Before there were glass storefronts and valet lanes, this site was a mangrove swamp. In 1943, Hugh Taylor Birch left a 112-acre stretch of that lowland in northern Fort Lauderdale to Antioch College in Ohio.
Starting in the early 1950s, the college filled the swamp, then sold off portions for nearby housing while holding back 40 acres for a retail project. Lot sales brought in about $2 million in the early 1950s.
This money helped pay for Antioch’s Fort Lauderdale project as it got closer to building the shopping center…