Detroit, Florida, in 1911

Historic South Dade Posted on by

by Jeff Blakley

In the spring of 2018, Sheldon Cunningham, a grandson of one of the early settlers in Detroit, Florida (the name was changed to Florida City in 1914), contacted me seeking more information about his grandparent’s time here. We had a very productive collaboration that resulted in Sheldon writing and publishing the two booklets below. Sheldon supplied the photographs and the background on his family and I did most of the research, using newspaper articles and a lot of previous information I had gathered on the history of Detroit. I also provided documents to Sheldon that are owned by the Historic Homestead Town Hall Museum and contacted a member of the Shields family who kindly provided information about her family. Both booklets are copyrighted by Sheldon Cunningham. You may not use any of the information or photographs in the booklets without the express written permission of the author. Please contact me, Jeff Blakley, using the Contact tab on this website, for Sheldon’s contact information.

Detroit, in contrast to Homestead, which was platted by the Model Land Company, Flagler’s real estate holding company, was a community that was planned by the Tatum Brothers, one of whom, Bethel B., had come to Miami in 1900. They were relentless in their advertising, which gave many people the impression that Detroit was the closest place to Paradise to be found in Florida. The reality, as you will discover when you read Sheldon’s booklets, was somewhat different.

Detroit Pioneers
Courtesy of the Florida Pioneer Museum

This is a photograph of the first group of settlers, described in the newspaper article below, who arrived in Detroit on October 29, 1910. There was no station at the time, just a platform stop.

The first book, The A. R. Cunningham Family Moving to Florida in 1911 to Grow Tomatoes, is the story of Sheldon’s grandparents and father as a young boy in Detroit. Arthur Cunningham was a pharmacist who, as the article that appeared in The Miami Metropolis below states, had no practical knowledge of farming. The booklet relates the time-line of the Cunningham family adventure and is a very interesting read. The Cunninghams, who arrived in early 1911, were not among the earliest settlers, who arrived in late October of 1910.

The second book, Ella May Cunningham’s Photos of Life in Detroit, Florida in 1911, is a compilation of photographs taken by Sheldon’s grandmother with a Brownie box camera. Sheldon and I worked for quite some time, unearthing the background information about some of the people in the photographs. By providing wider access to this document, I hope that other people interested in early Detroit might be able to make some contributions also.

Both of these short booklets and the addendums to them can be downloaded by clicking on this link: Detroit, Florida in 1911.

From the Miami Metropolis:

FROM DETROIT, MICH., TO DETROIT, FLA., THE FIRST PULLMAN GOES
THROUGH SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT WITH THE RAILROAD COMPANY MIAMI REAL ESTATE FIRM GETS COMMISSION FOR TRAIN TO STOP AT COLONY

“The first through Pullman from Detroit, Mich., to Detroit, Fla., arrived in Miami yesterday morning and today continued to its destination, there having been a special permit granted by the railroad company for it to stop at the new town.

“In the party aboard the car, were twenty-two grown people and eight or ten children, all of whom are to live at Detroit. Yesterday morning, they were met at the Miami station by Mr. B.B. Tatum and entertained most pleasantly all day.

“The forenoon was spent on the beach and in the afternoon five automobiles took the party on a rapid ride over much of the country near Miami and over all parts of the city. This being the first visit to this section for most of the crowd, their expressions of surprise and their many questions were delightful to hear and at the close of the day, Dade county had about thirty more enthusiastic citizens.

“It is the intention of the party, all of whom own land near Detroit and town lots there, to build houses as speedily as possible and most of the ladies will probably return to Miami until the dwellings can be erected.

Already several shacks have been built and next week a saw mill is to be established in the town where lumber may be secured conveniently.

“The plans for their farming enterprises are very interesting. There is probably not a practical farmer in the party, most of the men being members of some profession who have spent most of their lives in city offices. The idea, however, is to farm on communal lines with a superintendent chosen for his knowledge of successful farming in this part of the world who will instruct the new comers in all the many details of South Florida trucking.

“A powerful ditching machine is enroute from the factory, which will be used in the Detroit territory and the planting of an immense tract of land will be begun at once.

