Rambles

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A Miamian Visits Homestead in 1923

Article transcribed by Jeff Blakley

This article came from the July 31, 1923 issue of the Miami Herald and I thought it was a delightful piece that captured a sense of what Homestead was like in that era. The Seminole Cafe, adjacent to the Homestead hotel, was owned by Gussie Joiner (divorced from Jim English) and the Jarrett Coffee company was owned by Harvey Jarrett, husband of Gertrude Jarrett, a prominent member of the Miami Womans Club. The Co-Operative Mercantile Company was a grocery store. They offered “Everything in High Class Groceries” according to an advertisement that appeared in the Miami Herald on December 21, 1922. The J. U. Free building was around the corner from the Homestead hotel, on Flagler. The Horne building had just recently been completed. King’s Undertaking was at 209 N. Krome.

Who says folks in Homestead didn’t know how to have fun? The article is a column written by Edgar Hay, entitled Rambles.

Rambles

Homestead Impressions.

One hour and twenty minutes from Miami. Twenty-eight miles. The familiar yellow station. Diagonally across is the older business highway, Ingraham Highway, with the hotels and restaurants.

That’s me — bed and board — The Homestead hotel. Lady tells me to go up and take number 12. She is not feeling well and she can’t climb the stairs very well. Aw right, lady. I tip myself two-bits for bell-hop service.

Now to eat. The Seminole Cafe — the Square Meal Place. This must be the place I’ve heard about. All you can eat for a dollar. Phew! Wot a lotta food on the table. Fried chicken and two kinds of meat — three different kinds of beans — spinach (ah, Comment Column!) — potatoes, rice, cold slaw, avocado salad, corn muffins, pickles, okra — yep, it’s a square meal all right; cubic, in fact. If you ate everything, the corners would hurt. I see Jarrett Coffee company’s truck parked. It has come all the way from Miami with this hot weather confession on its side: “We Roast Daily.”

Stroll across the railroad. To the new business stem of Homestead — Krome avenue. Bank of Homestead. And the Horne building. And Burton’s 21,983 Article Sale — every article has a separate number — wonder if a pair of sox would have two numbers?

Autos parked slantwise at the curbs. New buildings elbowing the old ones with haughty snobbishness. There’s the Co-operative Mds. Co. — Wot does Mds. stand for? “Merchandise.” Ha — that’s how Editor Robards, of the Havana News, useta refer to The Galley conductor, MSD. Homestead Mercantile company — hardware, furnishings — wonder wot’s the abbreviation for “mercantile.” Citizens Bank building — wide and one story high. A drug store window sign: stop scratching — Use Unguentine soap. Why doesn’t that li’l white dog read that? The movie theater — with imposing arched entrance — one of the newer buildings — quite spiffy. Across the street is city hall building — fire station downstairs — city rooms on second floor — mayor of Homestead is Mr. S. E. Livingston.

Latest census of Dade county credits Homestead with a population of 1850. A town of small homes and comfortable grounds around ’em. New roads being built. New store buildings going up — J. U. Free building, Caves and Walker building, where Harris Motor company is gonna hang out their Ford shingle.

NEW high school. Opened last April. Catty-cornered from it is the grammar school — one of the most individual school buildings the kollum has noticed. Cluster of low red brick buildings with red-tile roofs. Auditorium in center. Radiating from the corners are the class-room buildings. All sides open to light and air. Something exotic, yet smacking of Florida — this school. Tennis court and baseball diamond adjoin the school ground. Children are brought by bus from outlying settlements: Florida City, Redlands and Silver Palm. 450 to 500 pupils on the rolls.

Clouds and rain. Home to the hostelry. A cigarette on the wooden veranda. The enjoyment of watching rain splash in the street. Hungry. Another cubic meal. Sunset. Night. Movies. After movies — a stroll along Krome avenue. Hesitate on the corner. Music — jazz music. I follow it down a side street. A shower of yellow falls through the darkness. Babble of voices from an upstairs balcony. Women’s laughter. Dark silent autos parked on both sides of the street. A Ford full of shirtsleeved young fellas.

