Broward County was created in 30 Apr 1915 and was formed from Dade and Palm
Beach Counties. The County was named for Napoleon Bonaparte Broward, the nineteenth state governor of Florida. The County Seat is Ft. Lauderdale.
While the railroad came to Southeast Florida in 1896, and several coastal communities sprang up, much of the present county remained swampland, unsettled and sparsely inhabited, until the Everglades were drained in the early 1900s.
The end of the First World War heralded a period of rapid growth that ended abruptly in the mid nineteen-twenties. Having no deepwater port facilities at the time, the area relied on the railroad, not only for building materials, but for goods of all kinds. When the demand exceeded the limited capacity of the railroad, expansion slowed drastically, a situation that lasted until the end of World War Two.
From the end of the Second World War until the present, the population has multiplied many times, and had reached nearly 1.3 million by the early 1990s. With its sub-tropical climate, Broward County continues to attract new residents and visitors and the economy is presently based on tourism, retailing, construction, light industry and services.
There are twenty-eight incorporated towns and cities in the county. The largest, at around 150,000 people, is the county seat, Fort Lauderdale. Deeds are registered with the
County Records Division in Fort Lauderdale. See also County History for more historical details.
Broward County Cities and Towns include Coconut Creek, Cooper City, Coral Springs, Dania Beach, Deerfield Beach, Fort Lauderdale, Hallandale Beach, Hollywood, Lauderdale Lakes, Lauderhill, Lighthouse Point, Margate, Miramar, North Lauderdale, Oakland Park, Parkland, Pembroke Pines, Plantation, Pompano Beach, Sunrise, Tamarac, West Park, Weston, Wilton Manors Davie, Hillsboro Beach, Lauderdale-by-the-Sea, Pembroke Park, Southwest Ranches. Villages Include Lazy Lake, Sea Ranch Lakes. CDPs Include Boulevard Gardens, Broadview Park, Broadview-Pompano Park, Franklin Park, Godfrey Road, Hillsboro Pines, Hillsboro Ranches, Pine Island Ridge, Pompano Estates, Roosevelt Gardens, Sunshine Acres, Washington Park. Communities Include Andytown, Hacienda Village
PLEASE READ!! Please call the clerk's department to confirm hours, mailing address, fees and other specifics before visiting or requesting information because of sometimes changing contact information.
Broward County Clerk of the Circuit Court / County Clerk has Marriage Records from 1915, Land Records from 1915, Probate Records from 1917 and Court Records from 1915 and is located at 201 S.E. 6th St., Fort Lauderdale, FL 33301; 954-712-7899 The Clerk of the Circuit Court is also the County Clerk. His office is located in the County Courthouse. The office of the Clerk is created in Article V and Article VIII of the Florida Constitution. The Clerk is an officer of the court of justice whose responsibilities are mandated by the Constitution as well as state and local laws. Under a 1973 reorganization of the judicial system, the clerk of courts in each county was made, and remains, custodian of all records of all predecessor courts, whether justice of the peace, city, county, probate, civil, or criminal.
You may also search the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) which covers Florida and surrounding states. Many pioneers and settelers bought land from the government instead of individuals.
Below is a list of online resources for Broward County Court Records. Email us with websites containing Broward County Court Records by clicking the link below:
Florida Immigration & Emigration Records - Immigration records help the family historian to understand the movements of their ancestry as they relocated to different parts of the world.
Click Here to Search Florida Birth, Marriage & Death Records! - Birth, marriage, and death records are connected with central life events. They are prime sources for genealogical information. Look also for baptism, christening, and burial records in this collection.
Office of Vital Statistics, Dept of Health, P.O. Box 210, 1217 Pearl Street, Jacksonville, FL 32231-0042;
(904) 359-6900 Ext. 1029, Fax: (904) 359-6993.
Birth Certificates: has custody of birth records filed from January 1917 to date. Scattered birth records from 1865 through 1916 are also held by the bureau, and some city health departments have some additional scattered records (e.g., Jacksonville, 1893-1913; Pensacola, 1897-1916).
Cost: $9.00 for computer certification & $14.00 per
photocopy
certification (1930 to present), payment is payable to the Office of Vital Statistics. Additional copies of the same record are $4.00 each. If no record is found or no copy is made, state law requires that we keep $9.00/$14.00 for a searching fee. Please do not send cash in the mail.
