The oldest standing structure in Broward County, Stranahan House in Fort Lauderdale, was featured in the National Trust for Historic Preservation's Preservation Online newsletter.

The article summarizes the ongoing dispute over a developer's plan to build a 45-story structure adjacent to the historic site.

Summer is here and it's going to get hot, but do you know when and where the highest temperature in Florida was recorded? It was 109 degrees, and not in southern Florida.

Actually, that high mark was hit exactly 74 years ago today, on June 29, 1931, in the little northern Florida town of Monticello.

(source: Florida Historical Society "Today in Florida History")

Many people are confused about historic preservation and the law, and rightly so. There are a number of laws and ordinances at various levels of government.

In Pompano Beach, a historic preservation ordinance has been in place since 2000, with a commission-appointed Historic Preservation Committee established to implement the provisions of the ordinance.

The City of Pompano Beach's official website has the code of city ordinances online, including the city's Historic Preservation ordinance (click on "Title XV: Land Usage" and scroll down to Chapter 159)

All eighty Pompano telephone subscribers moved into the modern era in 1931 when automatic dialing was inaugurated in the area.

Pompano Beach was selected as one of ten "All-American" cities by the National League of Cities. Congratulations to everyone who has worked to make this a better city, and thanks to the individuals who translated all that good work into a winning application.

Florida's Seminole Indians are known for their fierce resistance to 19th century attempts to remove them from their lands, and for their distinctive clothing. The famous Seminole patchwork has an interesting historical development and is a lot more complicated than many people might realize.

An interesting website, NativeTech: Native American Technology and Art, provides a detailed look at virtually all aspects of Seminole clothing:

Seminole clothing exists in an odd historical "pocket." It arises out of general Southeastern traditions, but continued to exist (and evolve) long after the rest of that Southeastern Indian culture had been shut down either by extinction, by relocation to Oklahoma, or- just by being overwhelmed by white dominance. Seminole clothing styles were already well defined by the 1820's, a time when the Plains Indian cultural patterns that so many hobbyists admire and copy were only just beginning to fully develop. Southeastern cultural styles had climaxed and terminated before Plains styles matured as we know them. The Creeks were gone, the Cherokees overrun. After the 1830's, only the Seminoles kept going as a distinct culture' surviving even the traumas of the Second and Third Seminole Wars. The Seminoles' strong avoidance of any but the most necessary contact with whites, their voluntary isolation, kept their branch of Southeastern culture unique and distinct long after the rest was gone.

The website is written primarily for historical reenactors, but provides fascinating information on everything from Seminole longshirts to face painting.

Prior to June 11, 1945, Florida used a system of highways with designations assigned by the Florida legislature. The earliest evidence . . . of the numbering system is from a 1917 State Road map, listing old FL 1 though old FL 12. It is possible that the route numbers were not actually posted until 1923. The actual practice of assigning routes by legislation started in 1923. The lower numbers were the primary routes of the early 1920's. Other numbers were added later, up to FL 601. The old Florida state highway sign was a blue diamond. This type of sign was also retired in 1945 in favor of a square sign with a state outline, similar to the style in use today.

According to this source, even after at least 60 years there are still several blue diamond signs alongside Florida roadways.

UPDATE: Robert V. Droz, whose website is quoted above, emails with a correction, "There are no blue diamond signs left, those old numbers live on in the street signs along the routes."

Check out Mr. Droz's Florida Auto Trails website.

The United States had been at war with the Axis powers only six months when the war was brought home to local residents. On May 9, 1942, the Panamanian oil tanker Lubrafol was torpedoed just north of the Hillsboro Inlet by a German U-boat. All but two of the ship's crew were rescued.

Judge Beckton Isler, an assistant keeper at the Hillsboro Lighthouse, was on duty on September 18, 1926 when a devastating hurricane struck the south Florida coast. Instead of his usual eight-hour shift, Isler was at the top of the 136-foot lighthouse for 36 hours during the storm.

During that time he recorded weather conditions and kept the light shining out to sea.

When Broward County came into being on October 1, 1915, Pompano resident Isaac I. Hardy was elected to the County Commission. His tenure was short, however, as he died on Christmas Eve of that same year.

Mr. Hardy was replaced in office by George L. Blount, Sr.

Juan Ponce de Leon is credited with leading the expedition that "discovered" and claimed Florida for Spain in 1513. It is unlikely, however that he was the first European to sight Florida.

Geographical and navigational knowledge of the Caribbean region expanded as the [Spanish] empire spread. Maps and charts were drawn, informed by sea voyages that probably ranged well beyond the official version of events and discoveries that were transmitted back to Spain. The Crown, through asientos (royal contracts) awarded to the leaders of expeditions, sought to regulate these voyages and expeditions of conquest to assure the division of the spoils and future earnings. Without documented permission from the Crown, exploratory and colonizing voyages could not be legally undertaken. However, unsanctioned voyages to pillage, to capture native peoples as slaves,and locate lands for future, legal exploitation must have been ongoing. By 1530 much of the Atlantic coast of the Americas had been mapped . . .

