Florida In The 1920s. Deja Vu?

WSJ columnist Cynthia Crossen looks back at the colorful Florida land rush of the 1920s.

1 minute read

August 5, 2005, 11:00 AM PDT

"The Florida boom of the 1920s was far from America's first land rush, but it was certainly one of its most colorful, thanks to visionaries and hucksters...

In less than a decade, that psychology transformed Florida from an overgrown bog to the epicenter of get-rich-quick schemes. Debarking from a train in Miami in 1925, an English tourist remarked on the city's "tropical bedlam," where sales agents pounced on visitors with noisy promises of "unsurpassed fortune."

...Before long, however, Florida began to choke on its own growth."

[Editor's note: The link below is available to non-subscribers for a period of 6 days.]

Thanks to Chris Steins

FULL STORY: Land in 1920s Florida Was So Hot, People Sold Underwater Lots

Wednesday, August 3, 2005 in Wall St. Journal

History / Preservation United States

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