ADA - Dugouts to Dream Yachts Marine Gallery Preview

Seminoles - Early Settlers

The first known photographs of New River, taken in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, show its unspoiled, natural state.

Funseekers & the Beginning of a New Industry 1890-1920

For most of the late nineteenth century settlement on the New River was sparse and intermittent. Both settlers and occasional visitors from the more populous Lake Worth and Biscayne Bay regions relied mostly on water transportation. Even the first land route through the area, the Dade County stage road completed in 1892, crossed the New River by ferry. The opening of the road signaled the beginnings of modern Fort Lauderdale.

Funseekers & the Beginning of a New Industry 1890-1920 Cont.

Among the wealthy sportsmen who came to New River for its hunting and fishing was Charles B. Cory, a noted naturalist and ornithologist, who established a natural history museum on Palm Beach. In the late 1890s and early 1900s Cory's houseboat, the paddlewheel steamer Wanderer, became known as a "party boat" hosting wealthy guests and entertainment considered scandalous by Fort Lauderdale pioneers. The Wanderer remained docked by the river until it was damaged beyond repair by the 1926 hurricane. The Wanderer offered luxury accommodations, gourmet food and hunting and fishing trips. She may well have been the precursor of luxury yachts on the river.

Boom Along the River 1920-1940

By the early 1920s, silting in the drainage canals closed most boat transportation between Fort Lauderdale and Lake Okeechobee, but the post-World War I Florida Real Estate Boom, with its promotion, land sales, and construction, transformed the “Gateway to the Everglades” into the “Venice of America.” Early marine facilities, such as King and Sons (acquired by William Moesly in the 1910s) and Ducane's were joined by establishments including Dillevig's New River Boat & Engine Works and Pilkington's Yacht Basin in the 1920s and Dooley's Boat Yard In the 1930s.

Boom Along the River 1920-1940 Cont.

In 1921, George Pilkington opened Fort Lauderdale’s first yacht basin, covering thirty acres of land on the south shore of New River. Pilkington dredged slips to accommodate between fifty and seventy-five yachts. Among his tenants was Franklin D. Roosevelt. Although it was one of Fort Lauderdale’s most well-known businesses, Pilkington’s seemed cursed with bad luck. It was devastated by the 1926 hurricane, which destroyed, among many others, Roosevelt’s houseboat, Larooco. Although rebuilt, Pilkington’s and many of the vessels stored there were again demolished by a spectacular explosion and fire in 1935, but were again operating to capacity in 1937.

War 1940-1950s

Erupting in September 1939, Europe’s war soon reached the shores of Fort Lauderdale. In December, the British cruiser Orion forced the German freighter Arauca to seek refuge, and internment, in Port Everglades. The following April, U.S. officials removed the crew of the Arauca to the Coast Guard base and then upriver to be held temporarily in the Broward County jail before being sent into detention out of the area.

War 1940-1950s Cont.

While honeymooning in Fort Lauderdale in 1948, Frank and Gertrude Denison of Saugatuck, Michigan, decided that Fort Lauderdale was the perfect place to establish their boatbuilding business. They first leased and then purchased Dooley's Basin, renaming it Broward Marine, and specializing in yacht repair work.

Dream Yachts & More, 1950s to Present

The second half of the twentieth century and the beginning of the twenty-first have been the era of the dream yacht. Broward Marine led the field with the construction of its first custom yacht, Alisa V, in 1956.

Dream Yachts & More, 1950s to Present Cont.

The City of Fort Lauderdale provided an internationally renowned mecca for boating and boaters when they acquired the former Coast Guard Base on the Intercoastal and constructed the Bahia Mar Yachting Center, which opened in 1949 (shown above).Pictured below is the Lauderdale Marina, 1957, at the time it was the largest marine service center in the United States. The Rodi Boat Company opened their facility on the river at Riverland Road in 1962. Specializing in the sale of Chris Craft boats, Rodi was billed as the “world’s largest boat dealer.”

Artifacts and Boat Models

The Seminole village model depicts a typical Seminole village of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries consisting of several “chickees”, open huts with thatched palmetto roof and raised floors. Different chickees had different functions; some served as living quarters, others as sleeping space or cooking areas. They were dry and naturally air conditioned with an above ground platform and abundant ventilation.Hunting, fishing, and gathering provided much of the food consumed by the Seminoles. Small gardens and domestic animals were kept at the villages. Cooking was done on an open fire with logs radiating from the center like spokes of a wheel. The temperature was controlled by pushing the logs into the fire or pulling them away.

Marine Gallery Sponsors

Presenting SponsorsLauderdale Marine CenterRoscioli Yachting CenterPlatinum SponsorsBradford MarineVisionary SponsorsHudson Family FoundationJM FamilyLank OilLauderdale MarinaLawless, Edwards & WarrenRybovichTripp ScottTrailblazersAlley, Maass, Rogers & Lindsay, P.A.Bank of AmericaDerecktorEngineered Yacht SolutionsFerrari Fort LauderdaleGray RobinsonInternational Yacht Brokers AssociationJR Dunn JewelersKerwin Naval ArchitectsLuxury Law GroupMerrimac VenturesMerritt’s Boat & Engine WorksMoore & Co., P.A.Murray & AssociatesNautical StructuresOcean Reef Yacht ClubPantropic PowerRonald TutorWard’s Marine ElectricWestportPaul E. Andrews, Jr. FoundationTrendsettersArt Bengochea & AssociatesRobert GoldenHarbour Town MarinaHeesen YachtsLuu Marine & AssociatesRaymond OnegliaSmallwoods