Death Certificates: From 1917 - present. Death records begin about 1877, but the first state law mandating registration of deaths was passed in 1899, and records before 1917 are spotty. It is always well to check with city health departments.
Cost: $5.00 per certificate. Additional copies of the same record are $4.00 each. If no record is found or no copy is made, state law requires that we keep $5.00 for a searching fee. Please do not send cash in the mail.
Marriage & Divorce Certificates: has custody of marriage, divorce, and annulment records filed after 6 June 1927. For records prior to that date, and there are thousands of them, query the clerk of courts in the county where the license or decree was issued. Numerous divorces and resulting name-changes are to be found in Names and Abstracts from the Acts of the Legislative Council of the Territory of Florida, 1822-1845 (Pass-A-Grille Beach, Fla.: William A. and Janet B. Wolfe, 1985). Copies of marriage license applications are available only from the clerk of courts in the county courthouse. Standard request forms for copies of state-held records are necessary and available as indicated above.
Cost: $5.00 per certificate. Additional copies of the same record are $4.00 each. If no record is found or no copy is made, state law requires that we keep $5.00 for a searching fee. Please do not send cash in the mail.
Order Online: You can also order Order Electronically and get the certificates within 2-5 days by ordering below
Processing Time:: Allow 3 to 6 weeks for the search
by mail for Birth, Marriage, Divorce or Death Records. MAIL or 2-5 Days when you order ELECTRONICALLY.
Order In Person: To order your copy through your local County Health Department Vital Statistics office click here for a list of the 67 County Health Departments. WALK-IN SERVICE is available at 1217 Pearl Street, Jacksonville, Florida, between 8:00 am - 4:30 pm. Orders prepaid by Noonmay be picked up after 3:30 p.m. Orders prepaid after Noon may be picked up after 10:00 a.m. the next workday. Each requestmust be accompanied by picture identification Certifications for photocopies rush service requires an additional fee of $10. Order By Mail: Turn around is estimated at 3 to 6 weeks from the day the request is received. Mail to the following address: Office of Vital Statistics, Dept of Health, P.O. Box 210, 1217 Pearl Street, Jacksonville, FL 32231-0042. Please include return address on envelope and application form.
Below is a list of online resources for Broward County Vital Records. Email us with websites containing Broward County Vital Records by clicking the link below:
Search the Social Security Death Index for FREE - Search over 82 million death records and get genealogical information crucial to your family research. New content added weekly! Most comprehensive SSDI site online!
Research Death records In The World's Largest Newspaper Archive at NewpaperArchive.com! - Find thousands of historical Florida newspaper articles about deaths. Search for local articles about an old family friend that died many years ago or a celebrity that committed suicide. Historical newspapers contain a wealth of information about the deceased.
Click Here to Search Florida Voter Lists & Census Records! - Few, if any, records reveal as many details about individuals and families as do government census records. Substitute records can be used when the official census is unavailable.
Countywide Records: Federal Population Schedules that exist for Broward County, Florida are1920 and 1930.There are free downloadable and printable Census forms to help with your research. These include U.S. Census Extraction Forms and U.K. Census Extraction Forms.
Below is a list of online resources for Broward County Census Records. Email us with websites containing Broward County Census Records by clicking the link below:
Florida Census, 1820-90: This collection contains the following indexes: 1820 Census Index (Pensacola and Escambia River Areas); 1825 Leon County Census Index; 1830 Federal Census Index; 1840 Federal Census Index; 1840 Pensioners List; 1850 Federal Census Index; 1850 Slave Schedule; 1860 Federal Census Index; 1860 Slave Schedule; 1870 Federal Census Index; 1890 Veterans Schedule; 1890 Naval Veterans Schedule; Early Census Index, Vol. 1-2.
Florida State Census, 1885: This database is an index with corresponding images of the 1885 Florida State Census
Maps are an excellent source for beginning your research, because they provide much useful information at a glance. Many historic maps show individual buildings and are especially useful because they also record owners' names and features in the surrounding community. More detailed maps reveal property acreage and estate names. By examining a series of maps, you will be able to date changes in your property over time.
Genealogy Atlas has images of old American atlases during the years 1795, 1814, 1822, 1823, 1836, 1838, 1845, 1856, 1866, 1879 and 1897 for Ohio and other states.
