The Swindle and the Sand
It might surprise current residents to know that in the early days of Fort Lauderdale, the beaches – our prized treasure – had little appeal to settlers. The beaches were…
Old Lauderdale
118 posts
The Woman Who Saw the Future
Fort Lauderdale was not yet a town, and what would become Miami barely existed, but Mary Brickell saw the potential for her own vast landholdings and the rest of the…
New York vs. New River, Champs Elysses vs. Sanitary Mule
Fort Lauderdale wasn’t always a big city; in earlier times, we offered simpler delights. If there were a competition for “Latest-Blooming Metropolis in the World,” Fort Lauderdale would certainly be…
Bombers, Bush and the Bermuda Triangle
The place that is now our international airport was put to a different use in World War II. In the 1920s, Fort Lauderdale swelled from a population of 2,300 to…
Rubin Stacy, Remembered
Some wrongs can never be made right. But on a street in Fort Lauderdale, a name is remembered. This February, a crowd gathered near Davie Boulevard and SW 31st Street.…
The Good Ol’ Boys’ Hacienda
Red Crise’s Hacienda Village sounds like something out of a Hiaasen novel. It wasn’t. Slow Down. Pull Over. You’re in Hacienda Village. A deliciously fitting headline told the story for…
Ancient Snowbirds
The Tequestas, Southeast Florida’s first residents, were great fishermen who built a complex society – and got out of town every summer. It’s march, that time when all the snowbirds…
Major Lauderdale’s Fort
William Lauderdale beat the British, battled the Red-Stick Creeks and, in his final act, brought a battalion from the Smokies into the Southeast Florida swamps. William Lauderdale gave our city…
Up the Creek With a Bottle
Today it’s part of a family-friendly state park, but Whiskey Creek earned its name through a colorful history. In the 1920s, distilleries in England couldn’t believe their luck. Prohibition was…
Guns, Muck & Yellow Fever
Napoleon Bonaparte Broward was a gunrunner, sheriff, governor, and a man who held views both progressive and vile. We look at the county’s colorful namesake. In the 1880s, he ran…