Around here, it’s not hard to discover historic tales about special enclaves within the Fort Lauderdale metropolitan area.
Especially when they have the word “Lauderdale” in their name, like the one with the tag “Lauderdale-By-The-Sea.”
Most folks seem to think the strip of beach, restaurants, shops and pier that juts out into the ocean at the east end of Commercial Boulevard is all there is to Lauderdale-By-The-Sea. You may have frequented the area I’m talking about, one crammed with cars looking for parking on seasonal weekends.
But this is only a portion of what was developed by its first resident, Melvin Anglin, in 1924. The town extends all the way north to Pompano Beach and all the way south to Galt Ocean Mile, with non-commercial residential neighborhoods extending six blocks west to the Intracoastal Waterway.
Many who go for the café life or beachcombing may not know that Lauderdale-By-The-Sea has one of the most accessible coral reefs on the East Coast. The haven for scuba divers was dubbed Florida’s Beach Diving Capital by the state.
There’s the natural legacy, but there’s also the prime human legacy: No high-rises block the ocean view. That was the intention since the city began, later codified in a 1973 code severely limiting building heights.
As author, educator and resident Martha E. Munzer put it, “Fort Lauderdale-By-The Sea is unique – an oasis in a desert of towering concrete. Its mile of beachfront with low-profile buildings set far back from the ocean is a welcome interruption to the giant condos” to the south and north. It is to Munzer that we owe many of the insights into the area’s early days.
It was a pristine stretch of beach that Melvin Anglin discovered in the early 1920s, after enduring a bumpy car ride south on dirt roads from Palm Beach. He came to see “the new town” of Pompano Beach, but after a tour of the town, he decided to hike a mile south along the unsettled coastal area. It was geographic love at first sight.
The Gary, Indiana, building contractor and real estate investor would buy this parcel from Pompano builder W.F. Morang, who had already platted the area. Anglin, his wife Sarah and their two sons became the town’s first residents. He’d later be the first mayor and the namesake for Anglin’s Pier.
In the ensuing years Anglin promoted the charm of the town, and little by little settlers came, as did small motels.
Lauderdale-By-The-Sea, of course, endured the region’s ups and downs, including the real estate boom and bust, the 1926 hurricane and the Great Depression. During the Depression it was abolished as an independent municipality, but in 1947 a new charter was ratified.
Anglin, in his later years, ceded authority over unsold lots to his two daughters. But in a sign of the times, they were only identified with their first initials and last names. It was not customary for women to buy and sell real estate. As Munzer tells it, many buyers were surprised the sellers were women. But the Anglin daughters were so professional that their gender got a pass, even more so as their successful sales mounted.
By 1933, when the Friedt family arrived from Michigan seeking a new residence, there were very few houses to see. But they did find a place, and with it came a seminal leap for the town. That practical and simple reason? They had the town’s first and only telephone, “shared by those in need of a connection with civilization,” Munzer wrote.
A neighbor of the Friedts would certainly have stirred the ire of today’s city permitters. Helen Neff was a true pioneering spirit. She figured out a way to make bricks from local materials, and she and her husband created an adobe-style home. When that worked out, she later built two more rental units by hand.
Growth came to a halt during World War II. Glenn Friedt’s memories of those days included “the convoys going by, the wreckage of ships floating down the beach, the frightening darkness during the periodic blackouts.”
While the wildlife today may be in the bars and the reefs, one Fort Lauderdale resident told Munzer about day trips up to the beach at the Sea Ranch Hotel: “Alligators used to come slithering by. And, at night, when driving home, there were land crabs by the thousands on the road, probably attracted by the car lights. Echoes of the crunching sounds, as the car was forced to drive over the crabs, still linger in her memory.”
From the days of crunching crabs to the shellfish served up at jam-packed restaurants, Lauderdale-By-The-Sea has continued to evolve. But the enclave remains a tourist magnet, one of Broward County’s most special spots.
