by Gregg M. Turner
During Florida’s land boom of the 1920s Americans flocked to the Sunshine State as never before. Countless new homes arose, as did commercial buildings and municipal projects. Famous cities of today, including Boca Raton, Hollywood, Coral Gables, and Venice, sprang to life during those heady times.
Eager for boom traffic, the Seaboard Air Line Railway connected both coasts of the state and advanced rails down to West Palm Beach, but President S. Davies Warfield wanted more! In 1926, two major extensions were rushed to completion - one to Naples, the other to the “Magic City” of Miami.
To open the additions, Warfield invited 700 guests from 18 states and pampered them aboard five identical passenger train sections of the Orange Blossom Special. Afterwards, he sent each invitee a souvenir: a leather slipcase containing two privately printed booklets, one describing the Seaboard and the territory it served, the other recounting the fabled journey just completed.
Rarely seen by the public and today treasured by collectors, the booklets are reproduced herein along with - for the first time - many historic images. Together they record a remarkable celebration of American railroad history.
During Florida’s historic land boom of the 1920’s, the company expanded in the Sunshine State as never before. Two important extensions were rushed to completion in 1926 – one to Fort Myers and Naples, the other to the “Magic City” of Miami. When completed, President Warfield opened them with style and great Panache.
Nearly 700 dignitaries from 90 cities and 18 states joined Warfield aboard five separate sections of the “Orange Blossom Special” passenger train. The public receptions that followed, as described in this book, form one of the most remarkable celebrations in American railroad history.
Gregg Turner is a former director of the Railway and Locomotive Historical Society at Harvard Business School. A life-long railroad enthusiast, he is the author of numerous books, such as: “Connecticut Railroads, An Illustrated History; A short History of Florida Railroads, and Railroads of Southwest Florida. His “Venice in the 1920’s” recounts how the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers create Venice, Florida.
INTRODUCTION
The “Roaring Twenties” was a remarkable period in American history. It was an age filled with flapper girls, the Charleston, jazz, radio, flashy cars, bootlegged liquor, and a new morality. Unfortunately, what began with good times and prosperity completely crashed in 1929.
Floridians witnessed something else during that reckless decade: a land boom of historic proportions. During the 1920s, Americans everywhere lusted after the Sunshine State, where stories of real estate profits and get-rich-quick schemes abounded. Soon, home seekers started to arrive by the droves as did developers, speculators, contractors, builders, citrus growers, and farmers, as well as drifters and flim-flam artists. Most people wanted to settle down, others sought to buy land cheap and sell dear, while still others bought real estate unseen. Frequently a parcel was bought and sold as many as ten times in a single day. In the end, enough Florida land was subdivided as to completely re-house the then-existing population of the United States.
Whereas many of the newcomers and tourists came by car and boat, the majority arrived by train, which strained Florida’s railroad capacity. Further, the demand for new homes, hotels, apartments, commercial buildings, and municipal projects brought about a sharp increase in freight traffic. The state’s ‘Big Three’ railroads (Seaboard Air Line, Florida East Coast, and Atlantic Coast Line) were unprepared for the press of business. Consequently, each was forced to undertake projects of expansion and improvements. New routes evolved along with better terminal facilities and new signaling systems. Further, bridges were strengthened, heavier rail was laid, new engines and cars were acquired, and a number of attractive stations arose.
Then, in spring, 1925, something odd happened - many snowbirds failed to go home. In fact, people began pouring into Florida as never before. Another surge in railroad traffic resulted: extra sections of trains had to be added, new trains were inaugurated, and Pullman space was often sold out months in advance. Florida’s merchants and contractors, thinking the building frenzy would never end, began to order supplies and inventories far in excess of actual requirements. Boxcars were often sent to the Sunshine State with no specific destination, frequently changing hands en-route and reaching a location where few if any unloading tracks or warehouse space existed. The result? Thousands of freight cars became stranded in the state, occupying every available track, choking rail yards, and delaying train movements.
To resolve the mess, the ‘Big Three’ ordered an embargo, which took effect that October. Freight traffic came to a halt except for foodstuffs, fuel, and perishables. When the embargo was called, nearly 4,000 freight cars were jammed in the Jacksonville rail yards alone, while another 8,000 were ordered held at Birmingham, New Orleans, St. Louis, Washington, DC, and Cincinnati. Traffic experts from around the country were rushed to Florida to untangle the mess, but not until May of the following year was the embargo lifted. By then, however, the boom was over.
The events in Florida both astonished and challenged railroad executives, especially S. Davies Warfield of the Seaboard Air Line Railway. Convinced that Florida presented unusual opportunities, the aggressive CEO issued $25 million of bonds in order to finance his expansionary projects.
