Hugh Taylor Birch seated in his mansion

Hugh Taylor Birch died in 1946 and donated the land to the state of Florida for the creation of Hugh Taylor Birch State Park.

From [2]:

Chicago attorney Hugh Taylor Birch and his business partner John McGregor Adams had purchased three miles of oceanfront along with other parcels in the 1890's to serve as a getaway. In 1902 they divided the property and Birch took the northern portion....Adams had Ed King construct a hunting lodge of concrete blocks at the south side of what is today Las Olas Boulevard and A1A. It was named "Las Olas".

The person that Hugh Taylor Birch State Park is named after.

"As attorney for John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil Co., Birch amassed a fortune. Not that one was necessary for assembling the beachfront property that would become the park, for which he reportedly paid $1 an acre. He built a house, now the park's visitor center."[1]

References

  1. Sun-Sentinel: Forgotten waterway at Lauderdale park to be restored

  2. Fort Lauderdale: The Venice of America By Susan Gillis Publisher Arcadia Publishing, 2004 ISBN 0738524719, 9780738524719

  3. Florida Memory entry

  4. Birch to Henderson: February 13, 1936

Edit tags