“At the rate the new settlers for Detroit are arriving it will soon be one of the large towns of Dade county and with their ideas for improving and beautifying the place, it will soon be one of the prettiest settlements in South Florida.”1
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Hupmobiles in Homestead

Historic South Dade Posted on by

by Jeff Blakley

A friend recently posed a question to me about Glen Simmons that I could not answer so I set out to do so. Laura Ogden is the authority on Glen Simmons but I did not have ready access to her books, Gladesmen and Swamplife, both available through online booksellers. I started looking in the local newspapers for information about Glen and discovered that his father, James, was killed in an automobile accident in 1928 involving a Hupmobile driven by A. B. Cain. Algeron Benjamin Cain, Jr. was driving west at sundown on the East Glade Road (now known as East Mowry) in his Hupmobile and Glen’s father was a passenger in a truck driven by his 15-year-old son, Alvin, who was headed south on N. E. 2nd Road. Glen’s father was ejected from the truck in the accident and died of a broken neck.

I had known that Homestead had a Hupmobile dealership in the 1920s but knew nothing more about it. This post is about Hupmobiles, the owner of the dealership, M. E. Fletcher, and his relationship with the subject of my previous post, Stephen M. Alsobrook.

Mark Edward Fletcher was born on April 10, 1891 in Helena, Telfair County, Georgia, the son of James C. Fletcher and Martha B. Humphreys. In June of 1917, he was a flagman on the Georgia, Florida and Alabama Railway in Richland, Georgia. He and Annie Irene Alsobrook, the daughter of Stephen M. Alsobrook, were married in Silver Palm by the Rev. O. C. Seevers of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South on March 3, 1915.1 They moved back to Richland, where his first two children, Martha Corine and Milton Olynthus, were born. He then moved to Bainbridge, in Decatur County, Georgia, where his last two children, James Alsobrook and Thomas Stephen, were born. Thomas was born on February 21, 1922 so Mark did not come back to South Florida before then.

By 1922, Mark’s father-in-law, Stephen M. Alsobrook, had become quite wealthy through real estate speculation and had built the Alsobrook Filling Station, located on the southwest corner of Krome and N. 2nd Street in Homestead.2 Mark and his family apparently decided to move to Homestead to become rich like so many other people were doing. Shortly after he arrived in Homestead, his father-in-law set Mark up in business as a Hupmobile dealer.

On March 13, 1925, The Homestead Enterprise reported that “M. E. Fletcher has re-opened the garage building opposite the Enterprise office and is establishing his Hupmobile agency there. Mr. Fletcher announces that he will improve the building both inside and out.”

Hupmobile

Courtesy of the Florida Pioneer Museum

Fletcher’s Hupmobile agency was in the building at the left center in this photograph, the one that has the sign for J. I. Case Tractors on the side. This photograph was taken from the top of the Horne Building, a three-story building erected in 1923. The Bank of Homestead was enlarged in 1925, so this photograph was taken sometime between late 1925 and late 1926, when the ’26 hurricane caused significant damage to the Homestead business district. The Enterprise building is the tile-block building visible behind the Homestead Mercantile Co. building.

Mark only had a 9th grade education but with his father-in-law’s support, he became a member of the Redland Realty Board, with offices in the Alsobrook Arcade3 and established himself as a realtor.

Fletcher operated his dealership out of the garage building until October of 1925, when he sold the building to Dexter Smith.4 He moved his business to 414 N. Krome Avenue and advertised that location in the newspaper in April of 1926.5

On September 18, 1926, a severe hurricane struck Miami and also caused a lot of damage in Homestead. In October, Hupmobiles were being advertised by the Gordon Thompson Motor Co. at 103 N. Krome Avenue and by the Fletcher Motor Co., possibly because Fletcher’s business had been damaged by the storm.

The Fletcher Motor Co. was advertising the new Hupmobile Eight for $1945 to $2595 f.o.b. Detroit. Hupmobile had manufactured a 4 cylinder model from 1909 until 1925 and the eight cylinder model was new for the 1926 model year.

Hupmobile Eight

Hupmobile Eight

Courtesy of Sotheby’s Auction House

On November 2, 1926, Fletcher advertised the Hupmobile Six for $1385. The price for the sedan, coupe, and roadster were all the same and the touring car was slightly less expensive at $1325.

