Laws, Graves and Dollars: Cultural Resources Regulation in a Community in Transformation

Law$, Grave$ and Dollar$:

Cultural Resources Regulation in a

Community in Transformation

By Christopher Eck, Broward County Historical Commission

Society for Historical Archaeology 2007 conference

Depicted in the photographs are a member of the founding Stranahan family and several visiting Seminoles in 1900 and a 1905 boat excursion up New River in what would become downtown Fort Lauderdale.

In 1900, all of southeast Florida combined had a total population of only 4,955 people. That same area today has about 5.5 million.

In a little over one hundred years, Broward County – the metropolitan Fort Lauderdale part of that area – has grown from a virtually unpopulated wilderness to nearly 1.8 million people or one out of every ten persons now living in Florida.

Depicted in the photographs are the Brickell Trading post in the 1890s on the south side of the mouth of the Miami River and the Royal Palm Hotel on the north side of the mouth of the river, c. 1906. Both are in the heart of downtown Miami today and both are the locations of two significant archaeological sites.

The area that is downtown Miami, in what is today modern Miami-Dade County, had a small settlement of several dozen people as early as the 1850s. That did not change considerably until after the coming of the railroad in 1896, which linked the lower southeast coast of Florida with the popular tourist destination of Saint Augustine, in northeastern Florida, with the cities of the Atlantic seaboard and brought a huge winter resort hotel to the area.

Shortly thereafter, land development in the City of Miami and its environs took off rapidly – much more so than the tiny settlement of Fort Lauderdale 30 miles to the north. Today, Miami-Dade County accounts for nearly 2.4 million people in southeast Florida or about 1 of every seven people in the State of Florida.

To give you an idea of the area’s population density, all of the people of Broward County, for instance, are squeezed into an area of about 410 square miles of the county’s 1197 sq. mi. of land (the eastern 1/3 of the red area on the map). The remaining 787 sq. mi. of “land” (mostly Everglades wetlands) are used for water and natural resources conservation for the Everglades and cannot be further developed. This makes for a density of approximately 4,335 people per sq. mi.

By comparison, Rhode island (the small map) has 1045 sq. mi. & a population of 1,076,189 spread over almost its entire area, or about 1,030 people per sq. mi. (less than a ¼ of Broward County’s density).

Broward County (in red) and

Rhode Island compared.

Vying for space within Broward County, often unsuccessfully, are the nearly 300 archaeological sites that have been discovered and recorded. But, over the past century, an unknown number of sites have been destroyed by the rapid pace of development.

Accommodating all of these people and their effect upon local cultural resources, particularly sensitive archaeological sites taking up land where property can command prices of more than $1 million per acre, has been and remains a huge challenge.

Broward County is a very crowded place … and it is expected to get much more crowded over the next 15 years. If ever there was one, this is a “Community in Transformation.”

Demolition crews raze a 1950s Fort Lauderdale beach hotel, which is within an area identified as the “Beach/Barrier Island

Archaeological Zone” and construction occurs at a private residence along the New River in Fort Lauderdale within a recorded

archaeological site, 8BD2

Archaeology and Development in South Florida

Depicted above on the left is a survey plat map from Palm Beach County dating to 1895 and one on the right from the same year in Fort Lauderdale. Both graphically depict archaeological sites recorded by the survey teams.

Since the end of the 1800s, purposeful, often speculative, land development has played a huge part in shaping the history of Florida.

As south Florida began to develop in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, surveys commissioned to plat and sub-divide areas frequently recorded the remains of prior cultures.

As late as 1932, a USGS Map of Broward County shows the extent of the Everglades proportionate to the small urban

developments that largely hugged the Atlantic coastline to the east.

One hundred years ago, as with much of southern Florida, about 90 percent of

the land area that is now Broward County was part of the Everglades or its connecting streams. It was comprised of largely low-lying freshwater wetlands dotted with numerous hardwood hammock islands or cypress heads or pine forests that were subject to regular or seasonal inundation.

Archaeology and Development in South Florida

As in many other places in the US, the treatment of archaeological sites in 19th & 20th century-Florida was poor. Sites were viewed as a readily available resource for dirt, sand and shell for road & building construction or as a cheap source of amusement for relic hunters.

The Era Before the Legal Protection of Cultural

Resources

Whole groups of people – from families to church congregations – made visiting and digging in archaeological sites a regular pastime, contributing greatly to the rapid loss of information about the archaeological record for the state.

