Historic Sailboat Bend (Fort Lauderdale, Florida) | neighborhood

USA / Florida / Fort Lauderdale / Fort Lauderdale, Florida
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Sailboat Bend, a small neighborhood located immediately southwest of the downtown business district, is the birthplace of Fort Lauderdale. Traces of Tequesta Indian settlements in the area date back to 1450 BC. On the trail of later-day Seminole Indians in 1838, U.S. Army Major William Lauderdale and a handful of Tennessee Volunteers pitched camp at the forks of New River, in what is now called Sailboat Bend, and built the first military Fort Lauderdale.


Modern development began in the late 1800s with the arrival of Henry Flagler's Iron Horse. As commerce grew by both water and rail, Sailboat Bend in the early 1900s became a working class neighborhood where trades people -- carpenters and masons and blacksmiths -- built their own homes without benefit of architects or building codes. These "cracker" or "vernacular" houses utilized native materials such as Dade County pine, and many of them still exist in defiance of termites, hurricanes and bulldozers. Some display superior detail, imagination and workmanship, which were commonplace 50 years ago but are rare today. Many of these old houses have been restored or renovated as comfortable modern residences, and they form the basis for the neighborhood's distinctive charm as well as its historic significance.
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Coordinates:   26°7'7"N   80°9'22"W

Comments

  • I lived in Sailboat Bend for 13 years now in a 1920's "cracker" bungalow. It's is made of dade county pine, and is very hard to nail into.
This article was last modified 26 days ago