“Is this a public dance goin’ on upstairs?”

“Yep — but it’ll cost ya a dollar. Luna Park orchestra from Miami is playin’ up there t’night.”

Clutching a dollar, I ascend the stairs. As I do, I notice a sign advertising the business located beneath the dance hall. It is an undertaker’s establishment!

Humm — pleasant thought: the dance of death. Hooray, let’s go. For my dollar, the young lady in filmy blue dress pins a pale lavender bow in my necktie. A turmoil of perspiring faces. All strangers to me. All the fellas have taken off their coats. Quite sensible. Think I’ll do the same. Well, I’ll wait awhile until I see if I get a dance. Girls and fellas sit on tables on the balcony — their feet on the benches. Gaiety and giddy bantering. Many ages represented. Most of the faces are smiling.

The music begins again. The inside room becomes a swirl of faces and hips and backs. A languorous girl in an Egyptian design dress. She would rather dance than eat, I’ll bet.

A THOUGHT is forming gradually in my mind: That you can read a person’s character in the manner of his dancing. Sometime I’ll try to work it out. At least, you can sense personalities in folks’ dancing.

The room becometh hot and oppressive. I squirm through a clutter of male wall-flowers and regain the porch. Not much air stirring.

A girl is smiling through in conversation with a middle-aged fella. As she glances at me, her face becomes suddenly sober. Mebbe my face scared her. Doggone it, I’m still thinking of that undertaker sign — that’s why. Don’t think I’ll dance after all. Get a nice tall limeade and then go to bed, with a few chapters of Ben Hecht to keep me awake.

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Homestead is the last filling station for the F. E. C. before it steps off to the south and across the keys to Key West. There are many little stops between Homestead and the Island City. Two trains of tank cars carry water to the little stops every day. Homestead is the filling station.

One of the most appreciated improvements in the town is the new swimming pool, which F. L. Webster has installed. There is a constant flow of spring water through the pool. Water first passes through pipes in the water plant (across the road) which removes the chill. There is a row of bath houses, for which a small fee is charged. The pool has become the popular rendezvous these warm afternoons, for Homestead is not within easy access of any beach.

EDGAR HAY

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The Campbell Furniture Building

Historic South Dade Posted on by

by Jeff Blakley

The building which once stood on the southwest corner of Krome and N.W. 1st Street was built in 1921 by J. W. Conner for Archie J. Campbell, one of Thomas Alexander Campbell’s sons, for whom Campbell Drive is named. It is pictured in the photograph at the top of this page, next to the Citizens Bank Building.

From the Homestead Enterprise, August 18, 1921, page 1:

Campbell Furniture Co. to Have New Home

Lack of room in their present quarters and the ever-present danger of fire, along with their confidence in our town, were the primary causes for the erection of the new Campbell Furniture Co. building. The proprietor, A. J. Campbell, has for several years owned the lot occupied by the Citizen’s Bank, and on this he intended to build. When the bank was built, he “swapped” for his present location, and now is realizing his ambitions to build a home for the Campbell Furniture Co. which he could take pride in.

The building which covers a space of 50 x 80 feet is being built of tile, and two stories in height. Mr. Campbell intended at first to only build one story, but when the opportunity came he decided on two. The second floor will be occupied by the offices of Dr. J. E. Shields and Dr. J. A. Smith, each having three rooms. The balance of the second floor will not be completed for the present, but used as store space.

The corner store, 25 x 80 feet will be taken by the Seminole Pharmacy. Complete sanitary fixtures are being installed for the soda fountain, and the location, just opposite the Citizens Bank, will be a vast improvement over their present stand.

The contract on the Campbell building is held by J. W. Conner, who has a number of buildings locally to his credit.

A floor plan of the building will be found on page four.

Campbell Furniture Building

The building was constructed of hollow clay tile, the same material that the J. D. Redd building (1922), soon to be razed by the City of Homestead, was built of.