1929 Hupmobile 6

1929 Hupmobile Six

Courtesy of Dean H., Antique Automobile Club of America

The Citizens Bank of Homestead, which was next door to the Alsobrook Arcade, opened on October 6, 19206 and failed on July 2, 1926.7 But the Bank of Homestead was still in business, though it would also close on June 17, 1927.8 Fletcher did not advertise much in 1927, possibly because he had as much business as he could handle. On November 8, 1927, the Homestead Leader noted that he would be showing the new 1928 Hupmobile models in his showroom at 414 N. Krome Avenue.

Both banks in Homestead were struggling to reorganize and re-open but neither succeeded. They were both granted multiple extensions by the State Banking Board but neither was able to raise sufficient funds to re-open. By the middle of 1928, the hopes of businessmen and citizens had been dashed and without a bank, economic activity in Homestead started to decline. No mention of the Fletcher Motor Company was made by the local newspapers in 1928 but several mentions of Stephen Alsobrook and Mark Fletcher in 1929 indicate that they had moved back to Tifton, Georgia.

An interesting note appeared in the August 29, 1929 issue of the Homestead Leader which stated that William Nobles had been arrested on a charge of making moonshine at his house “three doors west of Sixth avenue on King’s Highway.” Nobles was the owner of the meat market in Homestead before Charles T. Fuchs purchased it in 1913 and he also platted Nobles Addition to Homestead in 1913. Times were tough.

On September 28, 1929, a Category 3 hurricane struck Tavernier in the Florida Keys, causing significant damage to business buildings in Homestead. “The garage and show room building of the Fletcher Motor Co., on North Krome avenue, between N. W. Fourth and Fifth streets, crumbled under the force of the winds …”9 and that put the finishing touches on the saga of the Hupmobile in Homestead. C. C. Cooper, formerly with Fletcher Motor, advertised that he was “at [his] old stand – Garage in rear of 15 N.W. 2nd Second St.”10 and then, on November 21, 1929, it was reported that “M. E. Fletcher arrived Saturday from Fitzgerald, Ga., to wind up his business affairs in order that he may make his future home in Fitzgerald.”

In 1931, the Homestead Rotary Club donated $25 towards the cost of clearing the wreckage of the Fletcher Motor Co. building and a tennis court was built on the site, which was was owned by Stephen M. Alsobrook.11 The tennis court was later demolished when Robert E. “Lefty” Sherard built his dry cleaning business there.

The history of Homestead is one of dynamism – people constantly coming and going, most of them leaving no trace of their stay here. The history that has been told in the past about this area is very biased towards the upper and middle-classes but we must remember that history is told by the victors, not by the defeated. One of my motivations in writing about the history of this area is to tell the story of the “defeated.”
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The Alsobrook Arcade

Historic South Dade Posted on by

by Jeff Blakley

The existing books about the history of South Dade, which include Jean Taylor’s The Villages of South Dade, Paul George’s A Journey Through Time and Robert J. Jensen’s From Railroad Boom to Sonic Boom, only hint at the social forces of class and race in their coverage of the history of this area. However, a close study of the remaining fragments of documentary evidence of the past in this area reveals a story that has been glossed over: a story of transience and social conflict. Thousands of people came to this area, stayed a very short time, and left. In this post, I am going to use the story of one man, Stephen Miller Alsobrook, who built the Alsobrook Arcade in Homestead, to show how transient this area has always been. Singling out one man doesn’t prove anything because thousands of others did the same thing. However, this essay may provide a starting point for others to develop this theme more fully.

Krome Avenue

The Alsobrook Arcade
Photograph courtesy of Robert C. Bow

The Alsobrook Arcade is the building on the left, with the half-round architectural element at the top of the front wall, next to the Citizens Bank Building. It opened on December 13, 1928. The next building north, with the awning, is the McCrory’s 5 & 10 Store.

