Today we are used to seeing gas stations combined with convenience stores.

Such was not he case in 1934 when Gene Hardy opened his Put and Take, offering customers both gas and groceries. A novel idea at the time. The unusual name was a reminder that credit was not extended -- you put down your money and then could take what you wanted.

The business was located at 201 NE 1st Street. Put and Take was demolished in 1978 to make way for a parking lot for the Baptist Church.

Many of the municipalities that surround Pompano Beach were originally farmland, including Coral Springs:

Prior to its incorporation as a City in July 1963, the area that was to become Coral Springs was part of a huge tract of land acquired by [Pompano farmer] Henry "Bud" Lyons between 1911 and 1939 that totaled over 20,000 acres of marshy wilderness in western Broward County. Clearing and draining the land himself, with the help of workers from the Bahamas, most of the land was used to grow beans, earning him the nickname "Titan of the Bean Patch." Bud died in 1952, leaving his vast land holdings to his children, who converted the land to be used for ranching, bringing in 5,000 head of cattle.

(excerpted from History of Coral Springs)

Yesterday's post recounted the founding of the Pompano Public Library in 1940.

The original library location on NE 1st Street was clearly temporary. Within four months, William L. Kester provided rent-free quarters for the library on the west side of Dixie Highway, just south of Hammondville Road.

The library grew rapidly, and soon there were plans to move to larger quarters. Once more, William Kester stepped in and donated land at NE 13th Avenue and Atlantic Boulevard -- the library's current location -- for a new library, which opened on June 16, 1952 at a cost of $38,000.

In 1940, the Pompano Public Library opened. It has its inception at a Rotary Club meeting in the spring of 1940. Miss. Effie Power, a retired librarian and former teacher at Columbia University, as well as an author of children's books, was the speaker. She told the club of the need for a library. Her discussion was very convincing.

The late E. N. Powell, Rotary president, named a committee -- only two of whom were Rotarians. Reverend George Foster, chairman; Mrs. T. N. Alexander, Mrs. William H. Blount, Van E. Malcolm, E. Guy Owens and Miss Effie Power served in this capacity.

In a short while the committee reported that it had collected three hundred books and a total of $6,500.00 in cash donations. They purchased 160 books. With this start, an empty store room in the 100 block on NE First street was secured. Miss Power was chosen as librarian and the library opened on April 22, 1940.

(excerpted from History of Pompano Beach, Florida by Lorena H. Robson, 1974)

One of the most noticeable changes in housing construction in Pompano Beach, as well as throughout South Florida, occurred in the late 1940s.

Whereas prior to that time the overwhelming majority of homes were constructed using a wood frame and wooden siding, after the war as much as ninety percent of all new homes built used concrete block.

There were a number of reasons for this, including cost and availability of materials, speed of construction, better building codes and the feeling that these masonry houses would provide extra protection in hurricane winds.

In fact, well-built wooden structures often fare as well or better in high winds than do masonry buildings.

The Pompano Beach Centennial Celebration Committee will meet:

Wednesday, January 25, 2006
6:30 PM
At the Pompano Beach Historical Society
217 NE 4th Avenue
Pompano Beach

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

During the first years of the Pompano settlement, there was no local source for ice. Thus, meat had to be eaten right away as without ice, it was not possible to keep it fresh.

Fresh meat would be ordered from West Palm Beach, where merchants would pack it with a block of ice in sawdust and send it on the train south to Pompano.

The annual Sample-McDougald House Roast will be held on Friday, February 17th, at the Deerfield Beach Hilton Hotel.

Guest of honor is civic activist and environmentalist, Roy Rogers. He will be the target of barbs and jabs from Earl Maucker (Editor, Sun-Sentinel), Bill Keith (Keith & Associates, Consulting Engineers), Fred Schorr (Mayor, City of Lighthouse Point), John Kelly (City Manager, City of Coconut Creek) and Bob Parks (Member, School Board of Broward County).

The event will begin at 6:30 PM with a reception, followed at 7:30 PM by dinner and the program.

Tickets are $125.00 per person.

For additional information, visit the organization's website, or phone 954 786-4047.

Some prices advertised for groceries at the Pompano Beach Super Market, Atlantic Boulevard at Federal Highway, in January, 1956:

Leg of Lamb, 59 cents/pound
Sliced Bacon, 59 cents/pound
Blatz Beer, $1.19 six-pack
Strawberries, 43 cents/pint
Tomatoes, 29 cents/pound
Potatoes, 25 cents/3 pounds
Saltine Crackers, 17 cents/box
Whole BBQ Chicken, $1.00

The prices sound good, but on the other hand they didn't take debit cards (or have an ATM machine).

The Hillsboro Lighthouse was constructed on site by a New Orleans contractor, J. H. Gardiner, for $16,729.

Before there were highrise condos on the beach there were . . . you guessed it.

Commission to Relieve Beach Bottleneck

Members of the City Commission meeting Jan. 3, undertook to devise ways and means to relieve the bottleneck on Atlantic Blvd. from A1A to the beach . . . and City Manager Burbridge was asked to give the matter immediate attention.

Mayor Haynie brought out the fact that relief is needed "now, today -- not tomorrow."

At the January meeting Burbridge reported that according to present plans the city would put in temporary pavement, creating three lanes of traffic, and institute parallel parking so that cars might get by when other lanes of traffic were blocked by the opening of the bridge. The paving will be done at once, it was said.

