By Jeff Blakley I was recently sent a series of photographs taken in Detroit in 1911. I’ve managed to identify some of the people in the photographs. One of them, I think, is that of Alice M. Graves, wife of Thomas L. Graves, who came to Detroit in 1911 from Pontiac, Illinois, where he was…
by Jeff Blakley If you stop at Robert is Here, at the corner of Tower Road and Palm Drive west of Florida City to buy a milkshake or some of their other offerings and if you look very closely at the overgrown northwest corner of the intersection you might by able to see that there…
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 in 160 acre quarter-sections of land homesteaded by individual settlers, Detroit had its roots in…
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 via Cape Sable. Jerry Wilkinson has written an account of the expedition on his website,…
by Jeff Blakley I subscribed to Genealogy Bank the other day, at the suggestion of Larry Wiggins, and I’ve found it to be an invaluable source of information about the early days of this area. As I was reading newspaper clippings about Detroit, I was intrigued with the incessant boosterism tone of the articles and…
