Sep 28, 2005
National Register of Historic Places - Williams House (Dale, Shelby, House; Gilda's Club of South Florida; BD02016)
Statement of Significant: The Williams House fulfills Criterion C at the local level in the area of Architecture for listing in the National Register of Historic Places. The Williams House is a property which embodies the distinctive characteristics of a specific period of construction. It is a significant and little altered example of the Mediterranean Revival style, characteristic of the 1920s South Florida land boom. Built in ca. 1926, the former residence is located at 119 Rose Drive at its original site beside the Tarpon River within blocks of the heart of downtown Fort Lauderdale. This building represents one of the finest and most original surviving examples of an architectural style once very common to the Fort Lauderdale area. The design of the dwelling is consistent with national and statewide trends in architecture. Historic Context Fort Lauderdale, Florida's earliest inhabitants were the ancestors of what the Spanish explorers called the Tequesta Indians, a resourceful people whose occupation of the area dates back thousands of years. By the eighteenth-century A.D., the last of these original inhabitants had died or left the region. Soon afterwards, newer "pioneers" came to the area of New River, a short and deep waterway created by runoff from the Everglades. Concurrently Bahamian, American, and Seminole Indians began to occupy the wilderness that was southeast Florida. In 1838, the first Fort Lauderdale was established in honor of commanding officer Major William Lauderdale at the forks of the river after the onset of the Second Seminole War. In the ensuing years of the nineteenth century, the New River settlement remained sparsely populated. The beginnings of the modern community date to 1893, with the establishment of a ferry and trading post on New River. By 1896, Flagler's Florida East Coast Railway began passenger service from West Palm Beach to Miami, opening the southeast coast of Florida for development. The hardy local pioneers welcomed, in 1906, the construction of the first of a series of canals intended to "drain the Everglades," for farming land. The North New River Canal was to join Fort Lauderdale to Lake Okeechobee and eventually, Fort Myers and the Gulf of Mexico. The canal quickly became a major transportation route for new farmers from the lake south and a downtown began to grow where New River and the F.E.C. Railway met. Citrus, vegetables, and the ever- popular tomato were the staples of the local economy. By 1911, the area's first land boom forced the locals to incorporate, and a town-population 300, was born.
National Register of Historic Places - Williams House (Dale, Shelby, House; Gilda's Club of South Florida; BD02016)
Statement of Significant: The Williams House fulfills Criterion C at the local level in the area of Architecture for listing in the National Register of Historic Places. The Williams House is a property which embodies the distinctive characteristics of a specific period of construction. It is a significant and little altered example of the Mediterranean Revival style, characteristic of the 1920s South Florida land boom. Built in ca. 1926, the former residence is located at 119 Rose Drive at its original site beside the Tarpon River within blocks of the heart of downtown Fort Lauderdale. This building represents one of the finest and most original surviving examples of an architectural style once very common to the Fort Lauderdale area. The design of the dwelling is consistent with national and statewide trends in architecture. Historic Context Fort Lauderdale, Florida's earliest inhabitants were the ancestors of what the Spanish explorers called the Tequesta Indians, a resourceful people whose occupation of the area dates back thousands of years. By the eighteenth-century A.D., the last of these original inhabitants had died or left the region. Soon afterwards, newer "pioneers" came to the area of New River, a short and deep waterway created by runoff from the Everglades. Concurrently Bahamian, American, and Seminole Indians began to occupy the wilderness that was southeast Florida. In 1838, the first Fort Lauderdale was established in honor of commanding officer Major William Lauderdale at the forks of the river after the onset of the Second Seminole War. In the ensuing years of the nineteenth century, the New River settlement remained sparsely populated. The beginnings of the modern community date to 1893, with the establishment of a ferry and trading post on New River. By 1896, Flagler's Florida East Coast Railway began passenger service from West Palm Beach to Miami, opening the southeast coast of Florida for development. The hardy local pioneers welcomed, in 1906, the construction of the first of a series of canals intended to "drain the Everglades," for farming land. The North New River Canal was to join Fort Lauderdale to Lake Okeechobee and eventually, Fort Myers and the Gulf of Mexico. The canal quickly became a major transportation route for new farmers from the lake south and a downtown began to grow where New River and the F.E.C. Railway met. Citrus, vegetables, and the ever- popular tomato were the staples of the local economy. By 1911, the area's first land boom forced the locals to incorporate, and a town-population 300, was born.
Sep 28, 2005
Posted Date
Aug 04, 2023
Historical Record Date
Sep 28, 2005
Source Name
National Register of Historic Places