J D Redd 1922

The J. D. Redd building is in the middle – the pink building – between Stick & Stein and the former Bank of Homestead building

Archie Campbell’s furniture business was on the ground floor on the south side of the building and the Seminole Pharmacy was on the north side. The Campbell Furniture Co. was purchased by the Gulf State Furniture Co., owned by M. C. Smith of Miami, in April of 1923. The store, the second one in a chain which would eventually number nine stores, held its grand opening on May 25, 1923. On June 20, 1927, the Gulf State Furniture Co. went into involuntary bankruptcy and was liquidated. Its assets were distributed to other furniture stores in Miami and the building in Homestead was shuttered. The Seminole Pharmacy later became Doc Brown’s drug store.

The Campbell Brothers building adjoined the Homestead Pharmacy building to the south. The Seminole Theater building (also built in 1921) was built for James W. English by Henry Brooker, Sr., the owner of the Homestead Mercantile Co. It was between the Homestead Pharmacy and the Homestead Mercantile Co.

Homestead Pharmacy

Homestead Mercantile (left) and Homestead Pharmacy (right)

The Campbell Brothers Furniture building was torn down and the site (plus half the right-of-way of Miller Street, which was later re-designated as N.W. 1st St.) became the south half of Losner Park. The north half of Losner Park is the other half of the right of way of Miller Street and where the Citizens Bank building once stood.

A photograph of the Campbell Bros. Furniture store in later years, when it was the location of Brown’s Drug Store. The photograph was taken by Ed Oberlies of the South Dade News Leader:

Screen Shot 2017 05 04 at 11 36 57 PM

History of the Homestead Town Hall

Historic South Dade Posted on by

by Jeff Blakley

The Town of Homestead was incorporated on January 27, 1913 but its officials had no municipal building in which to meet. They met at two different buildings before the Town Hall was built in 1917: Tatum’s Real Estate office on Railroad Avenue or in Sistrunk Hall, which was a wooden building located just west of the Bank of Homestead building at the southwest corner of Mowry and Krome.

Tatum s Real Estate Office

Tatum’s Real Estate Office on Railroad Avenue
Courtesy of the Florida Pioneer Museum

Sistrunk Hall was built in May of 1912, shortly after construction began on the Bank of Homestead building in March of that same year. It was built by Edward A. Sistrunk, who was from White Springs, Florida. He came to Miami as early as the winter season of 1905, where he was a “special police” officer at the Royal Palm Hotel. In 1906, he hired on with the City of Miami as a police officer.1 In January of 1907, he married Eva Lenora Carter2 and in the summer of 1909, he came to Homestead.3 His wife was a member of the Homestead Sewing Circle (the predecessor to the Homestead Women’s Club) in 1912 and he was a Marshal, along with Oscar Thomas, of the Town of Homestead in 1916.4 Sistrunk Hall was where various fraternal orders, churches and community groups met and it also had a movie theater which pre-dated the Seminole Theater. Sistrunk Hall, like so many other wooden buildings of that era, burned down in the early morning hours of August 31, 1916.

William J. Krome, representing the owners of the Commerce Addition, proposed a location for the new Town Hall on Krome Avenue north of Mowry.5 The Commerce Addition had been surveyed by Richard L. Bow, the son of Lily Lawrence Bow and platted by William J. Krome on September 30, 1914. Another group, headed by George W. Hall, proposed a location in the 250 – 400 block of S. Krome Ave. That location was part of his Hall’s Addition to Homestead (Miami-Dade County plat book 3, page 73). There was a considerable amount of time devoted to discussing the location for the new town hall before the Council narrowed down their options to either lots 7 and 8 ($700) or lots 11 and 12 ($600) of Block 1 of the Commerce Addition. By a vote of 4-3 on February 7, 1916,6 the Council decided to build the new Town Hall on lots 7 and 8 of Block 1 in the Commerce Addition. $300 towards the cost of the lots came from a private party, reducing the cost to the town to $400.

Commerce Addition

Commerce Addition to Homestead – 1914

The owners of the property were William J. Krome and his wife Isabelle, W. D. Horne and his wife Ida V., J. E. and Alice R. Miller, and Russell F. and Jessie Tatum. Russ Tatum was the first mayor of the Town of Homestead, a lawyer and the owner of a real estate company.