You can view rotating animated maps for Florida showing all the county boundaries for each census year overlayed with past and present maps so you can see the changes in county boundaries. You can view a list of maps for other states at Census Maps
You can view rotating animated maps for Florida showing all the county boundary changes for each year overlayed with past and present maps so you can see the changes in county boundaries. The Florida Department of Transportation has county maps the show the locations of churches, cemeteries, roads, ect... free for viewing or download here
Below is a list of online resources for Broward County Maps. Email us with websites containing Broward County Maps by clicking the link below:
Click Here to Search Florida Military Records! - Military and civil service records provide unique facts and insights into the lives of men and women who have served their country at home and abroad.
The uses and value of military records in genealogical research for ancestors who were veterans are obvious, but military records can also be important to re-searchers whose direct ancestors were not soldiers in any war. The fathers, grandfathers, brothers, and other close relatives of an ancestor may have served in a war, and their service or pension records could contain information that will assist in further identifying the family of primary interest. Due to the amount of genealogical information contained in some military pension files, they should never be overlooked during the research process. Those records not containing specific genealogical information are of historic value and should be included in any overall research design.
Below is a list of online resources for Broward County Military Records. Email us with websites containing Broward County Military Records by clicking the link below:
Southern Claims Commission from the State of Florida (The National Archives): View, Print Copy & Save Original Documents In the 1870s, southerners claimed compensation from the U.S. government for items used by the Union Army, ranging from corn and horses, to trees and church buildings.
Revolutionary War Rolls, 1775-1783 (The National Archives): View, Print Copy & Save Original Documents in NARA publication M246 include muster rolls, payrolls, strength returns, and other miscellaneous personnel, pay, and supply records of American Army units, 1775-83.
Early tax rolls, especially between census years, can be a gold mine for the fortunate researcher. Most existing rolls can be found in the counties of origin, but the Flordia State Archives also has some bound volumes sent to the state comptroller during the period 1829-81. Normal information includes the taxpayer's name, land ownership, number of white males (above taxable age, 21) and slaves, horses, wagons, and other taxable items of personal property such as jewelry, watches, musical instruments, and carriages. Many of the counties' records in the series are incomplete, but there are some in the Florida State Archives that the originating counties no longer have. This valuable resource is not indexed. It must be searched in the county, at the Florida State Archives, or both.
Below is a list of online resources for Broward County Tax Records. Email us with websites containing Broward County Tax Records by clicking the link below:
The Repositories
in this section are Archives, Libraries, Museums, Genealogical
and Historical Societies. Many County Historical and Genealogical
Societies publish magazines and/or news letters on a monthly,
quarterly, bi-annual or annual basis. Contacting the local societies
should not be over looked. State Archives and Societies are
usually much larger and better organized with much larger archived
materials than their smaller county cousins but they can be
more generalized and over look the smaller details that local
societies tend to have. Libraries can also be a good place to
look for local information. Some libraries have a genealogy
section and may have some resources that are not located at
archives or societies. Also, take a special look at any museums
in the area. They sometimes have photos and items from years
gone by as well as information of a genealogical interest. All
these places are vitally important to the family genealogist
and must not be passed over.
Below is a list of online resources for Broward County Genealogical Addresses. Email us with websites containing Broward County Genealogical Addresses by clicking the link below:
Oakland Park Historical Society, 3976 NE Sixth Ave., Oakland Park, FL 33334
Florida State Records Center, 4319 Shelfer Road, Tallahassee, FL 32399-0250; (850)245-6750; Hours: By Appointment Only
Florida Newspapers & Periodicals Records - Newspapers and periodicals are the diaries of local communities. They are excellent sources of family history details - often recorded nowhere else. Look for obituaries, marriages, legal notices, and more found in our Historical Newspaper Archives.
Click Here to Search Florida Obituary Records! - This database is a compilation of obituaries published in U.S. newspapers, collected from various online sources. Obituaries can vary in the amount of information they contain, but many of them are genealogical goldmines, including information such as names, dates, places of birth and death, marriage information, and family relationships.
As in most former frontier societies, early Florida church records are hit-and-miss, but they can be valuable when located. The Roman Catholic faith accompanied the earliest Spanish settlers to Florida, and by 1822 the Baptists, Methodists, Episcopalians, and Presbyterians were also active in the new territory. By 1845 the Baptists had split into the Missionary and Primitive varieties (probably totaling more than 5,000 Florida members), and all of the above groups had become more or less well organized Methodists had two churches in Fernandina as early as 1822 (under the South Carolina Conference) and more than 10,000 members by statehood.
