THE MAN WHO BUILT MIAMI BEACH

the following program is a production of WL RN public television sailing from Key West in 1870 Henry Lum and his son Charles so coconut arms swaying on what is now Miami Beach they both ran from the federal government of 25 cents an acre and built the featuresfirst home it was a barrier and insulin not even an island not until the early 1920s when I cut was made of Baker's Haulover it had tall mangroves on the bay side the interior was concave and it collected a lot of water there mangroves and the interior it was a swamp and the Oceanside was a windswept Beach and it needed a lot of work to make it would have became the beach itself was almost deserted a place where early Miamians could enjoy the Atlantic Ocean their ferryboat service came off at today's Flagler Street on the bay front and take you right over here and you would disappoint from this very boat on the bass side southern tip and you'd walk across this wood frame ramp through a jungle over to the ocean set the lumps tried to farm coconuts but the plantation failed when wind and rats destroyed the young trees so it was a kind of a forlorn godforsaken experiment a New Jersey pioneer named John Collins bought the property he had a better idea than coconuts and planted exotic produce like mangos tomatoes and avocados Collins said about taming the swamp clearing its mangroves and its rats he planted an avocado orchard that straddled today's Arthur Godfrey Road he planted these Australian pine trees are very fast growing the very shallow rooted as wind blocks many of those trees in fact our on Pine Tree Drive today a canal was cut to move the crops across the peninsula to a ferry that connected it to the mainland Port of Miami across Biscayne Bay there the railroad built by industrialist Henry Flagler took the farthest north his south bank trains brought tourists and settlers looking for a slice of a new tropical paradise Miami was already a going city by this time Miami in 1910 and 5,500 people this was now the age of the automobile and it would bring within another million with a vision to transform the beach into the playground to death karl fischer was an autoparts mogul from indiana he made the first practical automobile headlights that sold the company for a fortune self-made daredevil a great visionary one of the more incredible stories in the America of the early 20th century by the time he's 23 or 24 he's got the biggest car dealership in Indianapolis which was an important course center at that time Fischer loved to be behind the wheel and he built a Speedway in Indianapolis to race cars he laid a lot of money on that track he put down a wood base and that thing just kind of flew all over the place and there were accidents calor he was mortified in fact the first race was unsuccessful and he came back within a year and built this good masonry base for bricks race fans dubbed it the Brickyard Fischer a born salesman proclaimed it the most spectacular sports event in the world at the time most paved roads petered out the dirt tracks at the edge of towns Fisher persuaded automakers like Henry Ford to finance the first major highway the Lincoln Highway from New York to San Francisco it went to areas that had never before seen a road period and he understood that the car was going to transform transportation and American industry but before it could do that you needed roads so let's link this country next he turned his eyes South but paradise beckoned the clonally motorists could get that it's all about tourism the tourist center of Florida prior to Miami become in the city in 1896 was Jacksonville st. Augustine but by the early 1900's it's clearly Miami South Florida within two more years Fisher had built the Dixie Highway opening the floodgates to Sun seekers and investors from the industrial north it was a subscription road if a city wanted it you had to pay part of the cost of constructing that road in his today's North East Southeast second heaven right in the heart of Miami John Collins me know I had a vision of his own to connect Miami Beach with the mainland by building a road bridge across the bay but half a mile from completion he ran out of money fish has stepped in to bankroll the final stretch and in return he got a 200 acres slice of Collins's land the Collins bridge joined Miami Beach for the Venetian causeway as today I back behind me and then the Collins canal runs all the way past the Holocaust memorial out to the eastern part of today's Miami dish when it opened in 1913 it was the longest wooden bridge in the world with the land link in place Fischer could see a golden future so could the Collins clamp especially the business man's son-in-law Thomas pencast together with a consortium of Miami bankers led by the Loomis brothers they began to plan a resort city these guys combined their companies call its Miami Beach improvement company Fisher the Alton Beach Realty the Lummis brothers the Ocean Beach Realty these three companies came together in 1915 and incorporated as a town the coments clan from new jersey envisioned a southern atlantic city fisher on the other hand saw the beach as a winter retreat for the rich and famous his vision early on was a place where these Gilded Age Prince's like himself to have big estates and many of them are like him they came out of a hardscrabble that day and now they had money and they were throwing around an army of Engineers descended on the beach with heavy equipment to clear the land even a couple of elephants to help with the heavy lifting dredgers deepened channels refilling the swamps in Compton Vaibhav in order to fill in that concave area under to eliminate the chance of water collection again and so now you were ready you've got the stage fish' built an opulent Bayfront Hotel the Flamingo where the wealthy could stay while dimensions were built and it was the last