Stephen M. Alsobrook first appears in the census records in 1870, age 8, living with his sister Addie, age 12, in the household of King C. and Nancy Alsobrook Timmons, in Lanes Creek Township, Union County, North Carolina. King’s wife was Ann C., not Nancy – the enumerator made a mistake in entering her name. King owned 16 slaves in 1860 and was a postmaster in Union County from 1852-1855. Ann was the daughter of Lemuel and Sarah Elizabeth Alsobrook of South Carolina. Stephen’s parents were William M. Alsobrook and Louisa Timmons. King C. and Ann Alsobrook Timmons were his maternal grandparents. Cora J. Lowry, the future wife of Stephen, was the daughter of James A. and Flora A. Timmons Lowry. Flora’s parents were King and Nancy/Ann Alsobrook Timmons. Stephen and his wife’s parents are buried in the Montverde Cemetery in Lake County, Florida. Stephen next appears in the 1900 census of Montverde in Lake County, Florida, the same place that the Charles F. Ingram family, early South Dade pioneers, came from. In 1900, he was married to Cora and his children were James William, Irene and Addie. His son Charles, who also played a role in the history of Homestead, was born in 1901.

Sometime between 1901 and 1904, Stephen’s wife Cora died, perhaps due to complications from childbirth1 and he moved, with his children, to Modello, now known as Dania, in what was to become Broward County. There, he bought 40 acres of land in sections 2 and 3 in township 51 south, range 42 east and 5 lots in the newly platted town of Modello for a little over $600,2 which would be about $17,000 in 2017 dollars. Stephen was one of the freeholders who signed “a charter calling for Dania’s incorporation.”3 Arriving early, Stephen got in on the ground floor of real estate speculation in the area and made a fortune buying and selling property in the years after 1904. A brief mention in the Miami Daily Metropolis on October 26, 1906 read, “Mr. S. M. Alsobrook has purchased the hotel formerly called Wisconsin Hotel and has also bought a large tract of land near Dania. Mr. Alsobrook is one of our largest real estate dealers here.”

The first known mention of Stephen Alsobrook in Homestead appeared in the The Weekly Miami Metropolis on May 31, 1912, when it was noted that he had purchased lots 11, 12 and 17 (37 1/2 acres) of J. U. Free’s homestead for $1,000.4 In 1914, he bought lots 7 and 8 of W. D. Horne’s subdivision from Leonard S. Mowry, Sr.5 A few months later, it was reported that S. M. Alsobrook planned to erect a two-story concrete building, 100′ x 100′, on Krome Avenue.6 The ground floor was “to be occupied for store buildings and the upper for a rooming house.” This building likely did not get built, though. In 1915, he left his grove in Homestead and returned to his farm in Dania, where he raised Berkshire and Poland China hogs.7 He may have returned to Dania to live, but he did not sell his grove in Homestead because another article in the newspaper stated that grapefruit from his grove was part of a shipment packed by W. D. Horne’s packing house in 1916.8

In July, 1919, Stephen platted Alsobrook’s Addition to Homestead, which is located south of S.W. 2nd Street, west of the busway. It is bordered by J. U. Free’s Addition on the the north and is recorded in book 4 on page 171 of the records of Miami-Dade County.

Alsobrook s Addition

Alsobrook’s Addition

In 1921, Stephen Alsobrook made his largest and most profitable real estate transaction when he sold 400 acres for $250,000 to Joseph W. Young, who developed the tract into the city of Hollywood.9

Stephen’s son, Charles, was a principal in the Miami Oil Company, distributors of “Marathon, Texaco and Mioco Oils and Greases,” located at 71 -75 N. E. 24th St. in Miami.10 In 1922, Stephen invested $5,000 in Homestead, building the Alsobrook Filling Station in Homestead11 at the southwest corner of N.W. 2nd Street and Krome Avenue, where Jacobsen’s now stands. Charles owned the filling station. Henry Peters, who worked for the Homestead municipal power plant, was one of their employees.12 In early 1924, Archie J. Campbell purchased the station from Charles M. Alsobrook and on May 1, the name was changed to the Central Filling Station, managed by B. D. Brown and C. C. Weaver, long-time friends from southwest Georgia.13 It was known as the Central Filling Station at least as late as December 25, 1930, when an advertisement for the business with that name was published in the Homestead Leader, so that dates the photograph below to sometime after that date.

Central Filling Station

Central Service Station
Courtesy of the Florida Pioneer Museum

In this photograph, you can clearly see the McCrory’s 5 & 10 store with the awning across the entire front of the building and the Alsobrook Arcade next door to it to the south.

