Last year, I led my first tour on the Intracoastal Waterway about this time of year while aboard the ubiquitous WaterTaxi in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. The participants were Road Scholars, a program devised by the Cambridge, Mass., non-profit organization that launched ElderHostel some years ago, today a worldwide lifetime learning program. Participants ranged in age [...]
Category: Fort Lauderdale
Commodore Avylen Harcourt Brook (1866-1946)
Commodore Avylen Harcourt Brook was born in Sheffield, England, in 1866 into a family of silver and bronze electroplaters. His early education was in England. Brook studied art under the famous English artist and critic John Ruskin. It was said that one of his 'parlor tricks' was to paint two paintings simultaneously, one with his [...]
Commodore Brook rescues President-elect Warren G. Harding on New River Sound
Commodore Brook rescues President-elect Warren G. Harding on New River Sound in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. (1921)
Varieties of Florida Croton
Florida croton.
James Louis Colee (1834-1912)
Original incorporator and director of the Florida canal company, James Colee (pronounced, 'Coolee') served as an engineer in the dredging of the Intracoastal Waterway until his death in 1912. Colee also served as state representative and county commissioner for St. Johns County and was a stockholder in the First National Bank of St. Augustine. In [...]
Commodore Brook “rescues” Harding
Owned by Commodore Avylen Harcourt Brook, the sloop Klyo "rescued" President-elect Warren G. Harding (in white pants, waving the hat) when the houseboat in which he had cruised hit a "snag" on the poorly maintained--and privately owned--Florida East Coast Canal (after 1929, the Intracoastal Waterway) at Fort Lauderdale in 1921. Born in Sheffield, England, in [...]
Florida’s Big Dig 