Winston Churchill's 1942 stay in the Pompano area is fairly well known (although a number of myths have revolved around it -- more on that tomorrow).

This, however, was not his first visit to the Sunshine State. In 1895, the 20-year-old Churchill took a five month leave from the British Army to travel to Cuba and report on the rebellion taking place there.

He first visited New York City, and then took the railway south to Florida, a 36 hour trip made more comfortable by the use of a private room on the train. At this time (early November) the tracks did not extend south of West Palm Beach, although it is not clear where Churchill disembarked from the train.

In any case, he made it to Key West and from there to Havana.

One of the most valuable guides to Florida during the 1930s is the detailed description of the state compiled by the Federal Writers' Project. In a chapter on agriculture, the writers looked at farming in southern Florida:

South Florida, with the rich Everglades muck lands, is one of the winter 'market baskets' of the States east of the Mississippi. Vegetables became the leading crop within a relatively short period, during which governmental and private research proved the adaptability of the local soils to crops formerly confined to the central and northern producing areas of the State. This development has lengthened Florida's growing season without creating serious competition with other shippers, many of whose peak crops go to market in other months of the year.

The harvest season starts in September when the grapefruit ripen and the first carloads of vegetables are shipped in October. Irish potatoes, string beans, peppers, lima beans, green corn, cabbages, cucumbers, eggplants, tomatoes, celery, lettuce, English peas, and other varieties of garden truck are harvested throughout the winter and spring. The growing of avocadoes, coconuts and papayas repays the producer, lends color to the Florida scene, and has considerable value as a tourist attraction. Vegetable shipments reach a peak in March and decline thereafter until May; a few mixed carloads go out to eastern markets in June and July, leaving only August and September when no carload shipments are made. About 18,000 carloads of fresh vegetables were shipped from south Florida in the 1936-37 season, about four times the quantity of citrus shipped from the same area.

From The WPA Guide to Florida: The Federal Writers' Project Guide to 1930s Florida (1939), 1984 reprint, pp. 79-80.

Although it wasn't the biggest inferno the Pompano Beach Fire Department had to battle, it may have been one of the most difficult to fight.

On January 7, 1948, the boathouse at Cap's Place caught fire. Pompano Beach's firefighters responded to the call, but as the only way to reach Cap's establishment was by water, the firemen had to row across the Intracoastal before they could douse the blaze.

The damage to the boathouse and several boats was estimated at $15,000.

On July 26, 1896, the City of Miami was incorporated. Many residents wanted the new municipality to be named after the man who brought the railroad into the area that year, but Henry Flagler declined the honor.

One of the few people to arrive in the Pompano settlement prior to 1900 was Anna Belle McNab. She would later marry Thomas Henry Chapman, a successful packing house owner. Following her death on July 6, 1957, the Pompano Beach Town News gave its readers some insight into Mrs. Chapman's role in the early community:

Mrs. Chapman was known by almost every family, in the early days of Pompano, as she was frequently seen traveling over the paths and sandy roads on her bicycle, administering to the sick and visiting newcomers.

Before there was a resident minister in Pompano, Mrs. Chapman opened her home to visiting ministers for their headquarters and would loan them her bicycle that they might do their visiting.

When Mr. Chapman and she planned to get married it was necessary for them to go to Miami to find a resident minister.

Mrs. Chapman was instrumental in the formation of the Old Community Church at the turn of the century. In addition, she held a charter membership in the Women's Club . . .

Survivors include a son, Thomas H., Jr.; a brother, Robert H. McNab and three grandchildren, all of this city.

Quoted from Pompano Beach Town News, September 19, 1957.

From the July 11, 1957, edition of the Pompano Beach Town News:

Fire Station Delayed Again

Long awaited word on a starting date for construction of a Beach Fire Station flickered this week, but was dampened in legal entanglements of a clear title for the land.

The City Commission called for and received bids on the construction, nine bids in all, and were advised this week, prior to the meeting, that the city did not have a clear title. The apparent low bid was submitted by Johnston-Stetler for $30,171.

Many people talk about the "good old days," but others remember that there were plenty of problems, too. Grace Carson Odum arrived in Pompano in 1922 and had a decidedly critical view of her life in those early years:

"Pompano was the most god-forsaken place I had ever seen. Apart from present day Atlantic Boulevard, which was a single lane road of crushed shells, most roads were narrow dirt-strewn paths. My first home was at Lake Santa Barbara. We had no electricity or telephone service, and used a tin structure next to our home as a kitchen and dining area. There we cooked on an oil stove. We even had to pump our own water. In addition to swarms of mosquitoes and sand-flies there were so many wildcats and poisonous snakes my husband left a loaded shotgun for me to use when he went to town for supplies."

Quote from David F. Butler, Early History of Pompano Beach and Fort Lauderdale, n.d., P. 27.

Throughout the 1940s and early 1950s, there were more black students enrolled in Pompano Beach's segregated public schools than there were white students -- often by a significant amount.

In the 1946-47 school year, for instance, white enrollment was 476 while there were 854 black students. In the 1950-51 school year the total enrollment included 700 whites and 997 blacks.

It was not until the 1955-56 school year that white enrollment topped that of blacks.

What was Pompano's population during the height of the Florida Land Boom in 1926?

The 1920 census places Pompano's population at 636, but some accounts claim that as many as 5,000 residents were here prior to the October, 1926, hurricane. That would be a huge increase in the local population and the demand for housing, supplies and such.

The 1930 census showed the city's population stood at 2,617.

No doubt many people left the area following the 1926 storm and the ensuing depression, but exactly how high Pompano's population was at mid-decade is still open to question.