A church group in northern Florida and a local

worker in east central Florida get amusement

and livelihood from digging into local mound

sites.


Resources

Photographs from 1896 and 1906 showing first the leveling of

several prehistoric mounds for the construction of the Henry

Flagler’s Royal Palm Hotel in Miami and, secondly, the same

place ten years later being used by women guests of the hotel

for “clock golf”.


Resources

Photographs from the 1920s development of the City of Coral

Gables, a suburb of Miami, depicting the Coral Gables Indian

Mound and a new house on the site of the former mound but

located on scenic “Indian Mound Trail”.


Resources

As in Dade County, Broward County sites also were often a source of curiosity but also elicited little in the way of formal protection. Here Olympic swimmer and local resident Katherine Rawls examine human remains from a site near the beach at Hillsboro Inlet in 1935. By 1945 the site was destroyed by development.


Resources

Photos of divers and marine archaeological artifacts

found by off Broward County from (clockwise from

upper right) the 1920s, 1940s and 1960s.

The Beginning of Professional Study and Protection

of Archaeological Sites in Southern Florida

The first professional archaeologist to visit southeast Florida was Dr. Jeffries Wyman of Harvard’s Peabody Museum in 1869. That year he visited the mouth of the Miami River and made several cursory examinations into mounds and middens on both sides of the river, later also giving to his son with a letter a silver coin which he found and believed must have been lost by a US soldier while encamped here during one of the Seminole Wars.

The first archaeologist to visit Broward County did not occur until 1908 when Mark Raymond Harrington came to Fort Lauderdale to collect ethnographic material on the Seminoles for the Heye Foundation in New York. During his stay here he cursorily investigated at least two sites but did little more than collect a few objects from the surface and write a brief report about them.

Dr. Jeffries WymanMark R. Harrington

WPA Excavations in South Florida, 1935.

In 1935, the WPA undertook the first systematic archaeological investigations in

Broward County, excavating two sites near the boundary with Dade County using

federal emergency relief funding for the work.

Indian Mound Park: the first successful historic

preservation project in Broward County

The creation of Indian Mound Park in Pompano Beach in 1958 – at the city’s 50th

anniversary of incorporation celebration – marked a milestone in local cultural

resources protection. The park became the first publicly owned property in south

Florida to deliberately recognize and protect an archaeological site in southern

Florida.

Legal Protections for Archaeological Resources in

Florida and in southeast Florida

Overall, Florida and south Florida, in particular, were no slower or faster than most of the rest of the country in approving laws, regulations and staff to preserve, protect and promote archaeological resources.

1937 Bill to Create

State Archaeologist

1953 Bill to Create a Florida

Antiquities Act

1965 Bill to Create

Antiquities Act Passed

Legal Protections for Archaeological Resources in

Florida and in southeast Florida

Outside of occasional professional studies, most of the first systematic investigations into the archaeology of south Florida were conducted by avocationalists. In 1958, the Broward County Archaeological Society (BCAS) was first organized and was incorporated in 1959.

1961 County Commission

minutes re. BCAS1971 County Commission minutes

with BCAS requesting right to

excavate at Markham Park

1972 Article on BCAS excavations in western

Broward in advance of development at the Peace

Camp site and BCAS excavators

Legal Protections for Archaeological Resources

in Florida and in southeast Florida

PART II CODE OF ORDINANCES

Chapter 5 BUILDING REGULATIONS AND LAND USE*

ARTICLE XVI. ARCHAEOLOGICAL CULTURAL RESOURCE SITES*

ARTICLE XVI. ARCHAEOLOGICAL CULTURAL RESOURCE SITES*

__________*Editor's note--Section 1 of Ord. No. 92-38, adopted Sept. 8, 1992, effective Sept. 22, 1992, amended this code by adding Art. XIII, 5-300--5-308. Under authority of 3 of the ordinance, the editor has redesignated the provisions article XVI, 5-521--5-529.

__________

Sec. 5-521. Legislative findings.

The Board of County Commissioners finds that the preservation of lands containing archaeological sites until such lands have received final development approval constitutes a minimal development control and furthers the health, safety, and welfare of Broward County by preventing disturbance of valuable community prehistorical and historical sites and by allowing governmental and private land planning activities to provide for incorporation of archaeological cultural resource sites into development plans. Pursuant to section 8.04 of the Broward County Charter, this article shall be effective countywide and shall prevail over a municipal ordinance in conflict. For purposes of this article a municipal ordinance that prohibits ground disturbance in the same circumstances that this article prohibits ground disturbance of archaeological cultural resource sites shall not be considered to be in conflict with this article because it imposes additional restrictions.

