Hailey Heseltine
It was the Roaring Twenties, and the postwar world seemed to be finding new life with its economic prosperity. That decade, Florida entered an era which transformed the state like never before.
Prior to the 1920s, Florida's reputation was foremost an agricultural state. In the decades leading up to then, investors, industrialists and railroad tycoons like Henry Flagler and Henry B. Plant had already seen a potential for tourism, developments, business and, perhaps most of all, profit. The problem was, until then, traveling to Florida for leisure was mostly limited to the wealthy, elderly or ill who had been prescribed oceanside living by a doctor, as the average working American seldom had the time, money or means to travel for leisure. The Roaring Twenties changed that. More accessible transportation, including expanded railways and the automobile's entrance into mainstream life for many Americans, improved the ease and speed at which people could travel far distances. Paired with the energized economy, it meant more middle class Americans could vacation, and more importantly, invest.
As travelers from the north, a more diverse group than ever before, flooded into the state in 1921, Florida captured the attention of a new wave of investors. New and affordable accommodations had to be built, as well as improved infrastructure, which meant more cities borrowing the funds to do so. Speculators poured into South Florida to buy, build and sell in what was known as swampland just a few years earlier, forming a real estate bubble as land prices ballooned into exorbitance and land was auctioned off piece by piece. Agriculture, adventure, opulent hotels, a mild climate and the promise of blissful seashore life were among the things advertised to investors and potential land buyers. Some were successful, others weren't, but those who succeeded did so dramatically.
Land developers and property buyers were responsible for creating so many iconic communities and cities in South Florida. Between 1920 and 1925, the populations of many South Florida counties, including Miami-Dade, had doubled or more, and quickly began to transform into the urban epicenters of the whole state, garnering a reputation to be reckoned with. Meanwhile, existing cities in some other parts of the state thrived as well.
You may have heard the saying the Great Depression hit earlier in Florida than it did the rest of the country. There's some truth to it, because by the time 1925 came around, the bubble was about to pop. Investors needed real profits, not just the expectation of profits. Land prices were too high for new customers, old customers were selling their own land, many cities had invested too much in new infrastructure while anticipating more new arrivals than actually showed up. Then, in September 1926, a devastating category four hurricane decimated many of the shiny new developments in Miami and the surrounding areas, incurring billions in property damages, and tragically costing hundreds of lives of the woefully unprepared Miamians. Hurricanes, it seems, were not advertised among things to expect in the “tropical paradise” of Florida, and the solemn reality of it all shook potential new residents, tourists and investors alike. Just two years later, another category four hurricane, the Okeechobee Hurricane, struck the state in September 1928. It was among the deadliest hurricanes in the country's history, taking the lives of thousands of Floridians, particularly in the area of Lake Okeechobee, which suffered extensive flooding.
The bubble had popped, and there was no going back. Florida was already deep in the throes of economic hardship when the Great Depression set in nationwide in 1929, and the Mediterranean fruit fly damaged the state's citrus crop. Despite all the changes it brought to the state, the great Florida Land Boom was a bust after all.
