Like many Sun Belt cities, Fort Lauderdale has experienced phenomenal growth over the past several decades. Once a wilderness home for the Seminole Indians and a few hardy pioneers, the small community grew up around Frank Stranahan's successful trading post, a convenient stop for hunters, fishermen, and sightseers preparing to head into the Everglades. But much more was in store for this rugged outback camp. Surveying Fort Lauderdale's fascinating history chronologically, this pictorial retrospective begins with the 1890s, a time when this part of the country was still part of America's...

Boca Raton, Florida, was a tiny farming community on
the southeastern coast of Florida when the state's 1920s real estate boom grew into a national phenomenon. Investors and new residents were drawn to the state from all over the country, a time Floridians referred to as "the Boom." In April 1925, well-known Palm Beach society architect Addison Mizner revealed his plans for an ambitious new
development in Boca Raton. The plans included a gigantic oceanfront hotel, elegant mansions, golf and polo grounds, and palm-lined boulevards. The popularity of Mizner's projects stimulated many...

In 1915, the South Florida communities of Fort Lauderdale, Dania, Pompano, Hallandale, Deerfield, and Davie joined together to form a county. They named it Broward, in honor of the governor whose Everglades drainage program had brought them such prosperity. Today, Broward is Florida's second largest county, with 1.6 million people. Photographer Aaron Eugene Hyde came to Fort Lauderdale in 1933, at the age of 16, to begin a 40-year career, serving as one of the county's few professional photographers and the photographer for the Broward edition of the Miami Herald. Gene recorded fascinating...