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Florida: A historical tourist attraction
Article published on Saturday, July 5, 2008 |
Before theme parks promised magical vacations, Florida’s white sand and sparkling surf offered the stuff of dreams.
Four million tourists visited Florida in 1950. In 1970 that number had soared to 23 million. Most tourists sought sun-splashed escape on Florida’s 660 miles of beach, the state’s most iconic geographic feature.
“Without the beach, Florida is Arkansas with palm trees,” writes historian Gary Mormino in his book, “Land of Sunshine, State of Dreams: A Social History of Modern Florida.”
Florida’s first beach resorts appeared more than 100 years ago. In the late 19th century, northern excursionists began seeing Florida as an exotic getaway. During the 1880s, Jacksonville was the state’s most popular tourist destination, and city fathers, hoping to make a good thing even better, built a 16-mile railroad to the Atlantic Ocean beaches.
Henry Flagler’s East Coast Railway, meanwhile, stretched down the Atlantic coast; by 1894, the Gilded Age magnate had established Palm Beach, which became the “Queen of Winter Resorts.”
In the Panhandle, the Pensacolian newspaper reported in 1887 that sunbathers had invaded Santa Rosa Island, once described as a shrub-littered sand bar: “We predict … Santa Rosa will become the Coney Island of the South.”
Volusia County’s Halifax Journal rhapsodized about “surf bathing (in) a perfectly safe gigantic bathing trough as provided by nature.”
The beach and its amenities – saltwater breezes, open-air dance pavilions, seafood broils – became synonymous with indulgent, even sensuous pleasure. An emergent beach culture soon challenged Victorian society’s confining, one-piece, neck-to-ankle bathing suit for women.
Leading the way in 1918 was Jane Fisher, the flamboyant wife of Miami Beach promoter Carl Fisher.
Among the early flappers, she adopted a form-fitting bathing suit and refused to wear the usual long, black stockings. Predictably, Dade County preachers denounced her “as a symbol of brazenness of the modern woman.”
During the 1920s boom, winter visitors flocked to the beaches in Sarasota, Hollywood, Boca Raton and St. Petersburg. Mediterranean Revival architecture, reminiscent of European seaside vistas, became the model for ornate, beachfront hotels.
The Great Depression and World War II temporarily interrupted the party, but military leaders found beaches useful in other ways. The War Department requisitioned resorts to serve as barracks, and recruits practiced amphibious landings to prepare for the grimmer sands of Iwo Jima, Tarawa and Normandy.
After the war, the returning troops still had sunny memories of Florida sands, and they moved here in droves, sparking one of the most dramatic growth stories in modern America.
The state’s population exploded from 1.9 million on the eve of World War II to more than 18 million in 2007.
Even today, although theme parks reign as the biggest tourist draws, Florida’s beaches are still popular destinations for visitors and residents looking for relaxation and escape from the workaday world.
This story is provided by the Florida Humanities Council (www.flahum.org), a nonprofit organization that sponsors public programs exploring Florida’s history and cultural heritage.
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Article published on Saturday, July 5, 2008
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