1656-5 -Steve Hannagan-The man who put Miami Beach on the map MIAMI BEACH NEWS SERVICE STEVE IIANNAGAN AS.OCIATES
JOE COPPS,DIRECTOR
249 PARK AVER .:
CITY HALL BLDG., MIAMI BEACH, FLA. • '•RK, N. Y.
HISTORY OF MIAMI BEACH
Fashioned by the hand of man with a magnificient assistant
Mother Nature, Miami Beach stands today as America's No. 1 seaside
resort.
Something like 30 years ago Miami Beach was partly water, part-
ly sand and mostly mangrove swamp. Sand sucked up from the surround-
ing bays and fertile soil from nearby mucklands were used as bases
for an unbelievably pretty city.
Today Miami Beach is the winter resort mecca for northerners
by the hundreds of thousands - - many of them own their own homes
here - - and, in recent years, has become a top summer play spot.
In 1911 the Florida land which is now Miami Beach, was owned
by two men. The late John S. Collins, of New Jersey, had come here
to inspect property on which he had loaned money, and he remained to
foreclose on the property and to develop it into farmland. J. N.
Lummus, Sr. , first mayor of Miami Beach, meantime had acquired the
few hundred acres of land not owned by Collins.
Originally all the ocean front land between Miami Beach and
Palm Beach had been owned by two men who had secured it from the
government with the idea of raising coconuts on a commercial scale.
It was when they abandoned the idea that Collins obtained the Miami
Beach end of the property.
Collins did not believe that coconuts could be raised pro-
fitably, and was planting avocados and other fruits and vegetables
on his newly acquired land. More or less successful in this venture
he soon discovered that lack of transportation to Miami, across the
bay, was his greatest handicap.
Collins dug a canal from what is now Pancoast Lake to the
eastern shores of Biscayne Bay, and was sending his produce to the
market by boat. This, also, was unprofitable, and before the year
of 1911 was over he started to erect a wooden bridge from Miami
Beach to Miami.
About this time Collins induced his son-in-law, Thomas J.
Pancoast, to join him here - - and it was shortly after this
that the entire future of Miami Beach was to begin a fantastic
change.
MIAMI BEACH NEWS SERVICE STEVE HANNAGAN ASSOCIATES
JOE COPPS,DIRECTOR 247 PARK AVENUE
CITY HALL BLDG., MIAMI BEACH, FLA. NEW YORK, N. Y.
Page #2 - Miami Beach History
Although the names of Collins and Pancoast must always head
the list of pioneers in the development of Miami Beach, two of her
men actually started the flame that was to spread the City 's name far
and wide as the "World's Playground."
It was early in 1912 that Carl G. Fisher "came to town. " It
was quite by accident that he arrived, but nevertheless he came and
he started a development program and real estate boom greater than
was ever witnessed in the world before.
Fisher, a former automobile race driver, manufacturer and
builder of Indianapolis Motor Speedway, had retired at the age of
40 with some 15,000,000 in the bank. He was all through with bus-
iness, he thought, and was ready for play.
He bought a boat.
And, it was this boat that changed the destiny of not only
Miami Beach but probably the entire State of Florida.
Fisher purchased the boat from a New York boat building com-
pany, and ordered it delivered to him at Cairo, Illinois. Fisher
lived at Indianapolis at that time.
When the boat arrived at Cairo it was in charge of a young
engineer, John H. Levi, who as superintendent of the boat building
company, was delivering it personally. Fisher took an immediate
liking to Levi, and asked him to accompany him on a jaunt down the
Mississippi River.
At Mobile Fisher decided to ship the boat to Jacksonville
by rail, and to proceed from there to New York up the Atlantic.
When the boat was loaded on a flat car some railroad official
"discovered" that its height on the car was too great to clear a
low bridge between Mobile and Jacksonville.
Annoyed at this inconvenience the impatient Fisher boarded
a train for his Indianapolis home, after persuading Levi to remain
in charge of the boat and propel it around Cape Florida, and to
Jacksonville where he would again meet it.
