Soon after World War II, as a building boom began in Broward County, developers looked covetously at Pompano Beach's oceanfront properties. The problem for them was that William L. Kester, who owned much of the property had built his famous "Kester Cottage" rental units there, blocking new construction.

By the early 1950s, Kester had agreed to remove the frame cottages, in the "dim future" as he put it.

The Pompano Beach Town News (August 10, 1951) quoted Kester on the subject:

"I am only clearing 650 feet of land along Riverside Drive starting at N.E. 3rd Street and going north," he declared. "This property will not be subdivided, but will be kept in reserve for the day when the peppercrates are moved over the hill."

"All the 'up-to-date jerks' want me to get them off the ocean as soon as I can," he joked. "It will only cost me a million and I just have $10 in my pocket."

(reprinted in the Pompano Beach Diamond Jubilee Commemorative Book (1983), p.129)

John Lee Williams was one of the first people to explore and write about southern Florida in the years soon after the United States acquired the Spanish colony in 1821. His 1828 journey to the Everglades excited him to the possibilities of draining the vast area for agricultural development:

Could it [the Everglades] be drained by deepening the natural outlets? Would it not open to cultivation immense tracts of rich vegetable soil? Could the waterpower, obtained by draining, be improved to any useful purpose? Would such draining render the country unhealthy?. . . . Many queries like these passed through our minds. They can only be solved by a thorough examination of the whole country. Could the waters be lowered ten feet, it would probably drain six hundred thousand acres ; should this prove to be a rich soil, as would seem probable, what a field it would open for tropical productions! What facilities for commerce!

John Lee Williams, The Territory of Florida or Sketches of the Civil and Natural History of the Country, the Climate, and the Indian Tribes from the First Discovery to the Present Time. (1837).

"[In Pompano] we have about three hundred inhabitants, with about the same number of colored. Many immigrants from Nassau came here to work and without the colored man's help farming would be a hard proposition."

Mrs. Ollie Tinney, Fort Lauderdale Sentinel, January 8, 1915. Reprinted in City of Pompano Beach, Florida: Historic Survey, 1992. p. 17.

E. T. "Cap" Knight, founder of Cap's Place Island Restaurant, married Lola Saunders in 1916. She was originally from Cross Creek, Florida, but after graduating from high school signed a contract to teach the children of the keepers and local fishermen on the grounds of the Hillsboro Lighthouse.

After Cap's death in 1964, Lola remained active in the restaurant through the mid-1970s. She then retired to Palatka, Florida, where she died in 1989.

The Pompano Beach Centennial Celebration Committee will meet on Wednesday, June 28th, 6:30 PM at the Pompano Beach Historical Society, 217 NE 4th Avenue.

Anyone interested in participating in the planning for Pompano Beach's 100th anniversary celebration in 2008 is invited to attend.

The Florida Department of State recently informed the City of Pompano Beach that it had been awarded a grant to update its survey of historic structures. The grant was initiated by the City of Pompano Beach Historic Preservation Board and written for that agency by the Pompano Beach Historical Society.

Pompano Beach first surveyed its historic sites in 1992. Since that time, a number of buildings have been demolished or altered. Others, in the intervening years, will have acquired historic status.

When completed, the survey will allow Pompano Beach officials and preservationists to better plan the conservation of our historic resources.

The first newspaper published in Pompano was the Pompano News, a weekly established in 1924 by I. B. Hilson.

It is not clear how long the newspaper existed, nor is there a copy of the News in the Historical Society archives.

The City of Pompano Beach was one of the later local municipalities to institute a zoning code to specify how particular properties could be developed. Its first zoning map was not adopted until 1954.

With the arrival of summer, the Pompano Beach Historical Society's public meetings go on hiatus until September 20th when we will begin our 2006-07 programing season.

The Pompano Beach Centennial Celebration Committee will continue to meet, on the fourth Wednesday of the month, during the summer months. The committee meets at the Historical Society (217 NE 4th Avenue) at 6:30 PM, and invites all to wish to participate in planning for Pompano Beach's 100th anniversary to attend.

Today we'll end this series with the 1924 names of Pompano streets north of today's NE 4th Street and east of Dixie Highway (current names in parentheses):

Beck Street (NE 1st Avenue, north of 6th Street)
Dell Place (NE 2nd Avenue)
Dewie Street (NE 3rd Avenue, between 4th and 6th Streets)
Boise Street (NE 3rd Avenue, north of 6th Street)
Bryce Street (NE 4th Avenue)
Benter Street (NE 5th Avenue)
Rothro Street (NE 5th Street)
Isidro Avenue (NE 6th Street)
Cornelli Street (NE 7th Street)

All this raises the question, where did all these names come from?