word hotels I mean it faced the bay it had a big Park and Recreation Area on east of it it was just a west of West Avenue at around 14th or 15th Street the hotel stood where today's will mingle apartment buildings are Mattel's recreational ground for today's Flamingo Park the tennis complex of today over here were the Polo Grounds on Ocean Drive in 22nd Street he opened his Roman Forum to casino a baby casino is a place where you got a Cabana you usually have a pool you've got the beach the waters of the Atlantic Ocean right here you can get something to eat something to drink it's a glorified Cabana the Nautilus built 1923-24 Mount Sinai Medical Center is today I mean that was even more spectacular than the Flamingo just east of it was a golf course and a Pollock field at one time there were more polo fields and golf courses on the beach than schools and churches Fischer played polo himself he was an avid all-around sportsman but his abiding passion was always speed and he loved to race boats on Biscayne Bay when he wasn't racing himself he could watch the regattas from the grounds of his opulent Bayfront mansion from its tower he could view the new resort city as it rose all around him Fischer was a great showman rosy one of his elephants joined the sales team Fischer was a genius at generating publicity rosy Candide for golfers including president warren g harding sometimes she cheated up herself and that went out all over the country you know the Sunday papers and pictures and captions and all and she was very famous fish' advertised Miami Beach as paradise for sale in the winter of 1918 he put a billboard in Times Square that's where you wanted the people to come from the snowy north with money bathing bells added their real buyers from south JCPenney bought an estate so did tire company magnate Harvey Firestone back in 1903 the government had cut a channel through the beach to create better access to the Port of Miami the cut preyed on an island that Carl Fisher took a liking to and purchased and in fact as Phil Paris's name to shore island somewhere along the way the millionaire William K Vanderbilt brought his large fabulous yacht to the island Fisher saw it fell in love and instantly approached Vanderbilt and said my Island for your boat met the kind of wave deals were made in those days Collins Avenue became the first paved Boulevard running north to south Fisher cut a swath eastward through the mangroves to build at Lincoln Roland Fisher's realty office on Lincoln Road was at this building behind me later it was the site of the van Dyck cafe Fisher would bring perspective buyers in real estate to the penthouse up top look at this bear landscape in front of this I see that piece of land over there that can be used a county causeway eventually connected Miami to the beach at 5th Street in 1942 it was renamed the MacArthur Fisher built a troll ecosystem to complete the mainland link see he understood that if you don't have a car you got to get a ride somehow across there unless you want to swim so he's the guy that instituted circa the beginning the 1920s a trolley system that was very expensive Fisher owned his own power plant later taken over by Florida Power and Light because how are you gonna sell real estate if you don't have power or bring tourists down everything you need it he tried to have in place the pristine barrier island that had once attracted a passing sailboat had been transformed into a thriving City the boom reaches peak in the summer of 25 and it was phenomenal it was a talk of the nation at least the eastern part of United States I mean land that had been going for nothing was suddenly selling for everything and building permits were crazy and then for a host of reasons that boom began to collapse by the latter part of 25 certainly in 26 by June of 26 it's over around the same time nature took its revenge on all this development the mighty hurricane September 17th 18 just smashed right into my knee beast and then it turns west right through downtown Miami past the northern edges of Coral Gables out into the Everglades a lot of people got trapped out in the garden Cosway it cause was much more narrow than it was a bulkheaded and that water surges took in its destruction was terrible there were thousands left homeless the houses and buildings went down or were damaged 130 people in Dade County died and that just ensured that boom wasn't coming back the crash of 29 brought on the Great Depression and an end to the extravagance of the Roaring Twenties the timing of the crash couldn't have been worse for Carl Fisher he was over invested in his latest scheme to create a northern Miami Beach on the eastern tip of Long Island start market crash and that was it he lost almost everything Fisher sold his opulent home in typical fashion he quipped that it took too long to get to the front door anyway and out living in a small apartment somewhere on South Beach and that's where he passed away alcohol had destroyed his liver when he died in 1939 at the age of 65 mourners paid tribute to him as one of the great visionaries of his time they placed a memorial on Alton Road there is a little bust of him in a park on Alton Road and it really attributes to him what should that he carve a great city out of a jungle sadly there's little else in mind maybe to recognize assist prevent his contributions to the city is largely a forgotten man Fisher himself dismissed the notion that he was a man of vision he was more into it for the achievement for the challenge he preferred to say that he was just a guy who liked to see the dirt fly you know questions honey I'm in a best friend ever hey I try to be good you

Channel: WLRN Public Radio and Television

Views: 61,222

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Id: n5tAn5ontyk

Length: 14min 35sec (875 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 09 2015