Levi and his small crew had a tiresome and perilous trip
through the Gulf of Mexico and around the treacherous Florida Keys
and upon arrival at Miami Levi wired Fisher and asked him to meet
the boat in Miami instead of Jacksonville. "This is a pretty little
MIAMI BEACH NEWS SERVICE STEVE IIANNAGAN ASSOCIATES
JOE COPPS.DIRECTOR
2 1 7 PA M<AVENUE
CITY HALL BLDG., MIAMI BEACH, FLA.
NEW YORK, N. Y.
Page #3 - Miami Beach History
town. " were Levi 's words in the telegram, and they were words that
were to go down in history.
Fisher met Levi in Miami. He had never been there before,
and probably had never heard of it before, Instead of proceeding
to Jacksonville as planned he remained "a few days" and managed to
buy another small boat and a home while looking the city over.
Intrigued by the beautiful inland waterways of the area
Fisher and Levi spent many days in the small boat exploring.
It was on one of these occasions that Fisher and Levi met Collins
and Pancoast.
Collins was still trying to build phis wooden bridge from
Miami to Miami Beach, but had run out of working capital. Collins
was then 70 years old. Fisher became so enthused at the enthusiasm
of Collins that he advanced Collins sufficient funds to complete
the bridge.
In return for this generosity Collins deeded Fisher sev-
eral hundred acres of land as a bonus for the loan. Most of the
land, however, was swampy and covered with mangrove.
Fisher engaged Levi as his chief engineer and began fill-
ing in the land and clearing the mangrove, and the first develop-
ment of Miami Beach began. The Fisher-Levi team brought huge
dredges to the shores of Miami Beach and pumped land from the
bottom of Biscayne Bay to fill in the low places on the peninsula,
Fisher went on to lay out streets, parks, golf courses
and to build a hotel. In the meantime his pumps were digging a
yacht basin as they were throwing up land for the low spots.
Collins, of course, was continuing with his bridge, •
and' it was opened in 1913 at about the time Fisher's first hotel
was nearing completion. The farming idea had slipped from the
minds of Collins and Pancoast by this time, and they were develop-
ing a portion of their remaining property for home sites and other
buildings.
Workmen and others attracted here by Fisher 's activities
had gained in sufficient numbers by 1915 and it was decided to
organize a city. Prior to this date Fisher 's development had
MIAMI BEACH NEWS SERVICE STEVE HANNAGAN ASSOCIATES
JOE COPPE,DIRECTOR
247 PARK AVENUE
CITY HALL BLDG., MIAMI BEACH, FLA. NEW PORI{, N. Y.
Page # 4 - Miami Beach History
been known as Alton Beach, and it was on March 26, 1915 that the
name was changed to• Miami Beach and a charter was granted.
J. N. Lummus, sr. , owner of nearly all of the ocean front
property from the Government Cut north, was the bity's first mayor
and a prime mover in getting the city started.
By 1915 Fisher had built a second hotel, the Flamingo,
and was starting another. His first hotel was the Lincoln at Wash-
ington Avenue and Lincoln Road, torn down in 1940 to make way for
the new Mercantile Building.
Between 1915 and 1920 Fisher was spending money so fast
for hotels, golf courses, polo fields and other development work
that his Indianapolis bank sent one of its Vice Presidents, James
A. Allison, to Miami Beach to see what this "crazy man" was doing.
Allison, a former partner of Fisher in the Indianapolis
Motor Speedway, watched the "crazy man" for a few days and then
invested half a million dollars of his own money and became one
of Miami Beach's greatest investors and substantial citizens. He
later erected an elaborate home on Star Island, built an aquarium
on the site where the Floridian Hotel now stands and built an en-
tire Island for the construction of St. Francis Hospital, which he
later donated to the Sisters of St. Francis.
About 1920 Fisher, Collins and Lummus started offering
their first properties for sale to the public. At first the idea
appeared a bit ridiculous to the more skeptical, but after a few
weeks of uneasiness lots began selling and a small land boom was
on.
Between 1920 and 1923 great strides were made in the
development of Miami Beach: and similar booms were under way
in other sections of the State. Real estate prices rocketed sky
high by 1924 and America's greatest spectacle was in progress.
