Dania Beach Tutors Come To You

The story of Dania Beach is one of a rich and proud history. Late in the 18th Century, 12 Danish families, relocated from Chicago and settled in Southern Florida, creating the charming little village they named Modello. Three years later, 30 Danes came to colonize the settlement, and in November 1904, because most of the residents at that time were Danes, they incorporated and changed the name to Dania.

Pioneer life was difficult for the Danes, but the arrival of an entrepreneurial Dane, A.C. Frost, who served as an agent for the Modello Land Company, came to Dania and advanced the course of the town. He founded a small Tomato Farm in the East Marsh that ran from the Federal Highway to the Intercostal Waterway. A few years later, he relocated his entire family to Dania, and erected a general store, a post office and built the first store in Dania. Following the incorporation of the city, tomato farms became prolific, and Dania was becoming known as “The Tomato Capital of the World.”

After Frost passed, his son was quick to follow in his father’s footsteps. Very quickly Dania become home to two canning factories and 14 packing houses. As early as 1910, the Florida East Coast Railway was shipping thousands of tomatoes to the Northeast that had been packed and canned under the name, “Frosties” or “Love Tomatoes.” In 1927, the first “Tomato Day Celebration” was organized to help raise funds for the new Dania Methodist Church and attracted a crowd of over 5000 people. The celebration continued into the 1940’s because it was so successful and featured messy, but official, tomato fights and a “Miss Tomato Festival Pageant.” Unfortunately, the tomato boom was over by the late 40’s because crops began to fail from salt water intrusion into the fields.

Simultaneously, however, just as the tomato industry was fading, a new type of commerce began emerging — the antique business. Genevieve and Willard Ely set up the first shop in 1945, but it took over 10 years for others to follow. Once it began to boom, the City of Dania was soon pronounced “The Antique Capital of the South.” Today there are over 100 antique shops to browse and buy unique wares in Downtown Dania. Antique Row has become a browser’s and shopper’s paradise with its malls. If you’re a history buff, you may also enjoy the fact the stores themselves are housed in buildings steeped in the City’s history, which includes Broward County’s first movie theatre.

There’s also a wealth of historic architecture and a variety of different styles, including Greek Revival, Mission Revival, Mediterranean Revival. If you like Art Deco, be sure to see the Florida Theatre built in 1939 and the Pirates Inn (formerly The Hotel Katherine), which was built in 1940.

Perhaps wives can reason with their husbands, who don’t like to shop, that they simply must not miss the famous “architectural and historical tour” of Dania Beach!