County. Storm tides surpassed 11 feet along the coastal Palm Beaches, destroying large sections of A1A between Palm Beach and Boynton Beach. A five-mile segment of coastal A1A north of the Lake Worth Casino vanished "as if no road existed," according to one news report.
Category 2 sustained winds tore the roof off of the historic 1922 casino building. The Lake Worth Beach landmark was rebuilt minus many of the original architectural features on the casino's exterior. The last remaining stretch of the original coastal beach road, between Lantana Beach and Manalapan, succumbed to Hurricane Cleo in 1964.
A1A was closed to traffic in September 1947 until a new highway could be built at a location less exposed to ocean tides and surf on the barrier island.
The December 1919 Palm Beach Sanborn Map traced a pathway along the Lake Worth Lagoon called the "Lake Trail". The Lake Trail was infilled and expanded in width to become the new route for A1A. The highway passed west of the Phipps Family property (Phipps Ocean Park), and cut through the future Palm Beach Par 3 Golf Course, built by Michael Phipps in 1961.
To realign the new section of A1A with South Ocean Blvd. required a 90-degree turn in the replacement highway. This became "Sloan's Curve".
The 'Condominium Row'
Today, it is hard to believe that 70 years ago the prime coastal property between Sloan's Curve and Lake Worth Beach was nearly uninhabited and considered of little value. Much of the property was held in the John and Annie Phipps Family's "Bessemer Properties Trust," according to the Palm Beach Real Estate Atlas.
The poor assessment of barrier island land values was shared by the City of Lake Worth. The city decided to retain its profitable casino complex, pier and public beach. The remainder of its barrier island jurisdiction was ceded to the Town of Palm Beach.
The first condominium project south of Sloan's Curve in Palm Beach was not built until the 1960s. Eight developments were platted between 1967-69. The current "Condominium Row" extending from the Town of South Palm Beach north to Sloan's Curve would eventually expand to 40 condominium and townhouse developments.
The Town of Palm Beach belatedly approved building height limits of five stories in 1970 to reduce high-rise canyon impacts. With the completion of the Sloan's Curve luxury complex, between 1980 and 2006, the last undeveloped section of Palm Beach would reach "build out".
(c.) R.I. Davidsson, 2020.
*NOTE: Read additional articles archived below and indexed by dates in Older Posts.
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