The Pompano Beach Town News, January 6, 1955.

On the occasion of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, a passage on his philosophy of non-violence:

History unfortunately leaves some people oppressed and some people oppressors. And there are three ways that individuals who are oppressed can deal with their oppression. One of them is to rise up against their oppressors with physical violence and corroding hatred. But oh this isn't the way. For the danger and the weakness of this method is its futility. Violence creates many more social problems than it solves. And I've said, in so many instances, that as the Negro, in particular, and colored peoples all over the world struggle for freedom, if they succumb to the temptation of using violence in their struggle, unborn generations will be the recipients of a long and desolate night of bitterness, and our chief legacy to the future will be an endless reign of meaningless chaos. Violence isn't the way.

Another way is to acquiesce and to give in, to resign yourself to the oppression. Some people do that. They discover the difficulties of the wilderness moving into the promised land, and they would rather go back to the despots of Egypt because it's difficult to get in the promised land. And so they resign themselves to the fate of oppression; they somehow acquiesce to this thing. But that too isn't the way because non-cooperation with evil is as much a moral obligation as is cooperation with good.

But there is another way. And that is to organize mass non-violent resistance based on the principle of love. It seems to me that this is the only way as our eyes look to the future. As we look out across the years and across the generations, let us develop and move right here. We must discover the power of love, the power, the redemptive power of love. And when we discover that we will be able to make of this old world a new world. We will be able to make men better. Love is the only way. Jesus discovered that.

Excerpted from a sermon delivered at the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, Montgomery, Alabama, on November 17, 1957.

From the Pompano Beach Town News, August 20, 1959:

Margate folk can hardly be blamed for feeling that they'll be at the hub of all North Broward someday. The coastal cities will have to accept the fact that eventually State Rd. 7 , and not Federal Hwy., will be South Florida's heartland artery. At some point between West Palm Beach and Miami, there'll be a lot more people living west of State Rd. 7 than east of it.

This was written four years after the incorporation of Margate, and before Coral Springs, Coconut Creek, Parkland or North Lauderdale came into being.

When construction of North Broward General Hospital was originally proposed in 1957, the medical facility was to be named Pompano General Hospital.

During World War II, volunteers were stationed on the beach to watch out for German U-boats and (more unlikely) enemy aircraft.

One account of a "watcher" incident on Pompano's beach gives an indication of just how vigilant the volunteers could be:

On [an] occasion one of the volunteer plane spotter became highly excited because of a family wash hanging on a line. A family bearing a German name but patriotic American citizens lived near the beach. The good housewife found it necessary to have two wash days one week. Seeing this the sky watcher became convinced that the arrangements of the freshly laundered garments on the line spelled out some kind of code message to a German submarine lurking off shore. He enjoyed his excitement all by himself. No one else bought the story.

(excerpt from Historical Souvenir Program of Pompano Beach's Golden Jubilee, 1958)

Today's St. Coleman Catholic Church was originally named Our Lady of the Assumption. The church's beginnings go back to the 1950s when the St. Augustine Diocese purchased 12 acres along Federal Highway in Pompano Beach.

A fundraising drive was begun in 1958 to build a church and parish school. The current church building replaced the original and was constructed in the 1980s.

One of the first projects of the Pompano Beach Chamber of Commerce after beginning operations in 1948 was to purchase 100 metal signs promoting the city. These were then attached to trucks transporting winter vegetables to other parts of the country.

Supposedly, this effort resulted in inquiries about Pompano Beach from locations as far away as California.

During the Second World War, local farmers had to contend with a scarcity of labor that caused many to reduce acreage under cultivation.

In 1942, the federal government proposed recruiting laborers in other southern states and transporting them to Pompano at a cost to the local farmer of $5.00 per person. Pompano farmers rejected the proposal as it would have required them to sign employment contacts with the government.

In order to preserve their labor force, farmers were urged to seek draft exemptions for their key workers.

After two weeks off for the holidays, the Pompano Beach Green Market resumes this Saturday, January 7th.

It's the bet place to pick up the freshest local fruits and vegetables, seafood, baked goods, flowers, gourmet teas and coffees, as well as specialty food items. There will be some new vendors joining the Green Market this Saturday, so come on out and meet them.

The Green Market is open from 8:00 AM to 1:00 PM in Pompano Beach's old downtown, at Flagler Avenue and NE First Street. For directions, click on the Green Market link to the left.

Yesterday we wrote that it was the anniversary of Henry Flagler's birth. In fact, Flagler was born on January 2nd (not the 3rd).

Coincidently, Julia Tuttle shared the same birthday. She was born in Ohio on January 2, 1848.

Julia Tuttle is often referred to as the "mother of Miami." She arrived in the area in the 1870s and is credited with persuading Flagler to bring the FEC Railway south to Miami.

On this day in 1830, Henry Flagler was born in Hopewell, NY. He was a partner of John D. Rockefeller when the Standard Oil Company was founded in 1870.

He first came to Florida in 1878, to seek a healthy climate for his wife. Following the death of his wife, Flagler returned to Florida and by 1885 was actively involved in the development of businesses in St. Augustine.

He also purchased the Jacksonville, St. Augustine & Halifax Railroad, which would become his Florida East Coast Railway.

He bought the railroad south to Palm Beach by 1894, and two years later extended the line to Miami. One of the railway stops along the way was the small settlement of Pompano.

Flagler died in 1913. He remains, however, the most significant individual in the history of South Florida.