(excerpted from Florida Indians and the Invasion from Europe, by Jerald T. Milanich, pp. 106-107)

Pompano pioneer Bud Lyons had a vast farm west of town, encompassing much of what is today Margate and Coral Springs. At the FEC railroad in Pompano, Lyons had a building where the harvested beans were prepared for shipping:

Scarecly less impressive than Bud Lyons' mammoth farm is his packing plant in Pompano where his beans are cleaned, graded, packed and loaded into refrigerator cars the same day they are picked. Here, electric conveyor belts first carry the beans under a powerful blower which removes any dust or soil from them, then on between rows of quick-fingered women, who throw out any broken, bruised or blighted beans, and sort them into two qualities. At the end of each belt, the graded beans are dumped into bushel hampers. Men nail on lids, paste on labels, and place the hampers on an electric conveyor which takes them to waiting refrigerator cars or trucks. This season Bud Lyons expects to ship between 500 and 600 carloads of beans northward, each containing 600 bushels. In addition he will ship thousands of bushels by truck, and others by boat from Port Everglades.

(excerpted from "Titan of the Bean Patch," by Clarence Woodbury, The Country Home Magazine, January 1939, as reprinted in Broward Legacy, Summer/Fall 1985)

The Pompano Beach Centennial Celebration Committee will meet:

Wednesday, June 22nd
6:30 PM
at the Dick & Miriam Hood Center
217 NE 4th Avenue
Pompano Beach, Florida

All those interested in participating in the planning for Pompano Beach's 100th anniversary in 2008 are invited to attend this meeting.

On 11 June 2005, the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) National Personnel Records Center in Overland, Missouri will unseal the first release of what is expected to be "a mother load" collection of interest to military historians, biographers, and genealogists. The center houses the military records of some 56 million individuals, beginning in the 19th century and extending into the 20th.

A total of three batches of individual records are slotted to be released: Navy enlisted men from 1885 until 8 September 1939; Marine Corps enlisted men from 1906 until 1939; and the first 150 of about 3,000 Americans identified as "persons of exceptional prominence."

Included in the last category are the military records of generals George S. Patton Jr. and Omar Bradley; African American sports hero Lt. Jackie Robinson; President John F. Kennedy; author Herman Wouk; actors Clark Gable, Audie Murphy, and Steve McQueen; and, yes, entertainer Pfc. Elvis Presley.

Until recently, NARA was merely the physical custodian of these records that were open only to the veteran, the next of kin, or the individual's service branch. In 1999, however, the Pentagon and NARA reached an agreement that would begin the process of systematically opening these records. According to Bill Seibert, chief of the archival operations branch of the records center, the records now "cease to belong to the military and instead belong to the American people...They're public documents."

After lengthy discussion with Pentagon officials over several years, NARA was able to negotiate an agreement that provided for all such military records to remain sealed 62 years past the date an individual left active service. That means that most World War II records, for example, will remain closed for several more years. In addition, because of a fire at the records center back in 1973, some files of Army and Air Force veterans will be withheld even longer - until 2023. Coast Guard records will probably not be available until 2026, and because some individual files contain fragile or crumbling paper, such files will probably be kept on hold for some time.

Persons interested in accessing the collection should contact the National Personnel Records Center, 9700 Page Avenue, Overland, MO 63132; phone: 314-801-0850.

(excerpted from NCH WASHINGTON UPDATE, Vol. 11, #26; 9 June 2005)

This coming Tuesday, the Broward County Commission will address several issues of importance to preservation of local history.

One is related to the preservation of Keeper's Cottage No. 3, now located on the grounds of the Hillsboro Club, but originally constructed in 1906 as part of the Hillsboro Lighthouse station. Commissioner Jim Scott is supporting a discussion by the County Commission to consider funding up to $40,000 "for documenting the architectural and structural design of the building, and the dismantlement and moving of the building for storage until it can be rebuilt at an appropriate location."

Timing is of the essence in this case, as a permit has already been secured for the cottage's demolition. The Hillsboro Club's management is willing to allow the cottage to be moved, but it has to be done quickly -- thus the need for funds.

Previously, on June 7, 2005, the Broward County Historical Commission approved up to $5000 to document the Keeper's Cottage, according to Historic American Building Survey (HABS) standards.

For many years the only financial institution located within Pompano Beach was the Farmers Bank of Pompano, which had been formed in 1934 by William L. Kester.

It was not until well after World War II that others got into the game: First Federal Savings & Loan of Fort Lauderdale opened a Pompano Beach branch in 1953, and First National Bank arrived in 1955.