Cemetery records are held by most Florida libraries and archives. One important compiled source is the WPA Register of Deceased Veterans Buried in Florida, which covers fifty-one of the sixty-seven counties. Access to the massive amount of cemetery information scattered throughout the state is being facilitated by a continuing cemetery location project of the Florida State Genealogical Society.
Below is a list of online resources for Broward County Cemetery & Church Records. Email us with websites containing Broward County Cemetery & Church Records by clicking the link below:
Find Obituaries in The World's Largest Newspaper Archive at NewpaperArchive.com! - Find thousands of Florida obituaries to help you research your family history. Search for a Florida newspaper obituary about your ancestor or a celebrity. Begin your search today and find death notices and funeral announcements printed in newspapers from Indiana.
Click Here to Search Florida Family Tree Records! - The use of published genealogies, electronic files containing genealogical lineage, and other compiled sources can be of tremendous value to a researcher.
When view family trees online or not, be sure to only take the info at face value and always follow up with your own sources or verify the ones they provide. Below is a list of online resources for Broward County Family Trees, web forums and other family type information. Email us with websites containing Broward County Family Trees, web forums and other family type information by clicking the link below:
Genealogy Encyclopedia: General Abbreviations, Early Illnesses, Nickname Meanings, Worldwide Epidemics, Early Occupations, Common Terms, Censuses Explained, Free Genealogical Forms
Nichols and Related Families of Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Florida, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virgina.
Florida Family & Local History Records - The Family & Local Histories Collection lets you read journals, memoirs, and other first-hand historical narratives right on your computer. Gathered from some of the world's finest libraries, these materials may provide hard-to-find town, county, and state information; tax records and wills; military, church, and court records; as well as photographs, stories, and maps.
Broward was formed from portions of Dade and Palm Beach Counties in 1915 and named for former Florida governor Napoleon Bonaparte Broward.
In less than a century, a land "unfit for human habitation" has been turned in to the permanent home of over a million people and the winter residence of tens of thousands more.
In earlier times, it could not have happened. Today's Broward County is very much a product of the industrial age. The sun and sand and sea have been here for millennia, but the roads, railroads and seaport are new additions which have vastly transformed the area's landscape.
Until the Florida East Coast (FEC) Railroad was brought through in 1896, the area was accessible to only a hardy few. Until Everglades drainage was begun a decade later, only the coastal ridge and scattered spots of high ground to the west were habitable. Until Port Everglades was opened in the 1920s, there was no dependable anchorage for large ships. This is not to say, however, that Broward is a totally new-made land. The opening quotation from Dr. William Sears, professor of anthropology at Florida Atlantic University, is true only in terms of what today's residents consider necessary. But, prior to the modern era of settlement, small bands of Indians got along very nicely for perhaps 4,000 years.
In fact, the story of man in Broward county may go back even further although we have no firm evidence. Skeletal remains of big-game hunters who lived 10,000 years ago have been found as near as Vero Beach on the east coast and Charlotte Harbor on the west.
When the big-game became extinct, about 8,000 years ago, the Indians turned to a diversified pattern of hunting and gathering and made use of every edible resource they could find. It is Indians of this type, known to archaeologists as "Archaic," who were Broward's first known residents.
They wandered throughout the county at least 2,000 and probably 4,000 years ago. The requirements of their existence --- shell-fish and fish, game such as deer and bear, plants such as seagrape and prickly pear --- kept their settlements small and transitory. The major village of Tequesta, near the mouth of Miami River, probably was not more than a couple of centuries old when the Spanish visited it in 1567.
South Florida Indians had not, in the past, been hospitable to the Spanish. In 1521 the Calusa fatally wounded Ponce de Leon at charlotte Harbor and the Tequesta, as the Spanish called the inhabitants of Dade and Broward Counties, continued the patterns. A mission established on Miami River was abandoned within two years and never revived.
Nevertheless, the Tequesta were on the decline. Some blame it on disease introduced by the Spanish, others on warfare with the stronger Calusa but, whatever the cause, there were only about 80 Indians in southeast Florida in 1763, and they left for Havana when the Spanish ceded Florida to Great Britain at the end of the French and Indian War.
The British held the area for only 20 years, ceding it back to Spain in the Treaty of Paris following the American Revolution. Sometime after the re-establishment of Spanish rule, Broward's first non-Indian settlers arrived.