(Ord. No. 92-38, 1, 9-8-92)

1992 Ordinance providing for express protections for archaeological sites in Broward County

The passage of the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 along with Florida’s Passage of its own Antiquities Act in 1965 served as encouragement for the Broward County Board of County Commissioners to pass its initial ordinance establishing the Broward County Historical Commission in 1972 and for Dade County to begin its own archaeological and historical survey in 1977 and culminating with the establishment of the Dade County Historic Preservation Division in 1981.

However, express legal protections for archaeological sites in Broward County were not provided for by county ordinance until 1992 and a contract, county archaeologist was not funded for hire by the county until 1994. Dade County, by contrast, implemented its archaeological protections in 1981 with the formation of its historic preservation agency.

Case Study: Miami Circle and One Miami

In 1998, as a developer prepared to build two 45-story

buildings on 2.4 acre site along the Miami River, local

preservation ordinances for the Dade County and the City of

Miami required an archaeological monitoring to coincide with

site clearing. During the demolition process significant

archaeological material was determined to be present

triggering a unique series of events & triggering a

phenomenal series of events.

Miami Circle NPS Study Public Hearings, 2004

At a public meeting, National Park Service’s Biscayne National Park staff discuss with and elicit comments from professionals and members of the public on the various issues involved with incorporating the Miami Circle site into the NPS system.

Miami Circle: What Is Being Allowed to Be Developed

Icon

Case Study: Miami Circle

Miami Today, May 18, 2006

Developer gets Brickell Park easement for

Icon sales centerBy Deserae del Campo

Miami commissioners last week approved a temporary easement

of 12,560 square feet of city-owned property in Brickell Park for

developers of Icon Brickell at 501 Brickell Ave.

The Related Group requested the temporary easement to house

its sales office as it begins to build the third tower of the project on

the site of the former Sheraton Biscayne Bay hotel.

The three-tower project is to have 1,705 condo units, 95 hotel

rooms, 25,000 square feet of retail space and 2,085 parking spaces.

According to city planning records, the cost to build Icon Brickell is

estimated at $1.2 billion. The Related Group bought the 598-room

hotel in December 2004 for $94 million.

Letters from the Brickell Homeowners Association and the Brickell

Area Association were submitted to the city backing the easement,

said Lori Billberry, Miami's director of public facilities.

"The sales office would be in the way of them constructing the third

tower," said Gloria Konsler, executive administrator for the Brickell

Area Association. "In exchange for the easement, developers would

be out of that space a year earlier than they expected. One reason

we are in favor of the easement is that the land will be back to

normal and usable by the public one year sooner."

The original agreement, filed in November, had the Related Group

on the land for five years with construction ending in 2010. But with

the easement, the developer should be out of Brickell Park by 2009.

"This is not a gift to them," said Tory "Sinclair" Jacobs, president of

the Brickell Homeowners Association. "It does make it easier for

them to do their construction. Part of the deal with Icon is they are

going to leave the park beautifully landscaped and manicured once

they are done.“

A member of the Brickell Area Association, Ms. Konsler said, will

sit on a commission overseeing a redesign of the park once

construction is completed.

Miami Today, January 13, 2005

Agreement reached in Brickell Park dispute

By Suzy Valentine

Deceased members of the Brickell family can rest in peace now that

some of their descendants are close to a deal with Related Group of

Florida over preservation of one of the Brickell area's last remaining

green spaces.

In the deal, made about 45 days ago, according to Related Vice

President Bill Thompson, the family agreed to deed about 8,300 square

feet of Brickell Park next to the Sheraton Brickell Bay hotel in exchange

for 11,000 square feet of bayfront land behind the Sheraton belonging to

Related.

It would end a lawsuit over preservation of the area filed more than 16

years ago.

Aside from its recreational value, the park has historical and

archaeological connections. It houses a family mausoleum from which

most of the bodies of the Brickells buried there have been removed and

earlier formed with Miami Circle the site of a Tequesta Indian settlement.

"The parties got into the thicket, and it took some creativity to cut

through the thicket," said attorney John Shubin of Shubin Bass, who is

refining the agreement.