Here is a closer look at the Alsobrook Arcade and the McCrory’s Store next door:

Krome Avenue Looking South

McCrory’s and the Alsobrook Arcade
Courtesy of the Florida Pioneer Museum

Late in 1924, Alsobrook had plans drawn up for the Alsobrook Arcade. The building was already under construction in January, 1925, when he changed his mind and decided to build a “fifteen-foot aisle from Krome to the alley in the rear, with small stores on each side.”14 According to the newspaper article, there was “a popular demand for this type of building in Homestead, as there are a number of real estate brokers, as well as small shops, which take up all these spaces before they are built.” One of the rooms in the arcade was leased by Thomas Piché and Virgil M. Grennell, principals in the firm of Piché & Grennell, agents for the new development of Redondo, at the southeast corner of Redland Road and King’s Highway.15 Another space was leased by Starr-Coleman, developers of Plaza Coronado, on Avocado Drive just west of the Dixie Highway. An advertisement in the Miami News on January 14, 1925 promised that the “purchase of a lot in Plaza Coronado today means quick profit!” Other tenants included Froscher and Rutland, Realtors; Carr & McFadden, Civil Engineers; Rockhill & Bird, Realtors; Russell & Dickinson, Realtors; June Baker, Notary Public; William Karl Walton, grove developer and realtor; Sherwood Hodson, another realtor; Edward C. Loveland’s Redland Sales Co., the Redland District Realty Board,16 Peninsula Jewelry Co., a Singer sewing machine store, the office of Dr. B, F. Stebbins, the Elite Hat Shoppe and McKinley “Mac” Hardee’s shoe store. The Bird in Rockhill & Bird was Preston B. “Bunny” Bird. Edward Loveland’s wife, Agnes, played an important role in the construction of the lodge in Royal Palm State Park. Dr. Bertrand F. Stebbins wife, Edna, was the daughter of Tom and Floretta Evans, one of the early owners of the Redland Hotel. Mac’s wife was Gerda Fread, the daughter of Leonidas, who came to Homestead in 1911 and platted Fread’s Addition to Homestead.

In 1927, the Lockerby building, adjacent to the Alsobrook Arcade on the north, was purchased by McCrory’s 5 & 10 so that it could be converted into a new store in their growing empire, which ultimately comprised about 1,300 stores. At the same time, they also purchased the Alsobrook Arcade, later renaming it as the McCrory Arcade before removing the dividing wall and incorporating the space into its department store. McCrory’s 5 & 10 was founded by James G. McCrorey in Scottdale, Pennsylvania in 1882.

There is not much documentary evidence about Stephen Alsobrook for the years 1926 – 1930 but he and his wife apparently lived in Miami at 141 N. E. 20th St. and monitored their investments in other places. A brief mention of the couple in The Homestead Leader,17 noted that he and his wife lived in a “palatial home … 20 miles out of Hendersonville,” NC.18 They also maintained a home in Homestead on N. E. 5th Street and the Dixie Highway and the one in Miami. The Alsobrooks had moved out of their Homestead home by the spring of 1929, when Mr. and Mrs. Louis Knight moved into it.19 By March of 1929, Stephen’s interests had shifted to Tifton, Georgia, where he had planted a large grove of pecan trees20 21 but he still had business interests in Homestead.22 The 1930 census enumerated him and his second wife, Nettie Cooper,23 whom he had married in 1924, in the Chula District of Tift County. He was 68 and she was 44.

When Stephen died at his home in Tifton, Georgia on November 6, 1939, none of his children lived in the Homestead area. He is buried in Lake County, Florida, next to his first wife and their infant daughter Alene. His three children are buried in Tift County, Georgia. Stephen, like a number of others in Homestead, became a very wealthy man by speculating in real estate, most of which was not located in the Homestead area. He never had any roots in Homestead – his only interest in this area was to make money. In that, he had (and still does have) a lot of company. It doesn’t seem as though he was able to pass on much wealth, though, as both of his sons were small-scale farmers. Charles B. farmed in Tifton, Georgia and James W. farmed in Port Orange, Florida. Irene married Mark E. Fletcher, who owned the Hupmobile dealership in Homestead, but divorced him in 1931 and married John T. Childers. In the early 1940s, John worked for the J. N. Strong Packing House in Vero Beach, Florida.

