by Jeff Blakley I was saddened to learn from Karon Buckley that two of our historic houses were recently demolished: the Kosel home at the northwest corner of Redland and Plummer and the Schaff house, on Krome at 273rd St. … Continue reading →
By Jeff Blakley Did you ever go out to Grossman’s Hammock before it became part of Everglades National Park to see the sulphur spring? Did you ever wonder where it got its name? Did you wonder if perhaps the name … Continue reading →
By Jeff Blakley In this post, my goal is to draw a better picture of the Reverend J. M. Cormack, whose name appears in other stories written about the early history of the Florida City and Homestead areas. In those … Continue reading →
By Jeff Blakley Shortly after I published David Torcise’s Google Earth map of the locations of the homesteads of early settlers in this area, I received an e-mail from a man who thanked David and me for our work and … Continue reading →
By Jeff Blakley When I started researching the early settlers of Florida City and Homestead in April of 2015, I soon wanted to know exactly where they had claimed their homesteads. The links on the sidebar entitled BLM Tract books … Continue reading →
by Jeff Blakley After David Torcise performed his magic with the original homesteads in South Dade, I discovered Krome’s 1903 Cape Sable Expedition Survey and wondered if it might be possible to overlay it on a satellite view of the … Continue reading →
By Jeff Blakley At the turn of the 20th century, Florida City (originally known as Detroit) was marketed by its developer, the Miami Land & Development Company, as a planned agricultural community. While Homestead, to the north, had its roots … Continue reading →
By Jeff Blakley The following article was generously shared with us by Robert Fuchs, the owner of RF Orchids in Homestead, Florida. In it, Margaret Mae Stull Williams, Robert’s maternal grandmother, relates how she and her husband came to Homestead … Continue reading →
By Jeff Blakley In my earlier post about Walter A. Frazeur, I relied on Jean Taylor’s information about how the People’s Telephone Company was established. She wrote that J.U. Free bought the three circuits that belonged to Walter Frazeur in … Continue reading →
By Jeff Blakley Anyone who starts to delve into the early history of this area soon reads about William J. Krome’s survey of a proposed route for the extension of the Florida East Coast Railway from Homestead to Key West … Continue reading →