Fisher 's five elaborate hotels had been completed by
this time and he was continuing with paved streets, white way
lighting, business buildings and other structures. It was said
at one time in 1925 that Fisher's original investment of eight
MIAMI BEACH NEWS SERVICE STEVE HANNAGAN ASSOCIATES
JOE COPPS,DIRECTOR
247 PARK AVENUE
CITY HALL BLDG., MIAMI BEACH, FLA.
NEW YORK. N. Y.
Page #5 - Miami Beach'History
or ten million dollars had earned $100,000,000. for him.
At the height of the boom in 1925 ocean front lots that
had been difficult to sell for $800 to $1,000. in 1920 were bring-
ing from $400,000 to $500,000 each, and none were available.
Today, incidentally, those same lots aro listed at $75,000 each.
This boom which brought people from all parts of America
to this area, naturally, had to end sometime. And it was well
into 1926 that the thousands of over-night real estate salesmen
and "binder boys" realized that there wouldn't bo any more easy
pickings here.
All of the real estate trading, however, wasn't on
paper. Besides the Fisher and Collins developments under way
in the early 20's others were erecting homes, apartments, hotels
and other structures. In 1922, for instance, about $1,500,000
worth of buildings were constructed here. The following year
more than $4,000,000 was spent for construction, and in 1924
permits were issued for over $7,000,000 worth of new structures.
The peak, however, was reached in 1925 when well over $17,500,000
was invested for buildings alone.
In 1926 the city of Miami Beach was visited by a devastt-
.tiw hurricane which did millions of dollars worth of damage,
and which, at the time, seemed as though it might break the
spirit of the pioneers and of those who had planned to remain here
through the reconstruction days that were to follow. This, how-
ever, was not the case. Storm debris was cleaned up. Damaged
structures were repaired and Miami Beach again started forward.
At the end of 1927 Miami Beach was again showing con-
siderable progress in the building of new homes and by 1929
another but smaller boom was about to start. Building that
year aggregated almost $8,000,000, but rapidly dropped to slight-
ly over $4,000,000 the following year when the stock market crash
was felt in Miami Beach.
The depression years between 1930 and 1935, naturally,
curtailed activity in Miami. Beach, yet there was a certain amount
MIAMI BEACII 1RWS SERVICE
STEVE IIANNAGAN ASSOCIATES
JOE COPPS,DIRECTOR
CITY HALL BLDG., MIAMI BEACH. FLA. Zai PARK AVENUE.
NEW YORK, N. Y.
Page #6 - Miami Beach History
of progress, and through a rigid economic program the city itself
maintained adequate health and safety measures and kept public
improvements moving and at the same time met all of its financial
obligations without default.
Again in 1935 Miami Beach showed signs of further progress
and the years to follow, probably, were the most prosperous with
the exception of the abnormal and hectic two years of 1924 and
1925.
Miami Beach in 1942 has almost 300 hotels and nearly
1,000 apartment buildings, and can accommodate approximately
90,000 visitors at any given time. It is estimated that over
250,000 people visited Miami Beach during the 1940-41 winter
season and accommodations have been added during the summer which
should swell that number to 300,000 this year.
In addition to being "America's Greatest Winter Resort"
Miami Beach is also becoming quite a well known summer vacation
City. During the past three or four years summer business has
increased to the extent that whereas a handfull of hotels remain-
ed open then nearly 200 are now operated on a year-round schedule.
During all of Miami Beach's rapid growth, uncertain per-
iods, depression years and fantastic booms the city has been
lucky in the selection of its officials who have operated the
affairs in a manner to attract favorable attention throughout
the financial world.
For instance, John Levi has served on the City Council
continuously since 1918, acting as President of the body a
large portion of that time and as Mayor for one term. The
present Mayor, Val C. Cleary, is a pioneer resident, having
served as Tax Assessor in 1922, Mayor in 1930, and Councilman
from 1934.
Collins died in 1929 at the age of 90; Fisher died in
1939. Levi, in 1942, is serving as Councilman, and Lummus is
retired.
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