For more than a thousand years, the Tequesta Indians inhabited the area that would later be founded as Fort Lauderdale. During the 16th century, as Spanish explorers arrived into the area, they brought with them diseases that proved disastrous to the Tequesta. Ailments like smallpox, combined with continuing conflict with their Calusa neighbors, contributed to the decline of the Tequesta over the next two centuries.
There were only a few Tequesta living in Florida by 1763. Most of these native people eventually evacuated to Cuba when the Spanish gave up Florida to the British in this same year. This occurred under the Treaty of Paris, which ended the Seven Years War.
The Fort Lauderdale area remained pretty much undeveloped until the 20th century, at which time it became known as the “New River Settlement.” There were around 70 settlers living in the area during the 1830s. One of the settlers was William Cooley, a local Justice of the Peace and farmer who often traded with the Seminole Indians. In 1836, the Seminoles attacked Cooley’s farm and killed Cooley’s wife, children, and their tutor. Upon this unfortunate occurrence, most of the Caucasians fled the area, first to Cape Florida Lighthouse on Key Biscayne and then on to Key West.
The area of Fort Lauderdale would subsequently become unpopulated until the 1890s. Frank Stranahan arrived in the area in 1893 to operate a ferry across the New River. At this time, the Florida East Coast Railroad was completed, and organized development on the area began. This led to the city’s incorporation in 1911, and its designation as the county seat of Broward County in 1915.
Major development in Fort Lauderdale proceeded in the 1920s during the period described as the Florida land boom. Fort Lauderdale real estate started to take off as well. Soon after, a devastating hurricane in 1926, combined with the Great Depression, would cause the area a great deal of economic desolation. During World War II, a U.S. Navy base was built in Fort Lauderdale, alongside a Coast Guard base at Port Everglades.
Upon the end of World War II, another major population explosion occurred in the area. Fort Lauderdale real estate started picking up again, and by 1967 the city was approximately 85 percent developed. Fort Lauderdale’s population has grown significantly over the years, especially since the annexation of seven neighborhoods in the unincorporated Broward County in 2000. Fort Lauderdale real estate consists of beautiful oceanside estates, lavish condominiums, townhomes, and more. The city is a major yachting center, one of the country’s largest tourist destinations, and the center of a metropolitan division that is home to over 1.8 million people.
For more information about Fort Lauderdale luxury real estate, please call the professionals of Mizner By The Sea Realty at (561) 391-2007.
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