After the Commerce Addition was platted, it was purchased by the Homestead Realty Company.7 The Letters Patent of The Homestead Realty, Farms & Investment Company were applied for on October 3, 1916 by Henry R. Pridgen, President and Director; Archie J. Campbell, Vice President and Director; Russell F. Tatum, Secretary, Purchasing and Sales Agent and Director; Thomas A. Campbell, Director; and Henry Brooker, Sr., Director.8

In early August of 1917, George W. Hall sold his property in the Homestead area, consisting of 6 homes, 14 vacant lots and 40 acres of land in the Redland to Charles H. Woodbury for $22,0009 to Charles H. Woodbury. Woodbury was the father-in-law of Rev. Joseph A. Kahl, who founded the South Florida Banner, Homestead’s first newspaper, in 1912.

The new Town Hall building was designed by Harold Hastings Mundy, who was born in 1878 in Ontario, Canada but never became a naturalized U.S. citizen. He died in 1932 and is buried in the Hamilton Cemetery in Ontario, Canada. Mundy designed the addition to the Trinity Episcopal Church in Miami in 1923, the grandstand for the old Miami Baseball Stadium, Coconut Grove Elementary, Robert E. Lee Junior High and Miami Edison High Schools and numerous other buildings in Miami. He also designed the addition to the Homestead High School in 1925.10

Homestead High School

Courtesy of the Historic Homestead Town Hall Museum

The contract to build the town hall, costing $4,418, was awarded to John F. Umphrey on February 5, 1917. If the Town wanted doors on the building, the cost was an extra $815.11 He was the low bidder, having come in below a bid from a Miami company for $5,600 and a Florida City company for $6,574. Umphrey was a local contractor who built a number of local buildings, including what is now known as Neva King Cooper School. Two buildings that he built that have been demolished were the George W. Hall residence at 304 S. Krome Avenue, the first California Mission Bungalow built in 1916 and Homestead High School, demolished in the early 1980s.

The Town Hall building was mostly completed by August, according to an article that appeared in the August 16, 1917 issue of The Homestead Enterprise, but it did not have a septic tank yet. Fred Gidloff was awarded the $275 contract for the septic tank on December 3, 191712 and completed it in early April of 1918.13 The lack of sanitary facilities didn’t stop town officials from moving in, however. Business was conducted in the new town hall from early September, 1917 on. The first floor, where the fire truck is now on display, housed the fire and police departments. In the rear of the building were four jail cells – two on each side of an east-west corridor. The two on the north side were for White men and the two on the south side were for Black men. There was a separate wooden building in the parking lot behind the Town Hall that housed female prisoners.14 The second floor was where the municipal offices were located.

City Hall
Photograph courtesy of the Florida Pioneer Museum

In 1956, the Town Hall was remodeled after two city departments moved out. The police department moved to its new quarters just east of the municipal power plant. That building now houses the Homestead Utilities offices. The fire department moved to its new building on N.W. 2nd St. between N.W. 3rd and 4th Avenues. The jail cells were removed and the bottom floor was turned into office space for the growing city government.
City Hall 1957

Courtesy of the Historic Homestead Town Hall Museum

The Town Hall served the needs of the residents of Homestead for almost 60 years. A new city hall, which had been in the planning stages since 1964, was built at 790 N. Homestead Boulevard in 1975. Edward M. Ghezzi, a well-known Miami architect who had moved to Homestead and had an office in the Redd Building (1922), designed the new city hall after being awarded the contract to do so in November of 1973. Ghezzi also designed the Shark Valley overlook in Everglades National Park. The official dedication of the new city hall was on November 23, 1975. The bas relief mural on all four walls of the building was designed by Albert Vrana (1921-1994).