In January, 1925, the Seaboard opened a 204-mile extension - in record time - from its mainline at Coleman (below Wildwood) down to West Palm Beach, by way of Auburndale, Sebring, and Indiantown. That fall, the 13-mile Gross-Callahan Cutoff, which bypassed busy Jacksonville, began expediting Florida traffic. That same year, Warfield leased the Charlotte Harbor & Northern Railway (the old phosphate hauler that ran from the Bone Valley in central Florida down to South Boca Grande) along with the East & West Coast Railroad between Arcadia and Manatee. Additionally, he had the 12-mile ‘Valrico Cutoff’ constructed, which helped connect both coasts of the state. Warfield’s contractor also closed an important gap between Brooksville and Inverness, and in doing so created an alternate route from Waldo to Tampa.
Just when the Seaboard system in Florida seemed complete, Warfield announced a bold new measure: two major extensions would be constructed - one to Fort Myers and Naples, the other from West Palm Beach to Miami. For this, the ‘Seaboard-All Florida Railway’ was chartered, which the Interstate Commerce Commission sanctioned in November, 1925.
Groundbreaking for the Miami extension occurred at Hialeah on January 20, 1926. A month later, similar ceremonies were held on the west coast at Fort Myers. Warfield gave the Naples and Miami contracts to Foley Brothers, Inc. of Minneapolis, the nation’s largest railroad contractor. To keep expenses in line, Warfield cagily extracted “inducements” from towns, cities, and landowners along both routes, and in doing so the Seaboard received important rights-of-ways at little or no cost, together with cash donations.
The extension to Naples commenced below Arcadia at Hull, a way station on the Charlotte Harbor & Northern Railroad. Running in almost a straight line, the Seaboard track headed for Fort Ogden and Gilchrist, crossed the wide Caloosahatchee River on a long drawbridge, and entered Fort Myers proper, nerve center of the extension. Here, a $75,000 passenger station arose, designed by Harvey & Clarke of West Palm Beach, along with a 14-track switching yard. Foley Brothers also constructed a 30-mile branch from Fort Myers over to Alva and LaBelle, while in South Fort Myers an 8-mile branch departed for the rich vegetable and truck farming region of Iona.
The Seaboard track continued past Fort Myers to the south bank of the Estero River, where it connected with another subsidiary - the Naples, Seaboard & Gulf. The latter, headed by railroad contractor and developer John S. Jones of Ohio, carried the project southwards to Vanderbilt Beach. It terminated in the heart of Naples, where another splendid Mediterranean Revival station was erected. So attractive did Warfield find Naples that he personally purchased a number of real estate parcels.
The extension to Miami, which commenced at West Palm Beach, proceeded down the east coast about a mile inland from the Florida East Coast Railway. At the time, much of the Seaboard route was lightly populated. Numerous river crossings were encountered as well as streams and marshy lands. Handsome stations, often built in the Mediterranean Revival style, arose at Lake Worth, Delray, Deerfield, Hollywood and Hialeah. Again, the architectural firm of Harvey & Clarke rose to the challenge. Foley Brothers rushed both extensions to completion by December, 1926, including yard and terminal facilities well west of Miami proper, now the site of Miami International Airport. A 28-mile addition south of Miami, to the agricultural district of Homestead, was finished the following April.
Once the new routes were completed, Warfield decided to open them in style and with panache. The bachelor chairman sent engraved invitations to nearly 700 guests in 90 cities, from 18 states. The entourage included such notables as Edward Stokesbury, senior partner of Drexel & Company in Philadelphia; W. A. Phillips, lead underwriter of Dillon, Read & Company in New York; John Pulleyn, president of New York’s Immigrant Industrial Savings Bank; W. D. Baldwin, chairman of Otis Elevator; Stephen Baker, president of the Manhattan Company; Alfred Andrews of Chase Manhattan Bank; and, such luminaries as Dorrance family members of Campbell Soup fame. Warfield later remarked that it was the greatest aggregation of “men of mark” ever brought into Florida at any one time. For several days Warfield pampered them aboard five special sections of the Orange Blossom Special, the Seaboard’s crack passenger train. On January 7, 1927 the trains converged - in convoy style - on Arcadia, Florida. The public receptions that unfolded along both coasts during the next few days forms one of the most remarkable celebrations in American railroad history.
Warfield’s faith in the Sunshine State was unshakable, though many of his investments would contribute to the Seaboard’s receivership of 1930. Although Warfield lived to see the Naples and Miami extensions opened, he died shortly after the historic events, on October 25, 1927, in his native Baltimore. His personal fortune, about $4 million, helped found a retirement home, the Anna Emory Warfield Home for Aged Women, a memorial to his late mother.
Unfortunately, the hoped-for traffic on the Naples Extension never fully materialized. During the Second World War, parts of it were abandoned or sold. Business continued to falter, maintenance was prohibitively expensive and in 1952 what remained was completely torn up. Southwest Florida was then left to its carrier of olden days - the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad. The Miami Extension, though, fared much better and proved to be a traffic generator. Today, trains of CSX, Amtrak, and Tri Rail glide over the state-owned corridor. Without it, the transportation needs of the Gold Coast would suffer enormously.
