Biography of A. H. Brook, Fort Lauderdale, Broward County, FL

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Transcribed from:  The History of Florida:  Past & Present, The Lewis Publishing Co., Vol. 
II, page 248, 1923.

BROOK, A. H.  In the material and civic development of Fort Lauderdale and vicinity no one 
has done a more conspicuous work in recent years than A. H. BROOK, a man of wealth and of 
prominent business connections in New York, who has established himself permanently in South 
Florida.

Mr. BROOK is an Englishman by birth, born in Yorkshire in 1866.  In 1869, when he was three 
years of age, his parents came to America, locating at Elizabethtown, New Jersey.  When he 
was seven years of age he was sent back to England and educated at Springvale Academy, 
Upperthorpe in Yorkshire.  He was seventeen when he returned to the United States, and soon 
afterward, at Brooklyn, started the work which by rapid advances brought him a conspicuous 
position in advertising circles.  His first employment was with the O.J. Gude Company, an 
outdoor advertising and billboard concern.  His first employment was in the construction of 
signs and billboards.  He was promoted to foreman, and soon achieved executive responsibilities 
in the headquarters of the concern until he was made general manager.  Advertising men give 
Mr. BROOK credit for being one of the originators in developing the Great White Way of New 
York with its myriad of beautiful electric signs.

After leaving the Gude Company Mr. BROOK founded a similar business of his own, conducted 
under the title of the "Mr. Brook of Brooklyn" Company, of which he was president.  Later 
he sold this to the Thomas Cusack Company, a national concern of outdoor and billboard advertisers, 
and was made general manager of the New York branch of the Cusack Company.  He was with this 
company until he retired in 1920, and for a number of years commanded a salary of $25,000.00, 
and for eighteen years superintended the expenditure of practically $10,000,000 a year in 
outdoor publicity throughout the nation.

Mr. BROOK is a famous yachtsman.  He is commodore of the Jamaica Bay Yacht Club of New York, 
and until he came to Florida he was a regular participant in the regattas and races of that 
club.  He is also a former commodore of the Canarsie Yacht Club of Brooklyn.  He raced his 
yacht, the Seamew No. 2, in twenty-two contests of the Jamaica Bay Club, and won the champion-
ship in nineteen of these races.  His boat was the champion of its class over all comers in 
the regattas of 1919.  Since 1913 he has been vice president of the Waterways League of America, 
and since 1914 he has been chairman of the Committee on Aids to Navigation.

In August, 1919, Mr. BROOK with his sister made a trip along the East Coast of Florida, 
and while somewhat hurriedly passing through Fort Lauderdale, was strongly impressed with 
the environment.  The following year he decided to locate here permanently.  He wound up 
his active New York business connections, gave up his home in Brooklyn, and on December 1, 
1920, became a permanent resident of Fort Lauderdale.  He has developed a beautiful home, 
Brookside, on the New River, this home being presided over by his sister.  Many other 
valuable property interests here and in the vicinity have been acquired by him.  The most 
notable of these is Wyldewood, a sub-tropical estate of forty acres, six miles south of 
Fort Lauderdale on the Dixie Highway.  This is one of the garden spots of Florida, a place 
of rare beauty, and visitors have carried its fame over the world.  Since purchasing the 
tract Mr. BROOK has expended about $20,000, in developing it.  It is rich in its growth 
of tropical and sub-topical forest and foliage.  The fence enclosing the estate is made 
of gumbo-limbo trees, the wood of which continues to grow.  There are also wild olive 
trees and a number of magnificent specimens of the pheasant tail croton tree, as well 
as twenty-eight other varieties of the croton. Perhaps the most remarkable exhibit of 
vegetation is the so called "two million dollar tree", a banyan tree, native to India, 
which originally got its growth at this place from seed dropped by some bird on top of 
a live oak tree.  From that beginning the limbs gradually grew down to the ground, completely 
enveloping the oak like a giant octopus and forming a guard for the oak tree that is practically 
impenetrable.  It is in fact a vegetable octopus.

Wyldewood also has its commercial horticulture, including a grove of grape fruit trees said 
to be the largest on the Southeast Coast of Florida.  A number of these trees are from fifty 
to sixty feet high.  Wyldewood is also noted for its birds, including various kinds of 
pheasants, Japanese fowls, Chinese chickens and a variety of pigeons.  During the season 
of 1921-22 Wyldewood was kept open as a place of entertainment for tourists and visitors, 
the proceeds being donated to the Florida Children's Home Society, whose headquarters are 
in Jacksonville.  Mr. BROOK is president of the Fort Lauderdale Anglers Club and is vice 
president of the Fort Lauderdale Chamber of Commerce.