Dade County FlArchives History - Books .....Death Knell For The Boom, Chapter 15 1965 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/fl/flfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 April 5, 2009, 4:52 pm Book Title: Memories Of Old Miami CHAPTER FIFTEEN Death Knell For the Boom A great tropical storm, with hurricane winds blowing for hours, is a terrible thing; but the drudgery of cleaning up the heartbreaking destruction afterward is no small challenge to the human spirit. Many did throw up their hands after the '26 Hurricane and left the city, never to return. No sooner than Miami's downtown streets had been cleared enough for traffic to move, a policeman stopped a Model-T Ford going the wrong way on one-way NE First Street. "Where do you think you're going?" the irate policeman demanded to know. The driver stopped the car, pulled up the lever to throw the motor out of gear, spit tobacco juice near the policeman's feet, and answered: "Back to Georgia, by God." "Don't you know you're on a one-way street?" "Well," the Georgia Cracker said, "I'm only going one way and I ain't a-comin' back." The policeman, a Georgia Cracker himself, shook his head and waved the man on. He knew that a Georgia Cracker heading for home couldn't be turned back. But the thousands who thought of Miami as home had to stay and go through the hardships created by one of the greatest disasters to hit Florida. During the days following the storm long lines formed at the Western Union office on Flagler Street, waiting for a chance to notify relatives and friends that they were alive. All messages had to be sent from West Palm Beach because the wires were down in Broward and Dade counties; and there were no underground cables in those days like we have now. The '26 Hurricane was the big story of the year in the United States. Stories and pictures in northern newspapers gave the impression that the area had been all but wiped out by the wind and the tide. So great was the destruction that exaggeration was difficult. A hurricane tide flooded Miami Beach, the Miami waterfront and much of downtown Miami. Waterfronts were littered with the hulks of boats. A five-masted schooner, the Rose Mahony, lay across Biscayne Boulevard between NE Eighth and Ninth Streets. Because it couldn't be moved, the ship had to be dismantled on the spot. The Miami River front also was lined with boats washed ashore as the tide rushed upstream. Many boats took with them the docks to which they had been tied. Those tied too firmly to strong docks were swamped by the tide. The crest of the tide was about 11 feet above normal; but many reported that a wave accompanying the tide was 15 feet high. The salt water did extensive damage. Salt spray was carried all the way to Coral Gables. The tide covered all the glades south of Miami, salting the land and making it unsuitable for farming that season. People set to work repairing the damage. There was work for everybody. I don't believe a single house in the Miami area escaped some damage. Tar paper was blown off roofs and roofing nails were so thick on the streets that it was difficult to drive without getting a flat tire. Furniture and valuable possessions people had saved for a lifetime were ruined. During the days immediately following the storm, people sought to dry out soaked mattresses, linen, clothes and home furnishings. People built fires in their back yards to make coffee and soup. It was weeks before the city had electricity. Even after the power company restored the wires it was reluctant to cut on the current because of the poor wiring in the wet houses. Up to that time Miami had no building code, such as it has today. There were many jerry-built houses with unshielded wires. In spite of the city's urging that visitors stay out of Miami until the litter could be removed and wrecked buildings restored, thousands of curious people poured into the city to see the destruction. Although we had a state militia to help guard wrecked shops from pillaging, it was impossible to cope with the crowds. Then, when we were well under way toward cleaning up the city and making emergency repairs the area was side-swiped by a second hurricane on Oct. 20. Winds of 75 to 100 miles an hour blew off emergency roofs put on to protect homes from ordinary rains after the September storm. Again people's possessions were saturated. At Miami Beach, A. F. Swift was rebuilding his drugstore - the Fifth Street Pharmacy which had been flattened by the September storm. His apartment house was in ruins, his car smashed by debris. That second storm finished where the first storm had failed. It blew down the partly rebuilt drugstore. Swift had enough of storms. He put everything he had left in one suitcase and headed out of town, to establish himself in some other place. Today he is a real estate broker and owns a paint store in Winter Haven. But those who had no other place to go, or who were committed so much that they could not leave, stayed on to face the, agonizingly slow recovery of the area's economy. The Boom was coming to an end at the beginning of 1926 but it took a hurricane to sound the convincing death knell. Miami in the winter of 1926 and 1927 was no place for the "binder boys." Most of them were long gone. Miami had to think about a normal way of life again; to rebuild its tourist facilities and to promote itself as the fine resort center that it was. Although Florida had suffered two economic disasters, first, the "Boom-bust" and then the hurricane, the nation itself was beginning to enjoy the greatest prosperity it had ever known up to that time. During the months that Southeast Florida was working hard to recover and to get itself ready for a major tourist season in 1927-28, the stock market was rising, industry was forging full speed ahead. In the midst of its recovery Miami was getting set to cash in on this wonderful prosperity. Miami Beach's hotels were restored and readied to cope with the crowds. The Seaboard Air Line tracks had been extended to Miami in the meantime, and the most special kind of special train that ever rolled over a southern railroad - the Orange Blossom Special - steamed in from New York. I don't suppose that we'll see anything like it again. This train didn't stop for anything except for the engine to take on coal and water - for that was before the diesel. Parts of cows and automobiles the train struck on the way down were still hanging on the cowcatcher when the engine steamed into the new station on NW Seventh Avenue. The speed of the Orange Blossom Special was said to exceed 100 miles an hour. The snow that fell on the Orange Blossom Special in Virginia was still clinging to the coaches when the train arrived in Miami. As the 1927-28 winter tourist season got under way the hurricane of a year ago was only a memory, seemingly unreal amid the activities at the Royal Palm, the Roney Plaza and other resort hotels. We had a good season that year. But the next was better. The area was doing so well, and so smoothly did life go that our cares vanished and we began to talk of the increasing prosperity and growth of the area. As the 1927-28 tourist season drew to a close we began to plan for one the following season. We knew every one of the years ahead would be bigger than the previous one. The great boom which the area had recently experienced would be nothing compared with the prosperous times ahead. Who could have dreamed that it was to be our last good season for many a year? Who would have dared to suggest that the greatest economic disaster in the history of the nation was just around the corner? Hoover had been elected under a slogan of "two chickens in every pot" and "a car in every garage." But after the market crash of October, 1929, there was not to be the luxurious aroma of chicken cooking in many kitchens for several years. Additional Comments: Extracted from: "Memories of Old Miami" by Hoyt Frazure as told to Nixon Smiley Reprinted from a series of articles first appearing in Sunday Magazine of The Miami Herald Undated, but circa 1965 File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/fl/dade/history/1965/memories/deathkne47nms.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.net/flfiles/ File size: 8.7 Kb