History of the Sailboat Bend Historic -West Las Olas/SW 7th Avenue (700 W. Las Olas Boulevard)
(SBHD) is the largest surviving district to reflect the evolving history of the City of Fort Lauderdale. Sailboat Bend’s success and desirability portrays an evolution in building types. The smaller scale of the homes indicates they were built for working class families. From the more common vernacular designs of the 1920s and 1930s, to the change in building types and availability after World War II through to the Modern Age, when designs for neighborhoods did not heavily consider the now ubiquitous automobile. From its earliest development characterized by a pioneering group who, through their contributions to social and economic trends, provided a foundation for subsequent settlement; to a community who through their tenacity and ambition further added to the community' s prosperity.
Marina at Cooley’s Landing – 450 Cooley Avenue
In 1821, the United States obtained Florida from Spain and in 1825 the first known government survey of what is now Broward County was completed by Colonel James Gadsen. As part of this survey, two settlers were identified as occupying land in the vicinity of the New River - William Cooley and David Williams.William Cooley, originally from Maryland, was a farmer who primarily ran an arrowroot (aka coontie) starch mill and whose property was located on the north bank of the New River, near the present-day SW 7th Avenue/SW 4th Avenue Bridge. Cooley’s home “was of cypress logs, sealed and floored, and he had cleared and planted 20 acres in sugar cane, arrowroot, corn, potatoes and pumpkins, had many chickens, 80 hogs and five sheep.” Cooley also had several other positions, including a ship salvager, a wilderness guide, and a Justice of the Peace.Cooley maintained friendly relations and trade with the Seminole Indians. In the early 19th century, Creek Indians from Alabama joined the Seminoles. In 1835, white settlers killed Creek chief Alibama and burned his hut. As Justice of the Peace, Cooley jailed the settlers, but they were released due to insufficient evidence. The Creek blamed Cooley for withholding evidence.Six days later, Cooley led an expedition to free the stranded ship Gil Blas, requiring all the settlement's able men. On January 4, 1836, the Indians attacked the settlement, killing Cooley's family and two black slaves disappearing.
Early Residents of Sailboat Bend
The Sailboat Bend Historic District is the oldest neighborhood in the City and consists of several subdivisions, including the Bryan subdivision which attracted a number of well-known settlers to the area including Commodore A.H. Brook and his sister Lady Claire Fursman, who arrived in 1921.Commodore A.H. Brook, originally from Sheffield, England, worked for the Manchester Guardian (today known as The Guardian, a British Daily newspaper) and studied art under prominent English art critic John Ruskin. Moving to New York City, he became an executive at Thomas Cusack Co., an outdoor advertising agency, and designed the first moving illuminated electric sign. He later founded his own firm, Brook of Brooklyn, Inc., and was named the first Commodore of the Lauderdale Yacht Club. (The History of Florida: Past & Present, The Lewis Publishing Co., Vol. II, page 248, 1923. Source: files.usgwarchives.net/fl/broward/bios/b6200001.txt)Lady Claire Fursman left England in 1899, served as a nurse in the Boer War, and lived in Asia before returning to England as a widow. Seeking new adventures, she moved to New York City to reunite with her brother.In 1919, after World War I, Commodore A.H. Brook drove with Lady Claire Fursman to Miami. Passing through Fort Lauderdale, they were charmed by a leaping fish near the New River. After exploring Miami and Florida’s West Coast, they returned to Fort Lauderdale, drawn by the earlier encounter with the jumping fish.