Andrew Jackson died on June 8, 1845. Although most widely remembered as a victorious military commander and President of the United States, Jackson was a key figure in Florida history. His military excursions into Spanish Florida in the early years of the nineteenth century were an important component in convincing Spain to sell its colonial possession to the United States.

On March 10, 1821, U.S. President James Monroe appointed General Andrew Jackson Commissioner of the United States to take possession of Florida and gave him the full powers of governor. Jackson accepted the office only on the condition that he could resign as soon as the territorial government was organized.

On July 17, 1821, Spain transferred Florida to the United States, and Jackson sent his resignation to the president in November. In all, Andrew Jackson visited Florida only three times: in 1814 during the War of 1812, in 1818 during the First Seminole War, and in 1821 to organize the first territorial government.

Jackson's death came just three months after Florida's admission as the 27th state in the union.

In 1913, Pompano's town council passed an ordinance providing for a curfew for all persons less than twenty-one years of age. Minors had to be off the streets by 8:00 PM from November 1st to May 1st. During the remaining months, they could stay out an hour later.

It is not clear when this law was repealed.

Today marks the sixty-first anniversary of the Allied landing at Normandy during World War II, the greatest seaborn military invasion in history. The victory on the beaches led to the ultimate defeat of Nazi Germany less than a year later.

PBS has a good website on D-Day, including transcripts of letters from the front. Likewise, National Geographic's D-Day website, Untold Stories of D-Day, is worth a visit.

Bud Garner (Pompano High class of 1948) reports on the recent Beanpicker Reunion:

The Pompano Beanpickers had a reunion this past weekend (May 27 - 29). The Beanpickers will probably not meet as a collective group ever again. The membership rolls are shrinking steadily and it is getting harder to keep up with our members.
We had about 250 members and a few guests meeting for a three day event held at the Elks club on NE 10th Street in Pompano Beach.

Beginning Friday night with an informal "do you remember me " and buffet the festivities were off and running with old and young friends having a grand time, dancing to period music and just visiting and swapping long, almost forgotten tales.

Saturday night was a little more formal with men wearing coats and ties and the ladies, well, they looked great just as they did Friday night.

Sunday at noon, the end was approaching rapidly, we had an outdoor picnic again with good music good food and good fellowship.

Time to go, the last tearful hugs and kisses and then the goodbyes and the pent-up anticipations of the last reunion (three years ago) were felt and it left a hollow feeling that is almost impossible to describe.

We were fortunate enough to see so many of our lifelong friends and school mates and just hoping there will be another reunion down the road that we may again have a "reunion".

Our total Beanpicker tally, from class of 1928 through class of 1957 reads like this:

Original 1073
Deceased  391
Unknown   115
Alive     567

Of the many "firsts" of this reunion, one stood-out . The possibilities of this happening was what was extraordinary.

Of the four known City Historians in Broward County, three are "Beanpickers" and they are (left to right),

Ray Collier (Deerfield Beach, FL)
Cathleen Anderson (Hollywood, FL)
Bud Garner (Pompano Beach, FL)

Cathleen is the Vice Mayor of Hollywood, FL

In 1919 John Kunkel Small, curator of the New York Botanical Garden, traveled to Florida on a cactus-hunting expedition. It was not the first time he had ventured to this state; he had come here as early as 1901 and then several times thereafter. On his 1919 journey, he was able to note changes to the natural environment that had occurred since his previous trips.

On a journey from Jupiter to Okeechobee City via the Seminole War era "Fort Bassinger Trail," he arrived at the shore of the Big Lake and was surprised at the changes:

. . . . When part way through the timber we could look beyond the cut into space, and a little further on a vast sheet of water appeared. It was Lake Okeechobee! We drove out onto a beach which only a few years ago was the bottom of the lake. More than that, we were soon actually driving over the very course we had sailed over five years previously, in a forty-five foot cruiser!

How much everything had changed since that time! Instead of a natural beach close to a primeval hammock, we found several hundred yards of exposed new weed-clothed lake bottom, down from the old beach line; and as for the hammock, it was wrecked. Fire had been in it, perhaps more than once; and, in many places, instead of the once magnificance verdure, one saw only dead giant cypress trees, standing desolate, or prone in the wholly or partly burned humus where once had thrived an almost impenetrable mass of ferns and other herbaceous plants.

Small later wrote a book, From Eden to Sahara - Florida's Tragedy, that would document the destruction of Florida's natural environment.

(excerpt from John K. Small, Old Trails and New Discoveries, pp.31-32.)

The city's first newspaper was founded in 1924 as the Pompano News by I. B. Hilson. The paper was published in a building that was later to become the main post office and Masonic Lodge (still standing, although greatly altered, at 100 SW 1st Avenue).

During the early 1930s, Mr. Hilson sold the newspaper to a firm located in Hollywood, but the paper continued publishing until it finally folded in 1937.

According to various accounts, the first child born in the Pompano settlement was Franklin Sheene, Jr., in 1901.