"Several years ago, a group of affected landowners and many of you in

this organization retained our firm," he told members of the Brickell Area

Association on Tuesday, "to look into the proposal whereby the Brickell

family and the City of Miami would try to resolve litigation pending since

1988.“

The substance of the agreement is that Brickell Park except the areas

being exchanged between Related and the Brickell family will be

transferred to the city with a covenant in perpetuity restricting use to a

passive park. It can't be converted to a soccer or baseball field.

…

Case Study: The Symphony Condominium Site, Ft. Lauderdale

In 2002, the demolition of several older

commercial buildings along the north

bank of the New River, in an area

previously identified as

archaeologically sensitive, alerted the

office to the location of a previously

unrecorded archaeological site.


Consequently letters were sent to the developer by the local historic preservation

agency indicating that an archaeological survey must be conducted, while a state

review concluded that no survey was necessary for the issuance of its permits.


Excavations getting under

way at the Symphony Site

in Fort Lauderdale (above)

and a promotional

rendering of the Symphony

House Condominium

towers to be built at the

same location.


Excavation trench at the Symphony Site

(above) and the historic resources map

for Fort Lauderdale (right) that resulted

from the post-Symphony Site work

between the county and the city.

Case Study:

Stranahan House &

Camp Site, Fort

Lauderdale

Photograph of the Stranahan

House and Camp Site in 1910

(upper left) contrasted with view

of the proposed Icon Las Olas

condo tower to be built that is

involved in a law suit with the

Stranahan House museum board.

Case Study:

Stranahan House & Camp Site, Fort Lauderdale

In 1998, a New York real estate investor

purchased the 2 acres surrounding the National Register-listed Stranahan House. In 1999 litigation began over protecting the site and issues surrounding how the land could be developed. The lawsuits continue still.

Cultural Resources protection: Exploring why

it is so difficult in south florida

• Public misperception that local sites aren’t significant because of the lack of tangible surface remains (no “story in stone”)

• Public’s lack of appreciation for local archaeology and history because most of the population is not the descendant community (“not our history”)

• Most of the data on the significance of local archaeology is contained within “grey literature” or other technical sources and what is more widely known is not integrated into the local school curricula (lack of public education)

• Failure of local, state and federal government agencies to coherently coordinate the regulatory review process and to share data (lack of coordinated efforts)

• Inconsistency of enforcement of similar issues by local governments

• Failure of governmental bodies to adequately fund and staff reviewing bodies or set an example by seeking to preserve sites for the public on public land

• Failure of local, state and federal government agencies to provide adequate financial incentives for the protection of sites on private land

• Cost of local real estate

Publications by the Florida Department of State regarding

the protection of archaeological Sites.

Florida Department of State Division of Historical Resources Publications.

Interpretive mini-park designed for the Donna Site, north

Miami-Dade County, for a proposed mixed-use development.

Collections of Christopher Eck

Speaking About the public benefits of archaeology

and conservation at the opening of snake Warrior’s

Island Park, Miramar, Florida in 2004.

Broward County Office of Public Communications Image.

Conclu$ion$ & $ugge$tion$

• The public needs to be told the significance and history of the area’s archaeology

• The public needs to understand that the archaeology of south Florida is important regardless of whose ancestors were responsible & is valuable to the story of the US

• The school system must be prepared to integrate elements of what has become known through archaeology to its students & archaeologists must prepare material that expresses that knowledge in an audience-appropriate manner

• Florida should consider preparing a statewide archaeological electronic database for sharing reports and permit information, much like the NPS has begun to do, for all development reviewing agencies

• The state should prepare a comprehensive archaeological protection act that requires consistent enforcement for local development (much like the statewide building code) and is reviewed in the “sunshine” by local governments with public input

• Government bodies must adequately fund reviewing agencies statewide and set the example by preserving sites within their jurisdictions on public lands

• A comprehensive set of financial incentives should be made available to private land owners to encourage site preservation

Photographic Sources:

Collections of the Archaeological and Historical Conservancy, Inc., Davie, Florida

Collections of the Broward County Historical Commission, Fort Lauderdale

Collections of Christopher R. Eck

Collections of the Florida Department of State Bureau of Archaeological Research

Collections of the Fort Lauderdale Historical Society

Collections of the National Park Service

Collections of the State Library and Archives of Florida, Tallahassee

Laws, Graves and Dollars: Cultural Resources Regulation in a Community in Transformation

Documents

Transcript of Laws, Graves and Dollars: Cultural Resources Regulation in a Community in Transformation