1924 Fort Lauderdale Strip Map of Broward County, Florida

This is a 1924 Fort Lauderdale Chamber of Commerce map of the coast of Broward County, Florida. Produced at the height of the Florida Land Boom, the map highlights the region's communities, along with the Dixie Highway and the Florida East Coast Railway, emphasizing the ease of access for people interested in relocating to the area.

A Closer Look

Depicting the coast of Broward County with the west at the top, the Atlantic Ocean appears along the bottom border. The map illustrates Broward County from Deerfield south to Hallandale and identifies Pompano, Fort Lauderdale, Davie, Dania, and Hollywood. A bold red line highlights the Dixie Highway, and a thinner black line parallel to the highway marks the Florida East Coast Railroad. Schools and beaches, lakes, golf courses, orchards, farms, canals, and factories are also labeled.

Verso Content

A black-and-white map of Florida occupies the entire verso. Only Broward County is colored, with Fort Lauderdale prominently marked in bold red. Red lines highlight Florida's burgeoning highway network (a major advancement for the 1920s), reinforcing the possibilities open to those interested in relocating to Florida. The extensive canal network to Lake Okeechobee appears.

Florida Land Boom

In the late 19th and early 20th century, Florida experienced a series of land booms and crashes; the most well-known occurred in the 1920s. The collapse of a previous land boom that established Florida as a center for the citrus industry in the 1880s - 1890s allowed speculators high on the soaring stock exchange to acquire large tracts of land at cut-rate prices. Industrialist and founder of Standard Oil Henry Flagler (1830 - 1913) seized the opportunity to build his Florida East Coast Railway and extend it to the region that would become Miami and adjacent communities on the state's southeastern coast.

Flagler and other Florida boosters successfully promoted it as a paradisical escape from the grimy industrial cities and cold weather of New England and the Mid-Atlantic. Land prices shot up at an astronomical rate, and developers carved entirely new cities out of wetlands in mere months. In addition to Flagler's railway, the arrival of the highway system and associated businesses (gas stations, motels, restaurants, etc.) in the 1920s made Florida more easily accessible. Nonetheless, speculation around land prices in Florida had reached irrational heights, and the damage caused by two hurricanes, followed by the financial crash of 1929, led to a collapse in the real estate market, ruining countless investors in the process.

Publication History and Census

This map was compiled and published by the Advertising Committee of the Fort Lauderdale Chamber of Commerce. We note a single cataloged example, which is part of the collection at the University of Florida. A different edition is part of the collection of the Touchton Map Library at the Tampa Bay History Center.