The Compound That Became a Canvas
The birth and survival of the Bonnet House. I’m all for art, but would anyone think that building a Guggenheim Museum at Walden Pond is a good idea? How about…
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John Dolen
60 posts
John Dolen writes for several Fort Lauderdale area publications. Previously, he was an editor and supervisor for 27 years at the Sun-Sentinel newspaper.
Ye Olde Department Store
When we did our shopping on Las Olas and Andrews. Before there was The Galleria, Sawgrass Mills and Amazon, the free-standing department store reigned. Fort Lauderdale’s first, the Pioneer Department…
A Long, Strange Trip
Seminole history includes both tragedy and triumph. Blow, blow Seminole Wind Blow like you’re never gonna blow again I’m calling to you like a long-lost friend… Blow, blow from the…
Great Watering Holes We Have Known
Bars don’t define our city, but they are an important part of our story. In 1939, Club Brownie’s paid a large advance to a New York promoter to get the…
On With the Show
Built on the fortunes of a Hungarian-born inventor, the Parker Playhouse is still going strong after more than half a century. The city was filled with excitement and hyperbole. “The…
Let Us Go Then, You and I
Visiting our historic buildings on foot. In 1912, our fair city suffered a devastating fire that burned the business district to the ground. Fourteen years later, it was hit by…
The Reshaped City
Here, water and land have long had a fluid relationship. Quietly flowed the New and Middle rivers, like something out of a Russian novel, until the Army engineers arrived. They…
Early Resident Special
The choices may have been limited in the old days, but people took quickly to dining out. Ah, the selections: turkey or roast beef with sides of boiled spinach, buttered…
Heartbreak Hotels
Most of the buildings that housed the city’s first lodgings no longer exist. Construction of our first hotel begun in 1905 by Edwin T. King for Philemon Bryan, a railroad…