https://venice.floridaweekly.com/articles/florida-before-the-mouse/
IMAGES COURTESY FLORIDA ROADSIDE ATTRACTIONS HISTORY
IT WAS THE LATE 1940S, AND Dad was home after serving in World War II.
Gas rations were lifted, and the family, at last, could take a well-deserved road trip.
So, they gassed up the Dodge or the Hudson or the Buick and they hit the bumpy two-lane road to Florida, escaping the cold and savoring the scent of the orange blossoms that lined the highways of the day.
If the kids were lucky, Mother and Dad had a little extra cash to spend along the way at places like Everglades Wonder Gardens in Bonita Springs or Sarasota Jungle Gardens. Later still, they could marvel at the car collection of an opera star, at James Melton Autorama in Hypoluxo, or visit Caribbean Gardens in Naples.
Waltzing Waters beckoned visitors to Cape Coral, where they spent evenings mesmerized by lighted fountains that seemingly danced and swayed to canned music.
It was another world, and author Ken Breslauer takes you there, along winding roads paved with nostalgia, with “Florida: Roadside Attractions History.”
The Shell Factory first opened more than 80 years ago in Bonita Springs. It has been at its North Fort Myers location (above) for decades.
His book is rich in stories about the Sunshine State’s tourism during its golden age — starting in the 1930s when auto travel boomed and culminating in the ’70s when interstates cut off former main roads and passed by small towns that boasted the parks and gardens.
“Early tourism was so important to Florida,” Mr. Breslauer said. Many attractions were started before or during the Great Depression and saved the state’s economy after its 1920s land boom went bust.
Tourism would become and remain Florida’s leading industry. In 2018, a record 121.1 million visitors were here, according to Visit Florida, the state’s marketing department.
The Florida author writes of a tourist state he remembers traveling post-war and during a baby boom — pre-Disney World. Families made a loop of the state “like the Grand Tour of Europe, but in Florida,” he said, getting in as many sights and attractions as possible in a two-week vacation.
They were exposed to Florida’s tourist stops with state exhibits at major expositions and fairs up North. Sans GPS, they consulted paper maps and followed roadway signs and billboards to attractions large and small that promised thrills only the Sunshine State could offer.
“The two most common things in scrapbooks are Spanish moss — this was a novelty to the tourists — they had never seen it, and orange blossoms. These were so foreign to the people from up North. You really were exploring a foreign state, visiting Florida,” Mr. Breslauer said.
Flamingos, alligators, exotic birds — all were unusual.
Situated next to lakes and brilliant blue springs, attractions advertised Southern belles in billowing dresses, exotic gardens with cascading tropical flowers and live mermaids inhabiting crystal-clear waters.
Tourists poured in from the Northeast and Midwest on U.S. Routes 1 (aka Dixie Highway), 27, 41 — the Tamiami Trail, 98 and 301 — the major roads before interstates began. Tolls back then were only for ferries hauling cars to Sanibel or across the St. Johns River.
They drove two-lane roads that wound like zippers through hilly orange groves in Lake Wales to see Spook Hill and rolled oranges from a nearby grove “uphill.”
They skirted shorelines where beach sand often covered the blacktop, with only dunes separating the cars from the waves, to see the porpoises jump up and ring a bell at Marineland.
The heady perfume of citrus blossoms blew in through the open car windows of the new family wagon as they rolled through Clermont and Lake Wales. That fragrance would be bottled and sold as a souvenir, along with pinklined conchs made into TV lights and stuffed baby alligator heads — mouths opened — to serve as ashtrays.
In Lake Wales, they visited Bok Tower, home to a carillon that gave it its nickname: The Singing Tower. It’s still there.
“Every Floridian should go there,” Mr. Breslauer said. The peaceful gardens were a big draw when it was new. “People don’t appreciate the natural part of history.”
They’d ultimately visit their dream destinations: Cypress Gardens and Silver Springs.
“Before Disney, Silver Springs and Cypress Gardens were the ‘it’ attractions for Florida,” Mr. Breslauer said. Marketing for these two parks was heavy and prolific. In 1963, Cypress Gardens tied with the Grand Canyon as the most visited place in the U.S.
Created in the mid-1930s by savvy marketer Dick Pope, Cypress Gardens was first a 200-acre fantasy-like exotic garden punctuated by palms, Spanish moss-laced towering oaks and vivid flowering bushes. Visitors toured its winding canals via the park’s small motorboats.
After a deep freeze killed many of the plants in the 1940s, beauties dressed in Southern belle regalia were added as novel eye candy. Its signature water ski shows on Lake Eloise were added during World War II to entertain troops stationed nearby.
Colorful brochures filled the racks of motor courts and hotels of the Sunshine State in an effort to lure Northern visitors south with a promise of the exotic and the tropical.
A pool in the shape of Florida also drew tourists, especially after Hollywood swim-star Esther Williams used it in several of her movies.
In articles about Walt Disney, he recalled taking notes from Mr. Pope on his marketing techniques that would later be used for his own “Florida Project” — Disney World.
