Excerpt from a letter written by Pompano resident Mrs. Ollie Tinney, dated December 13, 1914:

Fifteen years carries us back to when the Government surveyor, Frank Sheen first put Pompano on the map.

At that time there were large schools of pompano fish in the ocean and canal near town. So after studying over an appropriate name, it is said that while feasting on one of the delicious fish, the thought came to him that as the fish was claimed to be the best in the sea, so the beautiful tract of land he had found, with its various advantages for farming and town, would be very appropriately named if called Pompano. Hence the name.

Published in the Fort Lauderdale Sentinel, January 8, 1915.

Some say Florida's state bird should be the mosquito. But most Floridians would rather forget about the pesky insect, and that includes on the map.

Until 1845, Florida had a Mosquito County -- but at that time it was changed to Orange County. Likewise, what was once called the Mosquito River was renamed by the British the Halifax River.

This coming Sunday, February 27th, the public is invited to hear local historian Bud Garner speak for the Friends of the Library on stories of Old Pompano. The talk will begin at 2:00 PM in the auditorium at John Knox Village. Admission is free.

Bill Keith provides the audience with information on the "real" Kristin Jacobs during the Sample-McDougald House's roast of the Broward County Mayor on February 18th. Other roasters included Broward County Commissioner Diane Wasserman-Rubin, State Rep. Jack Seiler, Rick Sheffield and Elissa Grande, with Tom DiGiorgio, Jr.--last year's roastee--serving as Master of Ceremonies.

The program was hilarious, and Kristin was a good sport (thank goodness!).

On Tuesday, March 15th, the historic Stranahan House of Fort Lauderdale will host a book review and book signing by Susan Gillis, the author of the recently published Fort Lauderdale: The Venice of America. The event will begin at 6:00 PM.

Ms. Gillis, author and co-author of several books on Fort Lauderdale history, is currently the archivist at the Boca Raton Historical Society. For many years she was curator of collections at the Fort Lauderdale Historical Society. She will present a humorous look at Fort Lauderdale's history.

Stranahan House is located at 335 SE 6th Avenue, Fort Lauderdale. Admission is free for Stranahan House members, $5.00 for non-members. Light refreshments will be served.

For information or reservations, call 954 524-4736.

Cap's Place restaurant traces its history back over seventy-five years at the same location. Listed in the National Register of Historic Places, it is a South Florida landmark, albeit a secluded one.

The restaurant's website includes a detailed history of the establishment and the people who owned and worked there, including "Cap" Knight, Al Hasis and Chef Sylvester Love (who started work at Caps' as a dishwasher).

A lot of well-known people have dined at Cap's, but none more so than the group that ate there during the darkest days of World War II:

Perhaps the most famous visitors to Cap's Place arrived in January, 1942. Prime Minister Winston Churchill and President Franklin D. Roosevelt held a series of secret war conferences at the Hillsboro Beach estate of then Secretary of State Edward R. Stettinius. Among those attending the strategy sessions were General George Marshall, Lord Beaverbrook, Admiral William "Bull" Halsey and other high officials. The Stettinius Villa was located across the Intracoastal, on the ocean side, just a short walk from Cap's boat landing. Cap was asked to cater food and deliver groceries to the dignitaries. On one occasion, Churchill and Roosevelt dined at Cap's Place. Captain Bruce Bennet supervised the logistics of transporting Churchill, Roosevelt (and his wheelchair), and the rest of the entourage in a boat to the restaurant. Bennet's greatest fear was overloading the boat or tipping it over. The guests dined in the "yellow room" and enjoyed a meal cooked by Sylvester and served by Cap in his bib overalls and denim shirt. No doubt Cap offered Roosevelt and Churchill a refreshing change from the stress of a world at war.

I imagine if that august group was to magically appear this evening for dinner at Cap's Place, they would surely recognize it as much the same place they had visited so many decades before.

The Pompano Beach Centennial Celebration Committee will meet on Wednesday, February 23rd, 6:30 PM at the Dick & Miriam Hood Center, 217 NE 4th Avenue, Pompano Beach.

Individuals interested in participating the planning for the city's 100th year birthday party in 2008 are invited to attend.

