South Florida was one of the last places to be settled in the U.S. In the late 1890s ninety percent of the Florida population lived within 50 miles of Georgia. At that time there were very few settlements in Miami-Dade and one of them was Coconut Grove where Bahamian wreckers lived. Bahamian wreckers made a living out of aiding and salvaging wrecked ships. In 1894 Napoleon Bonaparte Broward was elected governor of the state of Florida. Broward realized that Florida had great growth and he set out to maximize it. Broward began to drain the swamps throughout Florida to create usable dry land and he offered incentives to the railroads to build the tracks into Florida past Jacksonville. Henry Flagler, a railroad tycoon entrepreneur who owned the Florida East Coast Railroad built a railroad from St. Augustine to Palm Beach in order to ship oranges and grapefruit to the north, and bring tourists to the south. Every 100 miles Flagler stopped the railroad and built a yellow wooden resort hotel. Julia Tultle and Mary & John Brickell all wealthy landowners convinced Henry Flagler of extending his railroad down to the Miami River. According to the legend, the frost of 1895 destroyed most of the orange crops in central and northern Florida, Julia Tutle sent a letter to Flagler with an orange blossom contained within, and she promised that if Flagler brought the railroad down to Miami, both she and the Brickells would give him half of their land. Soon after, Flagler brought the railroad down to the Miami River where he built Royal Palm Hotel. 1891, Flagler together with the Brickells and the Tutles, incorporated the City of Miami in 1891. The history of Miami Beach begins with Carl G. Fisher, real estate developer from Ohio who moved to South Florida and built a beach on Miami Beach in the early 1900s. Fisher joined hands with John Collins and the Lummus Brothers in the establishment of Miami Beach as an independent city of Miami. In 1909, the Lummus Brothers donated their oceanfront property to the city and Lummus Park was opened. On March 26, 1915, Collins, Lummus, and Fisher realized their dream of building an independent city with the incorporation of the Town of Miami Beach. Soon thereafter major developments began to take place. In 1918 the Mac Arthur Causeway was completed, and in 1920 Miami Beach began to boom. Many wealthy families began to build homes on South Beach; among them were Harvey Firestone, J.C. Penney, and many more. In the 1930s an architectural craze swept over South Beach bringing with it Art Deco, Streamline Moderne, and Nautical Moderne Architecture to the Beach. By the early 1940s the population of South Beach had surpassed 25,000. In 1966, when Jackie Gleason brought his weekly variety series to Miami Beach for taping South Beach became even more famous. During the 70s and 80s however, the city entered a period of recession. South Beach became a retirement community with most of the ocean front hotels and apartment buildings filled with retirees who lived on small fixed incomes. It was also during this time that the "cocaine cowboys," drug dealers began to use Miami Beach as a base for their operations. The TV series Miami Vice and the film Scarface were filmed in Miami Beach and both became nationwide hits with plots that highlighted the drug empire and violence that were emblematic of Miami Beach at that time. However, rather than harming Miami Beach's popularity, they helped it soar to unprecedented heights. In the late 1980s a renaissance began in South Beach. Many fashion designers, photographers, and models moved into South Beach and began using the area as a setting for their photo shoots. This trend helped bring South Beach out of recession and helped it reach an iconic status in entertainment. Today South Beach is one of the premier entertainment destinations in the world filled with scores of nightclubs, restaurants, and luxury hotels. Citations Moreno, Dario. "In-class notes," Jan. 2006: South Beach.Wikipedia Encyclopedia On-Line. 2006. Wikipedia The Free Encyclopedia. 18 June 2006.
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