In a cruel move, it was Disney that would put the park and most of the other Central Florida attractions out of business. Cypress Gardens is now Legoland, another theme park that has nothing to do with Florida, Mr. Breslauer said.
But before Disney and Mickey Mouse invaded, the tourists stopped at fruit stands, shell shops, and petting zoos along the highways. They stayed in neon-lit motor courts or followed signs for those new chains popping up: Holiday Inn and Howard Johnson’s Motor Lodge.
The small motels lined U.S. 1 near the attractions, the author said. “They were clean, mom-and-pop places. Most built their swimming pools in the front … they attracted the drivers. They all had shuffleboard courts — it was so popular back then.”
Cypress Gardens was known for its Southern belles in hoop skirts (above) and its ski shows.
Roadside picnic tables accommodated those who packed their meals: there were no fast-food spots. Cafes and small eateries were spaced far apart on many roads; “filling stations” only grew as tourism took off.
Some motels and restaurants would become tourist attractions on their own, such as the Wigwam Village in Orlando, Chalet Suzanne in Lake Wales and the Old South Bar-B-Que Ranch in Clewiston.
Visitors were guided by the Burma Shave-type signs at the roadsides, beckoning and teasing them a quarter-mile at a time with promises of fresh-squeezed orange juice, glass-bottomed boats and live gators “Just Ahead.”
Monkeys dangling from palms, dolphins arcing through hoops, and neon-bright feathered parrots on placards showed the Miami tourist stops of Monkey Jungle, the Miami Seaquarium and Parrot Jungle down south. A fierce-looking cobra loomed large on a billboard, daring you to discover deadly snakes and their daredevil handlers at the Miami Serpentarium.
Opera singer James Melton showcased his car collection at his Autorama in Hypoluxo.
Back then, these attractions large and small peppered the highways, quirky spots such as Tom Gaskin’s Cypress Knee Museum in Palmdale, the Great Masterpiece — a mosaic recreation of DaVinci’s “Last Supper” in Lake Wales, or the Moonshine Still in St. Augustine.
Animals figured prominently — a chimp farm, bird shows by the dozens, and the ever-present alligator, which of course, had to be wrestled.
He laughs at the reptiles — the classic icon of Florida.
“Gators were an icon of Florida tourism — still are, really. My friends from Europe think they’re running loose everywhere.”
In Boca Raton, John Pedersen opened Africa USA in 1953 as a replica of an African savannah, complete with zebras, elephants, gazelles and giraffes that freely roamed the 300 acres. The animals were apparently at home with the native vegetation, and the close-up, open-air safari tour thrilled visitors.
“It was the first cageless zoo,” Mr. Breslauer said. “It was one of the most important — very well done.” He says urban legend has it there are descendants of the peacocks from it still roaming in the Camino Gardens neighborhood of Boca Raton.
Relatives of many animals from petting zoos and habitats are said to still be around, including wild monkeys in Miami from Monkey Jungle, and flocks that can be traced to the first birds brought to the Parrot Jungle in Miami.
The Seville Peacock Farm in Clearwater claimed to have the largest collection of peafowl in the world; peacocks are heard in neighborhoods nearby even today.
Just stopping at a roadside novelty seems foreign now to modern visitors, Mr. Breslauer said. He says he pities those who barely leave the interstates — if they even drive — never venturing far beyond the major theme parks in Central Florida. They’re looking down, as they research restaurants and activities on their phones, planning every moment, taking selfies that stand as the only proof they were there.
He quotes Charles Kurault, famed for his “On the Road” series traveling the U.S. “Thanks to the interstate highway system, you can drive forever and not see anything.”
Mr. Breslauer is a student of history and a native of Delray Beach. Once a sportswriter in Pensacola, he now works for Sebring’s International Speedway.
He earned his master’s degree in historic preservation, and from the start was interested in Florida’s tourist attractions. He wrote his graduate thesis on their preservation.
It was prescient. “Right after I did that, Cypress Gardens closed in 2003. Silver Springs, Marineland — they all closed soon after,” he said.
The interstates, modern technology and mass development have eaten alive the best parts of Florida, he says. More than 75 percent of those old attractions are gone, paved over, sold to developers, or eclipsed by modern theme parks.
He explains a societal shift as well.
“Alligator wrestling and bird shows are not enough anymore,” he said. “We need simulated earthquakes and air conditioning.”
Also missing: back-road adventurers. “The opening of the turnpike, and later I-95, was the downfall of the attractions,” he said. Most of the tourist parks were along U.S. Highway 1 or U.S. Highway 27. “It was the evolution of traffic patterns that pulled the motorists from the highways.”
All that’s left of some are the souvenirs and photos of the parks and attractions. Mr. Breslauer is an avid collector of this Floridiana; it’s part of the preservation he wants to ensure, saving what he can of the former tourism stars.
In his West Palm Beach home he has hundreds of Florida souvenirs displayed in glass-front cabinets. They are a museum for the gift shop and travel stop items a tourist might have picked up as a gift or a memento of a trip back in the day.
Ashtrays, postcards, snow globes, push-button flip calendars, trip calculators from gas stations that show distances to Florida from cities around the U.S., and all types of icons sold in sets as salt and pepper shakers line shelves and drawers. Each was branded with either Florida, or the name of the attraction or city, picked up for a dollar or less.
