History

Lauderdale Harbors History

Lauderdale Harbors homes were built in the early 1950s on land purchased by Gill Construction in 1949. Twenty-five percent of all the homes built in Fort Lauderdale between 1951 and 1953 were built by Gill Construction. According to city records, Gill Construction had built over $3 million dollars in hotels, commercial properties, and homes in 1949. Gill built The Yankee Clipper which is now the B Ocean and The Yankee Trader which is now the Westin, along with several other Fort Lauderdale Beach hotels. Our neighborhood had to be his gem. We can assume that because it is where Mr. Gill and his family chose to reside for the rest of their lives. His home was at the northeastern end lot of SE 13th Street isle, which was redeveloped by Gill’s own granddaughter and since resold.

According to a Parade of Homes magazine article touting the unique feature of these modern Lauderdale Harbors 1950s homes was “The GE air conditioning and heating plant that is located in a special portion of the house and has concealed ducts that carry cold or warm air to various rooms.” Average cooling costs were advertised as an estimated $145 per YEAR. Gill’s vision was affordable waterfront homes.

Cliff Lake side was the first homes to be built as phase 1, The model home was located at 1235 SE 13th Terrace. Mainland homes were advertised at $16,450. The island homes started at $22,950 which was Phase 2 that began with 13th Street Island. the model home was at 1500 SE 13th Street, which was torn down in 2008. Phase 3 was SE 14th Street and phase 4 was SE 12th Court.

You may be surprised to learn that this was not the actual beginning of Lauderdale Harbors per county records. Our neighborhood was actually planned and dredged in the 1920s by a Bostonian named William F. Morang. He bought a much larger swath of land than what Lauderdale Harbors is now. Not only did he dredge our canals he also built a bridge across the Stranahan River, now the Intracoastal Waterway at SE 15th Street. Folks called it “the bridge to nowhere” as it went to an undeveloped land mass that was intended to be part of Morang’s Lauderdale Harbors community.

Construction began on the 15th Street bridge in 1925 when Morang had an estimated fortune of $13 million dollars. Unfortunately, by the time the bridge and the dredging were completed, along with the damage brought by Sept 1926 hurricane Mr. Morang was broke and the project was a bust. The undeveloped land mass eventually became the neighborhood of Harbor Beach with development beginning in the 1940s.

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