The real estate roulette wheel in South Florida richly rewarded Stephen Alsobrook for 30 years but no one now living here has ever heard of him. It is unlikely that any of his grandchildren know anything about his activities in Homestead. So it is with so many others who lived in this area in the early 20th century.
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Waltonhurst

Historic South Dade Posted on by

by Jeff Blakley

This postcard, owned by the Florida Pioneer Museum, depicts the Walton Home in Homestead, Florida:

Walton H

Courtesy of the Florida Pioneer Museum

Like many others, I have always known the Walton House to be the one marked by this historic plaque just north of Biscayne Drive on Redland Road:

Walton

Courtesy of Jeff Blakley

The house pictured on the postcard is at the northeast corner of Biscayne and Redland, not further north. This is the house as it appeared shortly before Hurricane Irma struck the Homestead area on September 11, 2017:

Walton House

Courtesy of Jeff Blakley

In this post, I will attempt to set the historical record straight and provide the history of this house.

William Karl Walton was born on May 11, 1881 in Cameron, West Virginia, the son of Milton Anderson and Mary Amelia Moore Walton.1 2 He is buried in Graceland Memorial Park. His father, Milton, was a produce dealer who could afford to send his son to the University of West Virginia in Morgantown.3 There, he majored in civil engineering and was employed in that capacity by a railroad and a “big coal mining corporation” for several years. Restless, he moved to Kansas City, Missouri and engaged in the mercantile business but that didn’t last long. either. He moved to Chicago, where he was employed for six years as a fire insurance inspector for the Chicago Underwriters Co.4 On October 5, 1910, he married Martha G. Filloon in Chicago. Her father, George W., claimed to be a physician. He had graduated from the Metropolitan Medical College, “a fraudulent Chicago concern that sold diplomas to anybody that would pay the price.”5 He was the president and general manager of The Oxybon Company, which marketed a machine called the Oxybon that allegedly cured all manner of ailments. It is a testimony to the gullibility of the general public that he was able to become quite wealthy by engaging in this business, despite the legal suits filed against him.6

He and his wife Ida sent their only child, Martha Gladys, to St. Katharine’s Hall, a college preparatory school in Davenport, Iowa that was associated with the Episcopal Church. Born in 1886, Gladys probably graduated in 19057 and then went to live with her parents in Chicago.

The real estate boom in the Miami area was nationally known and W. K. Walton no doubt read about it in the Chicago papers. The couple came to Miami shortly after their marriage and may have purchased 10 acres in the vicinity of N.W. 30th Avenue and 68th Street. Karl sold that property to Louis G. Hagan in August of 1914,8 after he had claimed the relinquishment of a homestead claim northwest of Homestead on June 27, 1912.9 That property had originally been claimed by Charles B. Firman in July of 1907 so there may have been a small house on the property when Walton picked up the relinquishment from Otho Heath. Walton sold some of his acreage not long after he paid cash for it on December 25, 1913. The name of the property was Rimrock, according to a mention of it in the January 26, 1923 issue of The Homestead Enterprise. Apparently, the Waltons, who were upper middle-class, were not happy being so far out in the country – way out between 212 and 217 Avenues and 280 and 288 Streets. Thus, Karl purchased land closer to Homestead from Bird Fitzpatrick, at the northeast corner of Biscayne Drive and Redland Road. Fitzpatrick had claimed that property, part of the northwest quarter of 1-57-38, as his homestead on June 11, 1906 and proved it up on February 27, 1912.

Karl wasted no time in building a new house, which he named “Waltonhurst,” for himself and his new wife on the property. It was first mentioned in the South Florida Banner on March 7, 1913, when Mrs. Walton “entertained charmingly, the Pioneer Guild and a few friends…” The Waltons were welcomed into the social scene in early Homestead and they were mentioned as early as August of 1913, when they appeared in a farce comedy in three acts put on by the Talalaka Dramatic Club, which performed in Sistrunk’s Hall, located just west of the Bank of Homestead.10 The cast of the production, A Busy Liar, given on August 29th, included H. R. Pridgen, Mr. and Mrs. Tom Brooker, Lily Lawrence Bow and son Mac, Mr. and Mrs. Walton, Maggie Nixon and Harvey Fitzpatrick. The play was directed by Mrs. Walton, who “studied under experienced dramatists in Chicago.”11 In November of 1915, the Waltons drove to Chicago and back, but Karl said he would not attempt the trip again “until the Dixie Highway is in better shape.”12 Further evidence for a vibrant upper middle-class in the Homestead and Florida City area at this time is proven by the fact that Gladys Walton began giving ballroom dancing lessons every Tuesday evening at the Florida City Pavilion in July of 1916.13