This sculpture by Frank Varga was dedicated on the grounds of the Hillsboro Lighthouse in 2003.

By taking I-95 or the Turnpike, Alligator Alley and I-75, one can drive from Pompano Beach to the Fort Myers area in little more than two hours. This is a considerable improvement over the days when a person had to take Tamiami Trail or travel south of Lake Okeechobee and then on State Road 80.

In the early years of the twentieth century, crossing the state was even more complicated. In his book, My Early Days in South Florida From 1905, Albert Erkins describes his journey:

In December 1920 . . . I boarded the Florida East Coast train at Fort Lauderdale at eight-thirty AM, and arrived in New Smyrna about three PM. There I had to wait a half hour for the Orange Junction "shuttle" train to Orange City on the main line Atlantic Coast Line.

I arrived at Orange City junction and waited at a small station. Fortunately a stand sold soft drinks and sandwiches. At 9 PM, we left for Lakeland. I stayed overnight and the next morning boarded a train and arrived at Fort Myers about noon.

What it meant to cross Florida in those days must be considered. There was no Tamiami Trail, no direct line across South Florida coast to coast, so this was the best way from Fort Lauderdale or Palm Beach to St. Petersburg, Tampa and the west coast.

Erkin's book, written in collaboration with August Burghard in 1975, offers a unique glimpse at Florida before development. It has been out of print for some time, but copies occasionally turn up at specialty book stores such as Past Perfect Florida History.

Few municipalities have only a single road running through town, but highway A1A is the only public road in Hillsboro Beach. Pompano Beach's neighboring city is best known for being home to the Hillsboro Light House, the Hillsboro Club and the "Millionaire's Mile" of beachfront luxury homes.

The Town of Hillsboro Beach's origins go back to the 1920s:

In 1922, Herbert L. Malcolm (later a Town Commissioner for ten years and Mayor for two terms) bought land next to the Inlet and built a school. In 1925 he turned the school into a hotel, which became the present Hillsboro Club.

The Town was originally incorporated in 1939 and remained inactive until 1947 when it was incorporated by a special act of the Florida Legislature. The first meeting towards formal incorporation was arranged by Mrs. Marie McCollum and took place in February 1947, at the residence of Mrs. Ruth Markland. At a meeting held on March 4, 1947, Ernest Wooler was elected the first Mayor. At that time the Town had 17 voters, 9 private houses, 4 groups of rental cottages and apartments, and the Hillsboro Club. Highway A1A was an unpaved, sandy road. A narrow bridge, operated by hand connected the Town with Pompano Beach.

The present Town Hall was dedicated in 1955. The first Town Hall was a tiny wooden building at #957. In that time of war-induced shortages, it had telephone privileges, courtesy of Cap's Place.

The 2000 census showed the town had 2,183 residents. According to the same census, the town has 24 structures that were built prior to 1940.

Traditionally, the presidential oath of office is administered by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. At times, it has been administered by some other member of the federal judiciary.

Only two presidents, however, have been given the oath of office by an individual who was not a federal judge: George Washington and Calvin Coolidge.

Robert Livingston, Chancellor of State of New York, swore in George Washington as the nation's first president in 1789, and Calvin Coolidge was given the oath of office in 1923 by his father, a Notary Public.

The Hollywood Historical Society will conduct its Fourth Annual Home Tour on Sunday, February 20th. The tour will feature historic homes in the Hollywood Lakes neighborhood.

Tour hours are from 12:00 PM to 5:00 PM (last tickets sold at 4:00 PM). Tickets are $12.00 in advance and $15.00 the day of the tour.

For information, visit the Hollywood Historical Society's website.

The Pompano Beach Historical Society's monthly public program will feature local historian Bud Garner speaking on Pompano Beach's aviation history.

Bud will recount stories of the barnstormers and crop dusters who flew fabric and wood bi-planes from makeshift fields, and the kids who dreamed of becoming aviators.

The program will be held on Wednesday, February 16th, 7:00 PM, at the Dick & Miriam Hood Center, 217 NE 4th Avenue, Pompano Beach.

The program is free and open to the public.

Bud Garner remembers one of Pompano's preeminent aviators:

Leroy Brown (Beanpicker '42) learned to fly at an early age while "hanging around" the dusting field South on Dixie, at about SW 6th street -- where John Knox Village has its main entrance.