After the city vacated the old building, it was used as a senior citizen center and an office for the State of Florida’s parole and probation office until 1980, when the City of Homestead, at the behest of local merchants on Krome Avenue who wanted more parking, decided to demolish it. The vote on February 4, 1980 in favor of accepting $20,083 in federal funds to demolish the building was 4-2, with Mayor Nick Sincore and Councilmen Bill Dickinson, Bill McConnell and Tommy Wilson in favor and Irving Peskoe and Ruth Campbell in opposition. Councilman Watler Rutzke was absent. Those in favor of demolition claimed that a new building, to be built in Musselwhite Park for $60,000, would replace the space that the senior citizen center occupied and which would be lost by demolishing the old City Hall.15 Little thought was given to the history of the building. This decision resulted in a furious opposition movement, led by Peskoe and Campbell, which garnered donations of about $61,000 from the community and a State grant of $173,363 for the restoration of the building. Those community members who donated more than $250 are honored on an “Above and Beyond the Call” plaque mounted on the wall on the left side of the entrance to the Museum. The tiles on the wall, with the contributor’s names on them, honor those who contributed up to $250 towards the project.

Tiles

J. Robert Barnes, a Homestead architect whose family came here in 1919, was the architect of record for the restoration project, which was finished in late 1994. The Town Hall Museum opened shortly thereafter.

Town Hall Museum

Courtesy of Jeff Blakley

George Santayana is often quoted as having written that “those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” That wise saying applies to what the City of Homestead is now planning to do: to demolish the old Bank of Homestead building (1912) and the block of buildings to its south, including the Redd Building (1922) and the building where Fuchs Bakery got its start in 1913. This business block was platted in 1911 by John Ulric Free, one of the early pioneers of this area. Unfortunately for these buildings, there doesn’t seem to be a group of people passionate enough about their impending demolition to try to save them.
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Charles H. Gossman – Early Pioneer Tales

Historic South Dade Posted on by

The following article appeared in the October 3, 1918 issue of the Homestead Enterprise and is re-published here because it will be of interest to many of you who subscribe to posts.

The descendants of Charles H. Gossman married into the Caves, Chambers, Aman and Vihlen families, among others. The Gossman homesteads were on the east side of Tennessee Road between Coconut Palm and Silver Palm Drives. Henry claimed his first, on November 30, 1897 and Charles claimed his on February 8, 1898. Henry proved up on August 11, 1903 and Charles on August 13, 1903.

SOUTH DADE’S EARLY HISTORY
 
Concerning the Time when Deer were Numerous in the
 
Silver Palm Section but Neighbors Few
By Charles H. Gossman

If anyone should ask me what induced me to come to South Dade in 1900 the answer would be that I got tired of working on the construction gang for the F.E.C. and wanted to get a homestead for myself, before the best locations were taken. My job on the railroad took me away from home a good deal of the time, and that is why I wanted to locate a home where I would be near to my work.

In those early days George Land, a real estate agent of Miami, used to charge prospective settlers $5 to show them the best land open for location. The price was very reasonable, for Mr. Land was in a position to give the best advice in addition to acting as a guide. And was a guide needed? Well, I guess so. There were no roads, buildings or anything of the kind that would answer as a landmark then. Everything looked alike, and the prospector who strayed far without a compass stood a good chance of getting lost. All of the oldtimers knew what it was like to lose their bearings in those days. Even nowadays it isn’t a hard job to get lost in the everglades, a fact which is proven by recent events.

With Mr. Land as our guide we decided to make a ten-day trip to our homestead-to-be. Well, it was ten days and then some. The first thing to do was to stock up with provisions at the store at Cutler then kept by G. W. Moody, who later moved to Naranja.1 The stuff was loaded on a wagon and we had some sort of a road from Cutler to Black Creek;2 that is, we called it a road then, but after leaving that place it was a case of toting the balance of the journey. In crossing the prairie, the going was fairly good, providing there was not too much water. In case everything was afloat, as often happened, we had to push ahead and take chances on not getting bogged. Sometimes we made a bad guess and then there was trouble. Lots of things we thought very serious then we laugh at now.

Arriving at our destination we put up a tent picnic fashion and proceeded to enjoy life while our teamster returned to Cutler with the promise to return for us at the end of ten days. I don’t know whether the teamster got enough of it on the first trip or not — anyway he failed to return and so we had to start back without him.