While Gladys was caught up in the social scene, Karl was busy establishing groves and making a name for himself in the avocado nursery business. On September 13, 1918, he registered for the draft in Homestead and stated that Gladys F. Walton was his wife. But the marriage must have been troubled, for on November 25, 1919, he married Miss Margie M. Smith, of North Adams, Massachusetts, in a quiet ceremony in West Palm Beach.14 In December of 1918, The Miami Metropolis noted that Gladys was with the Florida Conservatory of Music and Art at Biscayne Drive and Collins Avenue in Miami.15 She subsequently established a career as a well-known teacher of ballroom dancing to the elite in Miami.

Back in Homestead, Karl was busy with his grove business, having sold his house after his divorce in 1919 to Lindley Hoffman Livingston,16 17 18the brother of Anthony Rutgers Livingston, a prominent civil engineer in Homestead who owned the Homestead Engineering Co.

This photograph of Waltonhurst, then known as “L. H. Livingston’s Residence,” was taken by an unknown photographer, probably in 1920. It is owned by the Florida Historical Society.

Waltonhurst

The photograph was subsequently published in The Homestead Enterprise on March 30, 1923:

L H Livingston House

Construction on the house now known as the Walton House started in early May, 1920 for a “California bungalow to be erected by W. K. Walton on his property on the Redland road. M. P. Wallam and A. C. Smith have been given the contract for the work.” The plans called for nine rooms on the first floor and “an attic of three rooms” and the cost was estimated at $7,000,19 which in 2017 dollars is about $90,000. The Waltons moved into their new home in mid-August of 1920.20

Melvin P. Wollam’s son, James, opened the Wollam & Kendrick Grocery store on Krome Avenue in Homestead after his father’s death on April 1, 1933. Alec C. Smith was a carpenter who worked for Melvin, who was a well-known contractor in Homestead who built the Homestead Light and waterworks plant on N. Flagler, the Redland High School gymnasium and many other fine residences in the Homestead area.

W K Walton House

The second Walton house, just north of Waltonhurst
Courtesy of the Florida Pioneer Museum

This second Walton house is now a well-known wedding venue.

Lindley H. Livingston died on May 4, 1924 due to complications following surgery for appendicitis. A member of St. John’s Episcopal Church, he was buried at the Palms Cemetery on May 7. The pallbearers were William J. Clark, a civil engineer, contractor and step-father of Dick Huff, who later owned Dick’s Drive-In, B. M. Bower,21 William K. Walton, Lawrence W. Taylor, secretary of Homestead’s chapter of the Ku Klux Klan,22 Arundius T. Jackson, owner of the Homestead Garage and Sidney E. Livingston, postmaster of Homestead and future mayor.23 At the cemetery, the pallbearers were flanked by two rows of about 48 members of Homestead’s Klan No. 26 dressed in full regalia. The procession was led by Rev. Charles P. Jackson, Arundius’ father and the rector of St. John’s.

L H Livingston Funeral

The funeral procession for Livingston at the Palms Cemetery24

A. R. Livingston purchased Elliott Prouty Livermore’s 80 acre grove on Epmore Drive, (named for E. P. Livermore) in 1926.25 He apparently sold his late brother’s house to Livermore at the same time, perhaps as part of his purchase of the grove.

The house was then purchased by Edward Buckhout, of Tarrytown, N.Y. in early 1930 when Livermore and his wife moved back to South Acton, MA, where they were from. The purchase price was reported to be $20,000 and the house sat on a 5 acre parcel of land, mostly planted to avocado trees.26

The house was recently placed on the market but it has not sold. If it sells, hopefully the person who buys it will understand its place in the history of the Redlands.

Update, November 3, 2019: The house was sold to the family that owns the adjacent Walton House. It will be restored and serve as housing for the family members of the bride and bridegroom who are married at the Walton House.
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