Leroy began crop-dusting while still in high school and he would fly on his out-of-school periods.

After World War II, Leroy began flying produce to and from the Bahama Islands. This resulted in his purchasing two surplus B-17 bombers, which he got for less then $10,000 each.

At one time, Leroy was arrested by Federal agents for "stealing" his own plane and flying it from an airfield in Texas to Ft. Lauderdale, at night all alone, with no co-pilot or flight engineer. The charges were dropped as it was all a huge, costly mistake and his license was restored.

Leroy eventually left the produce business and flew for National airlines, graduating to jets.

Leroy has retired and lives in Zellwood, Florida.

Leroy is a true pioneer of Pompano and has left a legacy that will remain here forever.

One of the most feared naval vessels of the Civil War was the Confederate commerce raider, CSS Florida. Although overshadowed in history by its sister-ship, CSS Alabama, the Florida was responsible for the capture of over fifty Union naval and merchant ships.

There was, however, another Civil War vessel with the same name -- the USS Florida.

Florida, a 1261-ton wooden side-wheel steamship, was built at New York City in 1850. After more than a decade of commercial employment, the outbreak of the American Civil War caused her to enter Naval service. She was purchased by the U.S. Navy in August 1861, converted to a cruiser and commissioned as USS Florida in early October of that year. For the next three years, she enforced the blockade of the Atlantic coast of the Confederacy. Florida participated in the expeditions that seized Port Royal, South Carolina, in November 1861 and positions in northern Florida and Georgia in March 1862. She also took part in the capture or destruction of several blockade runners.

In March 1865, Florida was used to carry supplies down the Atlantic coast and into the Gulf of Mexico. After transporting Confederate prisoners from New Orleans to New York, she served in the Gulf until late 1865 and in the West Indies in 1866-67. Decommissioned in April 1867, USS Florida was sold in December 1868. Later operated as the merchant steamer Delphine and the Haitian warship Republique, she was disposed of in the mid-1870s.

At least six other U.S. Navy ships were also named Florida, the most recent being a ballistic missile nuclear submarine (SSBN-728) commissioned in 1983.

James Ingraham worked for both of Florida's railroad magnates -- Henry Plant and Henry Flagler. Both Plant and Flagler realized that to extend their railways into the southern part of the peninsula, they would have to deal with the water on the land. In 1911, Ingraham reflected on this problem:

The project of draining the Everglades attracted the attention of Henry B. Plant in the early nineties, but he was by no means sure that the scheme was feasible, so I, acting under his direction, undertook an expedition through the region. Despite its proximity to centers of population, it was then for the first time thoroughly explored by white men. Ours was virtually a voyage of discovery. We paddled our light boats on lakes and camped on islands that, I have good reason to believe, had never before been visited by any human beings but Seminole Indians, and by these but rarely...our efforts were not in vain, for we ascertained the important fact that the Everglades, along the whole 160 miles of the eastern side, are rimmed by a rock ledge. We furthermore learned that all of the lakes are several feet above sea level, and we decided that there was nothing whatever to prevent the water of the lakes from flowing into the ocean and leaving the land drained if vents could be made in this long ledge of rock.

Experiment proved that this work would present no great difficulties. It was merely a matter of a great deal of digging. Henry M. Flagler took up the project, and it is being carried out by his lieutenants. We are not only making artificial outlets through the rock, but are also... turning large bodies of water into rivers and creeks which flow to the ocean. The work has progressed far enough to enable me to predict confidently the opening in Florida, within a very few years, of a great tract of land of almost unprecedented fertility.

Ingraham later served as mayor of St. Augustine. He died in 1924, at the age of 73.

The photograph shown here was sent to the Historical Society several years ago by W. H. Blount, now of Irmo, South Carolina.

Although the photograph was not identified, it likely is a view of Pompano's early business district. The unpaved road would be Flagler Avenue, the building partially visible to the right could be the original Bevil building, with the railroad and packing sheds to the left.

UPDATE - Bud Garner emailed us with the following information:

You are correct; it is a pic of downtown Pompano and a loooooooooong time ago.