Here’s where we bumped into some real trouble. We had our three boys with us then — Walter, who is now 24; Jesse, 26; and Adolph, 18. Adolph and Walter are now in Uncle Sam’s navy, fighting to down the huns, while Jesse is in France with the army. These lads were little fellows then, the oldest being only eleven, and they had to be helped along the journey by the older folks. It was a tough journey from our homestead to Cutler and part of the time we were afraid we would not reach the journey’s end that day. Fourteen miles is not a long day’s journey, under fair conditions, but think what we had to endure in traversing the rough trail and equally rough road, as well as the glades that were wet and muddy, and in places almost impassible. When we finally reached Cutler the party was about all in, and Mrs. Gossman said then that she never wanted to see or hear of that wild country again. Now, with our fine grove of 17 acres, our comfortable home and well-stocked farm, she says she would be the happiest woman in Florida if only the war were ended and her three boys were back on the homestead.

The following May we moved down to our homestead with a party composed of Will Anderson,3 Tom Jones, “Dad” Osborne, Walter Tweedell4 and his brother. We had the task of clearing C. W. Hill’s land5 and this was the job on which the party was to work. That winter we put two acres and a half in tomatoes from which we netted $1650,6 to our great surprise and delight. We packed the crop ourselves and delivered the tomatoes to Cutler, from which they were taken by boat to Miami. At that time there was no other way to reach Cutler except by water. The motorboat hadn’t made it’s (sic) appearance in these waters then and so we were compelled to depend on sailboats to transport our produce to Miami.

Our nearest neighbors were the Slavin brothers7 who lived at Black Point, seven miles away.8 But they were good neighbors at that and helped us out of a serious difficulty one time, when we were bogged on the glades.

Our first house was built of sawed lumber and was fairly comfortable, though rough. The material was hauled from Cutler by Will Anderson, 500 feet at a time. As my wife worked with me in the construction we used up the material faster than Mr. Anderson could get it to us. The first building was 20×22, two stories high, to which, six years ago, we added a new addition which gave us a roomy and homelike house.

Charles Gossman Family

Courtesy of Dave Gossman, via Ginger Pederson9

Began putting in my grove the second year and have kept adding to it ever since. Grapefruit and oranges are my mainstay.

There were no schools here in those early days, but three years after our arrival a small school with only ten pupils was started. Great improvements have since been made in this respect as is shown by our fine new Farm Life School which is only a short distance from our home.

When “Uncle Nick”10 came to our section he said he was going to put out a crop of beans, and he was advised not to do this as the deer, which were very plentiful then, would eat his crop before he had a chance to harvest it. But “Uncle Nick” said he would play a foxy trick on the deer. So he built a little shack for cover and when night came he was to lay in wait for the deer, armed with his trusty gun and a determination to kill any deer that tried to eat his beans. Getting under cover one dark night he watched and waited as patiently as he could for deer, but none came. Yet, when the sun arose, lo! and behold the beans were all neatly cropped to the ground by the deer, their tracks being seen everywhere. “Uncle Nick” solemnly declared he never slept a wink all night, but some of the boys say the sandman came along about midnight and threw a handful or so his way, and that was all there was to it. Be that as it may, the bean crop was gone. Also the venison that “Uncle Nick” liked as well then as he does today.

As I said, the deer were plentiful then. I have seen as many as a dozen at one time, all within easy rifle range. The Indians used to come here for the purpose of getting game and often camped on our land. They were good neighbors, but pretty thrifty beggars at that. We used to like them though. In fact, human beings of any description were welcomed when our numbers were so few.

But shortly after we came to our homestead new-comers began to drop in, locate their claims, and prepare to establish permanent homes. This made it pleasant for us. At one time all our provisions came from Cutler, fifteen miles away. Then gradually more stores were started, some of which were comparatively close. Then came churches and schools, and more of the refinements of civilization.

Pioneer life is rough and has many privations, but we enjoyed the early days because of the promise they gave of the future. While we look with pleasure on the past, and are content with the present and the prospects for the future, we think, had we known all there was in store for us we would have hesitated in making the first steps, although the outcome has been as favorable as it is.
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Article revised and photograph added on August 31, 2019.