Many current Pompano Beach residents do not recognize the name Monticello Park, but at one time it had some of the highest residential land prices in the city. Using today's street names, Monticello Park is bounded by Dixie Highway on the east, NW 12th Street on the north, NW 2nd Avenue on the west and NW 10th Street on the south (although the area south to NW 8th Street was often considered to be the same neighborhood).

In the 1920s, one would have found the following street names within that area (current names in parentheses):

Mianus Avenue (NW 8th Street)
Ardsley Avenue (NW 9th Street)
Indiana Avenue (NW 10th Street)
Illinois Avenue (NW 11th Street
Ohio Avenue (NW 12th Street)
Wilson Avenue (NW 1st Avenue)
Ralston Avenue (NW 2nd Avenue)

South of Monticello Park, Ralston Avenue became Tuttle Street. Also south of Monticello Park was Division Avenue (NW 7th Street).

We will extend our look at Pompano's historic street names one more day -- tomorrow we'll conclude with the streets east of Dixie Highway and north of today's NE 4th Street.

Yesterday we looked at the early names for Pompano Beach's early east-west roads. Today we examine the north-south thoroughfares south of today's NE & NW 4th Street (current names in parentheses):

East Railroad Avenue (Flagler Avenue)
Church Street (NE 1st Avenue)
Natalie Road (NW 1st Avenue)
Wareham Street (NE 2nd Avenue)
Tuttle Street (NW 2nd Avenue)
Cromelin Street (NE 3rd Avenue)
Bryce Street (NE 4th Avenue)

The one north-south road that has retained its old name is Dixie Highway.

Tomorrow we will complete the review of historic street names with the area north of 4th Street and Monticello Park.

A 1924 map of Pompano shows that most of the town's street names were different than those we use today. Some of the historic names of Pompano's east-west streets(current designation in parentheses):

Hillsboro Beach Boulevard (Atlantic Boulevard)
Florida Street (NE 1st Street)
Pacific Street (NW 1st Street)
Statler Avenue (MLK/Hammondville/NE 3rd Street)
Everglade Avenue (NE/NW 2nd Street)
School Street (NE 4th Street)
Rothro Avenue (NE 5th Street)
Isidro Avenue (NE/NW 6th Street)

As can be seen by the listing above, the designation of "street" or "avenue" did not indicate a directional orientation.

In the case of School Street and Rothro Avenue, these roads did not extend west of Dixie Highway.

Tomorrow we'll look at the historic names of Pompano's north-south roads.

The origin of the United States' Interstate Highway system goes back to the 1930s.

The Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1938 stated:

The Chief of the Bureau of Public Roads is hereby directed to investigate and make a report of his findings and recommend to the Congress not later than February 1, 1939, with respect to the feasibility of funding, and cost of, superhighways not exceeding three in number, running in a general direction from the eastern to the western portion of the United States, and not exceeding three in number, running in a general direction from the northern to the southern portion of the United States, including the feasibility of a toll system on such roads.

A report submitted to Congress in 1944 identified a super-highway network of almost 34,000 miles. The proposed routes clearly formed the basis for the current Interstate Highway system.

In Florida, the report proposed what are essentially today's I-95, I-4 and I-10. Mysteriously, the proposed route that presaged I-75 stopped just south of the Florida-Georgia border and did not continue farther south into the state.

The person responsible for bringing the Seaboard Air Line Railway to South Florida was S. Davies Warfield, the company's president during the 1920s.

Early in that decade, Warfield began construction of a rail line into South Florida from the existing Seaboard tracks in Wildwood, Florida. By the middle of the decade the tracks were open to West Palm Beach.

In 1925, Warfield announced that the SAL would further extend it trackage on both Florida's east and west coasts, bringing the railway to Miami and to Ft. Myers and Naples.

The extension to Miami, which commenced at West Palm Beach, proceeded down the east coast about a mile inland from the Florida East Coast Railway. At the time, much of the Seaboard route was lightly populated. Numerous river crossings were encountered as well as streams and marshy lands. Handsome stations, often built in the Mediterranean Revival style, arose at Lake Worth, Delray, Deerfield, Hollywood and Hialeah. Again, the [West Palm Beach] architectural firm of Harvey & Clarke rose to the challenge. Foley Brothers [construction firm] rushed both extensions to completion by December, 1926, including yard and terminal facilities well west of Miami proper, now the site of Miami International Airport. A 28-mile addition south of Miami, to the agricultural district of Homestead, was finished the following April.