They were the Lewises: Surlie, Frankee and at least two children; and the Robbinses: Joseph, and his wife and daughter. All, except Mrs. Robbins, were British and all apparently had come from the Bahamas. They lived on the south side of the New River, possible just above the mouth of Tarpon River. Lewis farmed farther upstream.
The Spanish, fearing that the settlers were a fifth column for possible British reoccupation of the peninsula, sent a supply ship on a spying mission in 1793. The visitors recommended that the settlers be removed, but the recommendation apparently was pushed aside as Spain prepared for war with France.
The United States obtained Florida from Spain in 1821. Colonel James Gadsden, who conducted the first survey in 1825 of today's Broward County, was not impressed. A road would be impractical, he wrote, because "the population of the route will probably never be sufficient to contribute to [its maintenance], while the inducements to individuals to keep up the necessary ferries will scarcely ever be adequate."
The Gadsden party reported the presence on New River of two families, headed by William Cooley and David Williams. Cooley raised vegetables for subsistence and processed coontie root into arrowroot starch for cash. Because navigation was a sometime thing through the shifting and shallow New River mouth, it was fortunate that the produce was relatively imperishable.
Inland, other newcomers were arriving. They were Seminole Indians, pushed southward by settlers who coveted their rich north Florida pastures. As demands mounted that they be removed to Oklahoma, so did their resentment. On December 28, 1835, they struck, killing Major Francis L. Dade and 104 of his 107 officers and men in an ambush north of Tampa that set off the Second Seminole War.
On January 6, 1836, a war party descended on the Cooley homestead and killed Mrs. Cooley, the three children and tutor Joseph Flinton. After hearing the victims' screams, the other settlers fled south by land and eventually reached Indian Key where they were joined by Cooley, who had been on a salvage trip.
In March 1838, a force of Tennessee Volunteers and army regulars, commanded by Major William Lauderdale, established a stockade on New River. That fort and a later one built on the beach bore Lauderdale's name.
The war lasted until 1842 but the fear much longer. Those Seminoles who had escaped removal had the area pretty much to themselves for the next 50 years, with only an occasional hunting or exploring party to disturb their solitude. In 1882 the population center of Broward was Pine Island, west of present-day Davie. There, 25 to 30 Seminole families cultivated gardens and from there they roamed the Everglades in search of game.
The first known post-war non-Indian settlers were Washington Jenkins, keeper of the House of Refuge that was built for ship-wrecked sailors in 1876 in the area of the future Birch State Park, and John J. Brown, a pig farmer who won a tainted legislative election that same year and departed for Tallahassee, never to return.
By 1891 there were enough settlers to justify a post office, and two years later came the first of those man-made links with the outside world that would allow Broward to grow. It was the Bay Stage Line, operating over a shell-rock road between Hypoluxo at the south end of Lake Worth and Lemon City, now part of Miami. Passengers on the two-day trip stopped overnight at New River. An Ohioan named Frank Stranahan arrived to run both the overnight camp and the New River ferry.
The coming of the stages also brought to an end the era of the legendary "barefoot mailmen" who, for seven years, had carried the mail from Hypoluxo to Miami by walking along the beach. For five dollars a head, they would let others walk with them.
But, the stages were to be even more short-lived. When Henry M. Flagler learned that Miami was unaffected by the great freeze of February 1895, he decided to extend the FEC south from Palm Beach. On February 22, 1896, the first train reached New River.
Besides making it possible for more settlers to reach Broward, the railroad also made it necessary. If Flagler were to reap any return on the state and private lands which he had been given in return for laying the rails, it was absolutely necessary that he find prospective buyers. His land companies sought immigrants both in the North and in the South.
The were not hard to find. Swedes from the Northeast formed the nucleus of Hallandale, and Danes from the Midwest founded Dania. Southern farmers, lured by better land and milder winters, joined the Danes and Swedes and founded Pompano and Deerfield, besides. Much of the fieldwork was done by blacks from either the South or the Bahamas.
Dania became the area's first incorporated community in 1904, followed by Pompano in 1908 and Fort Lauderdale in 1911. All three pre-date Broward County itself, which was formed from portions of Dade and Palm Beach counties in 1915 and named for former Florida governor Napoleon Bonaparte Broward.
