1923 Automobile Owners in Homestead
On October 12, 1923, the Homestead Enterprise, as part of an advertisement for automobile-related businesses in the Homestead area, published a list of over 800 vehicles, along with the owners’ names and their town of residence. The towns are: Perrine, Goulds, Princeton, Silver Palm, Redland, Naranja, Modello, Homestead and Florida City. There are many interesting bits of information that can be gleaned from the list.

Bob Bow, Ed McMichael and I created an Excel spreadsheet for the data. I have added columns for gender, race and comments. I have also corrected the spelling of names and added an Index column at the left side so that the list can be sorted and then returned to its default state. The list is sorted in alphabetical order by the owner’s last name or the name of the business. However, if you sort it by gender, you will be surprised by how many married and unmarried women owned cars in this area in 1923. If you sort by race, you will find how many African-Americans owned cars in 1923.

There is no doubt that the list is not comprehensive – there were people who owned cars who do not appear on the list. That is just how history is – it is always incomplete. But this list gives some more insight into the demographics of South Dade County in 1923 and is useful if its flaws are kept in mind.

While I have gone over the list repeatedly and tried to correct any errors that I saw, there are doubtless some that I missed. If you see anything that needs to be revised, or if you have any information to add to the Notes column about the individuals listed in the spreadsheet, please e-mail me at [email protected] and I will do my best to make a timely correction.

The spreadsheet can be downloaded by clicking on this link.