We are looking North, and if you look you will see the Australian pine tree that stood behind the railroad house that I grew up in. That tree is STILL there today and has the same shape now as it did then.

Next time you are at the Green Market, look to the North and you will see it. AMAZING!

The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) will sponsor a series of fifteen Landmarks of American History teacher workshops scheduled to take place this summer. Classroom teachers in public, private, parochial, and charter schools, as well as home-schooling parents are eligible to participate. Those selected to attend a workshop will receive a $500 stipend to help cover living expenses, books, and travel expenses to and from the workshop location.

Each workshop seeks to encourage teachers in their study and understanding of American history and culture, and one workshop will be held in Florida -- Between Columbus and Jamestown: Spanish St. Augustine. Workshops will be held at Flagler College in St. Augustine on June 27-July 2; July 4-9; July 18-23; and July 25-30, 2005.

Applications, due by March 15th, must be made to:

Monica Rowland, Program Coordinator
Florida Humanities Council
599 2nd Street South
St. Petersburg, FL 33701

Specific requirements and applications are available at the Florida Humanities Council website.

From the National Trust for Historic Preservation:

For property owners looking to permanently protect their historic properties, one of the most effective legal tools available is the preservation easement - a private legal interest conveyed by a property owner to a preservation organization or to a government entity. The decision to donate a preservation easement is almost always voluntary, but, once made, it binds both the current owner and future owners to protect the historic character of the property subject to the easement.

Preservation easements have been used to protect a wide range of historic properties across the country - from New England Cape Cod cottages to Southwestern archaeological sites, and from Kentucky horse farms to mid-twentieth century Modernist houses in California. While some easements are for a period of years, in most instances easements are created as permanent restrictions.

The donation of preservation easements to qualified easement-holding organizations can provide useful tax benefits to donors, but the tax benefits will vary considerably, from property to property and from easement to easement. Property owners should be wary of any promotion suggesting a standard formula for deductions, or implying that donors can reap significant tax benefits from easements that do not significantly reduce the value of their property. And prospective easement donors should take seriously recent statements by the IRS that it plans to look carefully at whether some taxpayers are taking appropriate deductions for easement donations.

Additional information on preservation easements can be obtained at the National Trust for Historic Preservation's website: Preservation Easements: An Important Legal Tool for the Preservation of Historic Places.

Year	Population
1920	5,135
1930	20,094
1940	39,794
1950	83,933
1960	333,946
1970	620,100
1980	1,018,200
1990	1,255,488
2000	1,623,018

The Hillsboro Lighthouse Preservation Society will offer a tour of the Hillsboro Lighthouse on Saturday, February 5, 2005.

There is no direct access to the site -- tours will leave by chartered boat from the Sands Harbor Marina, from 9:00 AM to 3:00 PM.

For more detailed information, admission fees and directions, visit the HLPS website.

The origins of designating February as Black History Month dates back to 1926. The father of this commemorative period was Dr. Carter G. Woodson one of the pioneers of the study of black history in America.

Woodson, the son of former slaves, grew up poor. Although his early education was largely "self taught," he eventually became the second African-American to earn a Ph.D. from Harvard University.

As a historian, Woodson believed that history had value beyond being a chronicle of important events and dates: "Those who have no record of what their forebears have accomplished lose the inspiration which comes from the teaching of biography and history."

To rectify the lack of information on blacks in works on American history, he created Black History Week in 1926. In 1960 the week became a month.

There are many useful sites on the internet for learning about black history, including:

Florida's Black Heritage Trail, from the Florida Division of Historical Resources.

Our Shared History: African-American Heritage, from the National Park Service.

Black History Month, from Infoplease.

Florida's Black History, by G. K. Sharman.

In Broward County there are several black history sites that are open to the public, including the:

Ely Educational Museum, 595 NW 15th Street, Pompano Beach.
(954) 781-2256.

Old Dillard Museum, 1009 NW 4th Street, Fort Lauderdale.
(954) 765-6952

African-American Research Library & Cultural Center, 2650 Sistrunk Blvd., Fort Lauderdale.
(954) 625-2800.

The Pompano Beach Historical Society is seeking to expand its knowledge of local black history. If you have documents or photographs relating to this part of our past, please contact us at (954) 782-3015.