Main Street, Dania, 1912
The choice was logical. During his 1905-1909 term as governor, Broward championed Everglades drainage and got the dredges working on the south and north New River canals. While results in the Everglades were mixed, the drainage opened up much of today's urban Broward County for development, first as agricultural land and, later, as residential.
The fruits of this work would come later. With the exception of a flurry in Fort Lauderdale's Progresso area in connection with a 1911 land drawing, growth was slow and steady until the prosperity and optimism that followed World War I set off the first of Broward's two great booms.
In numbers, this boom pales in comparison to the greater one that followed World War II. While the county's population went from 5,135 to 14,242 between 1920 and 1925 for a gain of 9,107, the average gain per year between 1950 and 1970 was 26,808, as the population soared form 83,933 to 620,100.
But numbers are not everything. The 1920s boom set the prevailing pattern in two important ways. First, it marked the advent of the developer city in which a single plan would encompass an entire community rather than a single neighborhood.
Beyond that, it changed the nature of the county's economy. Before 1920 most settlers were farmers, but the newcomers were urban people, many of them retirees. Also, the 1920s witnessed the emergency of tourism as a major facet of the Broward economy.
The grandest of the 1920s developers was Joseph W. Young who turned a low-lying tract between Hallandale and Dania into his dream city of Hollywood-by-the-Sea. The lakes, the broad boulevard, the eastern golf course and the traffic circle were all part of Young's master plan. While there have been many developer cities since, none of them, with the possible exception of Coral Springs, started from a plan as grand as Young's.
To draw residents, he advertised throughout the eastern United States. He brought prospects in by bus, train and ship and treated them to lunch and tours of the city. The he put on the "hard-sell," occasionally utilizing "sweat rooms" where the customer was bombarded by a high-pressure salesman.
Joseph Young
By 1925 the new city was ready for incorporation. That same year, charters were granted to Deerfield, Davie, and Floranada, north of Fort Lauderdale. Early in 1926 Hollywood absorbed both Dania and the unincorporated Hallandale community.
But the boom already had crested; rough days were ahead. Once more, access to the outside world would be a major problem. With the spate of new settlement, there was a tremendous need for importation of both food and building material, most of which had to be brought over the single-track FEC. Many recognized the problem. Flagler's successors made plans to double-track the FEC and a second railroad, today's Seaboard Coast Line, was extended southward toward Miami. Young and others moved toward creation of Port Everglades.
But, none of this could be done quickly enough. The backlog of goods at Jacksonville so critical that, on October 29, 1925, the FEC had to embargo everything except food or items for which special permits had been obtained.
The effect on construction was catastrophic and this soon was followed by a drying up of credit. Northern banks long had felt that the boom, with its paper-thin operating margins and spiraling prices fed by speculative trading of both property and purchase options, was too giddy to last. By early 1926, they were becoming very cautious with their money.
The most speculative developers were wiped out then and there. Others, including Young, might have been able to weather the downturn, but they could not weather great hurricane that roared out of the Caribbean and smashed squarely into south Broward on September 17 and 18, 1926.
Much of Hollywood was flattened and/or flooded. There were 34 verified deaths. Observers insisted, however, that the real toll was much higher. Damage in Fort Lauderdale was less, but still considerable. Fifteen were dead. North Broward, which had both fewer people and lighter winds, had no deaths and only minor damage.
In the long run, however, the worst damage was done by the black headlines in northern newspapers that scared away potential replacements for those who either had died or fled. For south Florida, the Depression began three years before it hit the rest of the nation.
In 1927 Dania and Hallandale regained their independence, the latter to be its own city for the first time. Davie's charter lapsed, not to be renewed for 35 years, and Floranada, shorn of much of its territory, was reincorporated as Oakland Park. Yet, the collapse was not so total as commonly believed. While the 1930s was not the best of times in Broward, it was not the worst, either. And growth had not stopped, it merely had paused. Population went from the 14,242 of 1925 to 20,094 in 1930 and to 39,794 in 1940.
If the Depression had come early to Broward, so did World War II. On December 19, 1939, the British cruiser "Orion" chased the German freighter "Arauca" into Port Everglades, where she remained until 1941 when seized by the United States. The closest the area came to combat was in the week beginning May 4, 1942, when German submarines off southeast Florida torpedoed seven ships, one of which limped into Port Everglades. That, and the landing of four Germans near Jacksonville two months later, led to several countermeasures.