In 1916, the first bridge in Pompano across what is today the Intracoastal Waterway (then known as the Florida East Coast Canal)was constructed. Eight years later this wooden span was replaced by a steel rotating span bridge.

The late David Butler described these new bridges:

The bridges were designed to rotate about a pivot in the center of the waterway. The bridge was hand-cranked open 90 degrees so the long span was along the waterway. Boat traffic could then travel along side the bridge. The bridges were designed and pre-fabricated from hundreds of small parts in the American mid-west. The system was similar to that used for building [the] Hillsboro Lighthouse. Since the parts were all relatively small and weighted less than a ton they could be shipped by railroad, and then assembled by a skilled field crew using hand tools. It took a knowledgeable crew to build the center pivot foundation in the waterway, and then erect the bridge so that everything was level and rotated smoothly into steel and concrete abutments on each shore.

Quote from David F. Butler, Early History of Pompano Beach and Fort Lauderdale, n.d., pp. 24-25.

One of the oldest local service clubs is the Rotary Club of Pompano Beach.

It was formed on April 29, 1930, with Roland Hardy serving as its first president.

Undoubtedly the club's longest-serving member is F. Kenneth Walker. He joined the Rotary Club of Pompano Beach in February, 1946, and after more than 60 years is still a regular member of the club. He was elected president for the club's 1951-52 year.

In 1960, students began attending classes at the newly-established Junior College of Broward County. Classes were initially held in former Naval Air Station buildings at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport.

In 1968, the institution's name was changed to Broward Junior College.

A little over two years late, in September 1970, the college's Board of Directors voted to change names once again, to Broward Community College.

When the new Pompano Beach Elementary School was opened at 1400 NE 4th Street for the 1953-54 school year, it initially held only grades 4 through 6.

First through 3rd grades remained at the old campus in the 400 block of NE 4th Street.

A 1958 Comprehensive City Planning Report for the City of Pompano Beach, prepared by Smith & Gillespie, Engineers of Jacksonville, Florida, recommended closing or drastically curtailing operations at Pompano Beach's Air Park.

The long range plan also proposes discontinuance of he present airport facilities, and the possible relocation of similar or augmented facilities in the more open county area, if need be. The present facilities are confined to private and charter plane service of limited scope. From the standpoint of hazard to the public, the proximity and ultimate population density of existing residential zones preclude the feasibility of extending the runways to accommodate the present and indicated future higher landing speeds of commercial aircraft. The hazards of such use would be accentuated further by the attendant increase in air traffic.
......
The location of Pompano Beach, midway between the large air transportation terminals of Miami and West Palm Beach, appears ideally suited to inter-city helicopter air service in the foreseeable future. The landing area requirements for helicopter and other vertical take-off plane types are understandably negligible compared to conventional runways. The resultant savings in land space can provide added residential area for an expanding population and area for a center of governmental and civic activities more centrally located with respect to a greater corporate limits area to be conceived through annexation of the urbanized county fringe.

Obviously, this recommendation was never acted upon.

The City of Pompano Beach took on a major expansion of its municipal water system in the 1950s.

A second water well was drilled in 1950 north of NE 10th Street, west of the airport property. The following year a new water plant was constructed in the same area. The new water plant included a 300,000 gallon ground reservoir.

In 1952 a third well was drilled on the what is today the city's tree nursery, south of NE 10th Street and east of NE 3rd Avenue. This was followed in 1955 by a fourth deep well, located on western edge of airport property.

A second elevated water tank was added in 1957, in the vicinity of Indian Mound Park.

All this was accompanied by a major expansion of the water lines, both within and outside the Pompano Beach city limits.

Pompano first established a municipal water system in 1926-1927, almost 20 years after the town was incorporated.

The system consisted of a 193 feet deep well and a 300,000 gallon water tank, standing over 125 feet high. Water lines were initially limited to the immediate area.

Both the well and storage tank were located at today's Founders Park (north of NE 2nd Street between 3rd and 4th Avenues). The original masonry building that housed the pumps, piping and controls is still standing.

The Blount brothers, George, Devotie and William, arrived in Pompano in the early years of the twentieth century.

They were the sons of Reverend George A. Blount, a Baptist minister from Savannah, Georgia, who preached for over fifty years in the rural country surrounding that historic city.

In addition to his three sons who settled in Pompano, Rev. Blount was the father of two other sons and three daughters.

In regard to Pompano's first traffic light, Pompano Beach City Historian Bud Garner writes:

. . . the first traffic light in Pompano was mounted on a concrete pillar that sat in the middle of the intersection and was energized from electric wires that stretched from the top of the signal light across the road to the East and wired into the electrical wires alongside the Railroad.

As you can probably guess, that concrete pillar was almost like a magnet sitting there in the middle of Dixie Highway and there were many mornings when the pillar and light had been knocked over or skewered and twisted around in some manner.

Nevertheless, the light was there to stay and did so until Old Dixie Highway was widened from the 12 ft. road into a much wider, safer one.

Pompano's first traffic light was located at the intersection of what is today Martin Luther King Boulevard and Dixie Highway. It is not clear in exactly what year it was placed there.

Variously called Hammon Road, Hammonville Road and Hammondville Road (no one knows where "d" came from)before being renamed in honor of the civil rights leader, it stretched west from Pompano to the agricultural fields.

It allowed farmers to truck their produce to the packing sheds and the railroad, rather than barge them on one of the local canals.

The stream of produce trucks during the harvest season, together with the Dixie Highway being the only north-south through road, made the intersection the busiest and most dangerous in Pompano.

On this date in 1908, the town of Pompano was incorporated.