He hunts them down online and at estate sales; he finds scrapbooks of tourist trips to Florida in every state and in most foreign countries.
“People traveled from as far away as California and Europe to come here,” Mr. Breslauer said. “They saw pictures of the exotic gardens, and sunny beaches and glass-bottomed boats.” They wanted to see them in person, and many had the means to do it by car.
He has photos, many black and white and dating to the 1940s of whole families smiling next to their car parked by the giant gates to the gardens with overflowing trellises framing the shot.
“I love the roadside view of the signs,” he said. “The photos they took of the entrances and gates.”
These places had beautiful entrances, he said, many with oversized architectural features and impressive, lush landscaping. They were placed amid the natural beauty of the state and represented the best of it.
“Disney World, on the other hand, could be anywhere. It has nothing to do with Florida,” he said.
By far, Silver Springs was the most represented attraction in his collection, and not because it’s his favorite — it was everyone’s top tour stop. His one big regret after researching it is not getting to see this star in its heyday.
“Silver Springs was the Disney World of the day,” he said. “You don’t qualify as a Floridian unless you’ve been in a glass-bottomed boat,” he said, only half joking.
Northerners were attracted to the glass-bottomed boats floating atop the blue artesian springs, along with its beautiful gardens.
Marineland opened in 1938 in the St. Augustine area. It recently reportedly sold to a Cancun company. and opened in 1938 in the St. Augustine area.
The springs were clear, the sun was always shining — in the photos, anyway — and people were in shirt sleeves. Palms and wide oaks laced with Spanish moss, cypress knees and flame vines made everything seem exotic. Tourists were hooked.
Media helped. “Tarzan” and “Sea Hunt” were filmed here. Celebrities staged their photo shoots here. Doris Day starred in a romantic comedy filmed here. The theme park was so popular, it offered annual passes for guests.
Other acts became involved; Ross Allen’s Florida Reptile Institute opened within the park in 1930 and quickly became one of the most popular attractions in the state. His expertise in reptiles and daredevil shows handling venomous snakes made him an international star.
Other springs were developed into parks as well: Rainbow, Homassassa, and the famous Weeki Wachee, which made its debut with the “World’s Original Underwater Show” in 1947.
Caribbean Gardens was founded a century ago. It’s now Naples Zoo at Caribbean Gardens.
Its theater featured live “mermaids.” The acrobatic women in fishtail suits breathed through hoses strategically placed throughout the fake underwater reef. The show featured 35 mermaids in the 1960s at the top of its popularity.
There were gardens galore: Rainbow Tropical Gardens in Boynton Beach, which Mr. Breslauer counts as the one he’s sorry to have missed. Sunken Gardens in St. Petersburg, McKee Jungle Gardens in Vero Beach and Slocum Water Gardens in Winter Haven were popular stops.
The Seminoles were represented at Musa Isle in Miami, a theme park opened in 1922 that spawned dozens of other villages around the state. It became Miami’s top attraction and brought forth a wealth of souvenirs. Seminole dolls and skirts from the park are still a coveted memento by collectors.
A part of tourism now considered blatantly racist is represented by the Lewis Plantation and Turpentine Still in Brooksville. It opened in 1936, attempting to depict life on a pre-Civil War plantation. Local black residents played the roles of slaves who demonstrated turpentine production using period equipment. Every stereotype known for African-Americans is represented here, with no nod to the more sinister side of slavery.
The attraction closed in the mid-’60s — just as Civil Rights and the interstate highway system took off.
They weren’t unique, Mr. Breslauer said.
“A lot of attractions had policies regarding blacks. They had separate entrances or even alternate attractions.
“Silver Springs had the black-owned Paradise Park,’’ he said. “Amazing how many white Floridians never knew about it. Florida was the South back in the day.”
The Green Book — the story of the “safe” black tourist motels and attractions, “is an ugly side of history,” Mr. Breslauer said.
He’s nostalgic about the passing of most of the attractions.
“It’s a shame, growing up now, kids will never get to see some of these things,” he said. Though there are many still operating and thriving — Homasassa Springs and its manatees, Weeki Wachee with its mermaid show, the Miami Seaquarium and the Coral Castle in Homestead (“one of the most bizarre”) — it’s hard to find authentic old attractions.
“The St. Augustine Alligator Farm is still very original and probably the oldest one still operating in the state,” he said. It was founded in 1893.
Everglades Wonder Gardens in Bonita Springs is another attraction of venerable age, dating from 1936.
Mr. Breslauer urges Floridians to get to them now, however, before they’re gone.
While they might seem cheesy to some, they’re the real thing — something the Imagineers can’t create, he said.
Slow down, and hit the back roads, too, he said, where you’ll find most of them. ¦
Ali H. Johnston, MBA in Real Estate
REALTOR®, Lic. Broker #BK3284964
West Villages Realty LLC
19503 S West Villages Pkwy
Stes A2 & A11 (by Appt)
Venice, Florida 34293
Office: 941-460-3179
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