Watch towers were set up along the ocean. The beaches were closed at night and patrolled by mounted Coast Guardsmen with attack dogs. The tops of headlights were blacked out and street lights hooded. Boaters and Civil Air Patrol pilots searched for U-boats.
Coast Guardsman R.L. Landers (Landers Collection)
As far as Broward's future was concerned, however, the most significant thing about the war was the plethora of training bases that were established. Every airfield in the county, plus the future site of Broward Community College's central campus was a World War II training facility.
When peace came, thousands of service men recalled how nice it had been in Broward. With their families, they returned. Thousands of others joined them. The greatest boom was on. Even in these days of trillion dollar gross national products, the figures are sobering. In the 30 years from 1940 to 1970, Fort Lauderdale's's population shot from 17,996 to 139,590. Hollywood went from 6,239 to 106,873; Pompano Beach from 4,427 to 38,587; and Hallandale from 1,827 to 23,849. Plantation, which was just getting started in 1950, had grown to 23,523 by 1970.
New cities came into being everywhere and old ones grew. In 1945 the county still had only the seven active municipalities of 1929. Hillsboro Beach had been charter din 1939 but was not active until 1947. Hacienda Village was added in 1946 and Wilton Manors in 1947.
But, the explosion was still to come in the next two decades. Lauderdale-by-the-Sea started it off in 1951, followed by Plantation and Lazy Lake in 1953; Margate and Miramar, 1955; Lighthouse Point, 1956; Pembroke Park, 1957; Lauderhill, Cooper City, Sea Ranch Lakes, and Pembroke Pines, 1959; Sunrise, Davie, and Lauderdale Lakes, 1961; North Lauderdale, Coral Springs, Parkland, and Tamarac, 1963; and Coconut Creek, 1967.
As the county's population soared toward a million, a few of the developers became overextended or came under criticism because of the close ties between their firms and the cities which they had created. Also, a growing number of newcomers feared that too-rapid growth would bring to their new homes those problems which they had left behind in their old ones. As the 1970s dawned, they began demanding that their cities opt for slower growth and lower limits on the number of residences per acre. Gradually, governments began to respond.
Yet, when growth finally paused in 1974 it was not as a result of municipal actions. Instead, south Florida was just one more victim of a recession which was sweeping the nation. It was not the inability to build that cooled the boom. Rather, it was the inability to sell. At one point, there were an estimated 50,000 unsold condominium apartments in the area.
By 1976 the building industry began to revive. With it came a concern that the uncontrolled and, sometimes, unwise growth that characterized the past would not be repeated. A new county charter gave Broward's government broad powers to monitor and improve the quality of life and the environment. The passage of of the 1977 Land Use Plan was a major step toward limiting urban sprawl and insuring that the area's resources, natural, economic and social, would be put to their best use. In short, citizens and leaders had allied in their desire to see that the land once "unfit for human habitation" would not become uninhabitable again.
Courthouse History
Broward County, created in 1915, honors one of Florida's more colorful characters, Governor Napoleon Bonaparte Broward. Appropriately, given the county's southern location, Broward was one of the foremost proponents of "reclaiming" the Everglades. The county seat is Ft. Lauderdale, most likely named for Major William Lauderdale, a veteran of the Seminole Wars. The town grew up around the site of a fort that was established around 1838.
The Broward County Courthouse and the New River Canal, which connects Lake Okeechobee with the Atlantic Ocean. This was Broward County's second courthouse, replacing the converted school building shown below, and was constructed in 1926-8 at a cost of $500,000. The tower was 90 feet in height and contained a two-bedroom apartment for the jailer, located directly beneath "a bell so loud that it could be heard throughout most of Ft.Lauderdale." Adding to the aggravation, writes Sun-Sentinel history columnist Stuart McIver, the jailer's responsibilities included keeping the bell wound. Additions were made to the courthouse in 1947 and 1956, but it was razed in 1960 to make way for what McIver considers "an undistinguished multi-story structure." The bell did survive and is preserved in the lobby of the new courthouse.
Inland, other newcomers were arriving. They were Seminole Indians, pushed southward by settlers who coveted their rich north Florida pastures. As demands mounted that they be removed to Oklahoma, so did their resentment. On December 28, 1835, they struck, killing Major Francis L. Dade and 104 of his 107 officers and men in an ambush north of Tampa that set off the Second Seminole War.
Coast Guardsman R.L. Landers (Landers Collection)