Early Settlements: William Lauderdale Park – SW 4th Street / Tequesta Park – 1016 Waverly Road
Rivermont is the largest and most intact black earth midden along the New River, representing 2000 years of Tequesta occupation from the Glades I to Glades III periods (500 BC – 1763 AD). European settlers began displacing the Tequesta, ending this era.Recent archaeological surveys at Rivermont uncovered archaic faunal remains, tools, pottery, and zoomorphic decorations, providing insights into the Tequesta's diet, exchange networks, trade routes, and cosmology. The site's well-preserved evidence offers crucial information on prehistoric ecology at the junction of coastal uplands and the Everglades.The Tequesta, native to southeast Florida, were skilled navigators and whale hunters, as noted in 1575 by Juan Lopez de Velasco, a Spanish historian. After the 1763 exodus, the Seminoles became the dominant group in southeastern Florida during the British Period and into the 19th century. During the First Seminole War (1817-1818), they migrated south, establishing large communities, including a settlement at Snake Warrior’s Island in Miramar, later integrating fugitive African American slaves.(Broward County Shipwreck and Marine Archaeological Inventory: Phase 1. 2007 Historic Preservation Small Matching Grant No. S0746)
A Pioneer Settlement - Swing Bridge – SW 11th Avenue/New River
The Fort Lauderdale House of Refuge was established in 1875. The first keeper of the House of Refuge was Washington "Wash" Jenkins (September 11, 1876, to January 2, 1883).The only one neighbor of Jenkins, Charles Pierce later wrote a book describing pioneer life in southeast Florida. This is how he describes the life of the Jenkins: "How he and his family managed to content themselves in this most isolated and out of the way place is hard to imagine." In 1891 the first post office was established in Fort Lauderdale at the House of Refuge, naming Captain William C. Valentine its first postmaster. Valentine was a confederate veteran who was a Civil Engineer and had experience in land surveying. In 1887 while in Hypoluxo (the Seminole word for Lake Worth), Valentine had written to the Commissioner of State Lands in Tallahassee inquiring about lands along the New River.
The Railroad Arrives - West Side Fire Station – 1022 W. Las Olas Blvd
In 1896, Henry Flagler’s Florida East Coast Railway arrived in Fort Lauderdale, significantly impacting the city's development. Henry Flagler envisioned the present-day Broward County region as the agricultural center of Southeast Florida, and the arrival of his railroad transformed Fort Lauderdale from an isolated river crossing and beachfront outpost into a flourishing center for truck farming, a horticultural practice of growing crops for sale and transportation to more distant markets.During this time, Mary Brickell, who had accumulated land along the New River and the Miami River in Dade County, gave Flagler hundreds of acres for resale to future townspeople and provided the right-of-way in the center of the town for the new rail line. Henry Flagler, the industrialist and founder of Standard Oil who became a real estate developer and founded the Florida East Coast Railway, shaped Florida’s future as a popular vacation destination and had impacts on the state’s agricultural landscape and economy.
Development Boom - West Side School – 301 SW 13th Avenue
The creation of all three of these plats in the Sailboat Bend Historic District – Waverly Place, Bryan Subdivision, and Bryan Place – coincided with the incorporation of the City of Fort Lauderdale in 1911. Prior to its incorporation, the City of Fort Lauderdale was a part of Dade County (now Miami-Dade County). Shortly after the City’s incorporation, Broward County was formed in 1915 and made Fort Lauderdale the county seat. From this early period of development, only six properties remain from the 1910s and fifty-four properties remain from the 1920s. Properties from the 1920s reflect on an era known nationally as “the Boom,” when Americans, now free of the destructive effects of World War I, enjoyed new consumerism, flappers, jazz, and prosperity.Today, Fort Lauderdale is renowned for its stunning beaches and tropical climate, but this wasn’t always the case. In the early 20th century, it earned the titles "Gateway to the Everglades" and "vegetable shipping capital." By the 1920s, Fort Lauderdale had become the epicenter of the remarkable Florida land boom. Development and tourism have since driven the economy forward, and the city has never looked back.
Architectural Styles of Sailboat Bend - Sailboat Bend Preserve/Townsend Park – 1400 Argyle Drive
Most commonly, early residences within the Sailboat Bend Historic District consist of small wood frame or masonry houses as well as several multi-family apartment buildings. They represent the Frame Vernacular and Masonry Vernacular Styles. Vernacular refers to the common wood frame construction techniques employed by lay or self-taught builders and utilized easily available building materials. Smaller homes continued to be built before World War I, and the western section of the district began to be developed. The house located at 1221 W Las Olas Boulevard is an example of the type of one-story masonry vernacular house commonly built during this time and into the 1950’s.