In early 1927, to open the new lines, Warfield invited dignitaries from throughout the United States to ride with him on the Orange Blossom Special from station to station where gala ceremonies where held welcoming the SAL.

Warfield did not live long thereafter, dying in his native Baltimore on October 25, 1927.

Two other facts about Warfield: he planned to build a model community at Indiantown, and was responsible for the construction of the historic Seminole Inn in that community; and there is a park named for him in Fort Lauderdale, at Sunrise Boulevard and Andrews Avenue.

(quote from Gregg M. Turner, A Milestone Celebration:: The Seaboard Railway To Naples And Miami)

In 1927, South Florida got its second rail line when the Seaboard Air Line Railway began operations. That railroad company's history stretches from the 19th century to today:

Although the Seaboard got its start much earlier in the form of a group of smaller railroads/railways which operated under the partnership name "Seaboard Air Line Railway"... some that date as far back as 1834, the name "Seaboard Air Line Railway" as an officially organized and formally recognized rail network dates back only as far as the year 1900 when all involved roads merged into one company.

The Seaboard Air Line Railway operated under this name until it was reorganized as the Seaboard Air Line Railroad (instead of Railway) in 1946 after and due to a period of financial problems during the depression and war years where it went into receivership. The Seaboard operated under its new name until July 1, 1967 when it merged with the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad to be come the Seaboard Coast Line Railroad. Later, in the early 1980s, the Seaboard Coast Line Railroad formed a partnership called "The Family Lines System" with a number of other railroads. These partners eventually merged to become known as the Seaboard System Railroad. Finally, in the late 1980s, the Seaboard System Railroad merged with the Chessie System Railroad to become what is known today as CSX Transportation.

Among the famous trains that ran on the SAL were the Orange Blossom Special and the Silver Meteor.

(quote from Seaboard Air Line Railroad Information Collective)

On June 7, 1837, more than 700 Seminoles slipped away from the United States Army and made their way to the Everglades to avoid the government's program of transporting Indians in Florida to the Oklahoma territory.

Prior to the end of passenger service on the Florida East Coast Railway, Pompano Beach was a busy station, with as many as eight trains making both north and southbound stops here.

Among the passenger trains that made daily stops in Pompano Beach in 1957 were the:

East Coast Champion (Miami to New York)
Florida Special (Miami to New York)
Miamian (Miami to New York)
Havana Special (Miami to New York)
South Wind* (Miami to Chicago)
City of Miami* (Miami to Chicago)
East Coast Express (Miami to Jacksonville)
Daylight Express (Miami to Jacksonville)

All this came to a halt when the FEC was hit by a strike on January 23, 1963. The company subsequently eliminated all passenger service.

Passenger traffic was re-routed onto the Seaboard system, but Pompano Beach did not have a passenger station on those tracks.

*Together, the South Wind and City of Miami provided daily service, but ran on alternate days.

Following the death of Henry Flagler in 1913, control of the Florida East Coast Railway passed to his brother-in-law, William Rand Kenan. Flagler had married Mr. Kenan's sister, Mary Lily Kenan in 1901.

A chemist and businessman, Kenan was already successful on his own, having been instrumental in the development of the Union Carbide Company. A native of North Carolina, for much of his life he made his home in Lockport, New York (near Niagara Falls).

Kenan oversaw the FEC's expansion in the 1920s, and its hard times during the Great Depression. He lost control of the railway to Ed Ball and the DuPont Estate trust in a hostile takeover during the 1950s.

Kenan died in 1965, at the age of 93.

Karl Weaver, the first black elected to the Pompano Beach City Commission, passed away on May 25th at the age of 69.

A Pompano Beach resident since 1957, he was elected city-wide to the commission in 1973, before candidates ran within districts.

Mr. Weaver was active in the community, including service on the board of directors of both the Pompano Beach Historical Society and the Sample-McDougald House Preservation Society.

He was a force for good in Pompano Beach.

In addition to the Florida State League teams that were mentioned in yesterday's post, Pompano Beach was home to another professional baseball team -- the Gold Coast Suns.

The Suns existed only a single season (1989) as part of the Senior Professional Baseball Association, a winter league for players at least 35 years old. The SPBA included a number of former major league players including future Hall of Fame pitchers Rollie Fingers and Ferguson Jenkins.

The Gold Coast Suns split their home games between Pompano Beach and Miami and were managed by another future Hall of Famer, Earl Weaver.

The SPBA reorganized for a second season, but folded in December 1990, having played less than half its scheduled games.