Hallandale Beach, Florida

Hallandale Beach is a city in Broward County, Florida, United States. The city is named after Luther Halland, the son of a Swedish worker for Henry Flagler's Florida East Coast Railroad. As of the 2010 census, the population was 37,113.

The city is known as the home of Gulfstream Park (horse racing and casino) and Mardi Gras Casino, a greyhound racing track which hosts the World Classic. It also has a sizable financial district, with offices for a number of banks and brokerage houses. Due to the large number of tourists who eventually retire in the city, Hallandale Beach has one of the fastest-growing populations in Broward County and in Metro Miami.

History

Hallandale Beach, like most of Broward County, had no permanent European-descended population until the end of the 19th century. Seminole Indians, in settlements that lay inland of the Atlantic shore, hunted in the area and gathered coontie roots to produce arrowroot starch.

Railroad magnate Henry Flagler, owner of the Florida East Coast Railway, recruited Luther Halland, a brother-in-law of Flagler's agents, to found a settlement south of the community of Dania. Halland and Swedish immigrant Olaf Zetterlund touted the frost-free climate and cheap land of the settlement (then named Halland, later changed to Hallandale). Halland constructed a small trading post and became the first postmaster of the small community.

Florida

Florida ⁱ/ˈflɒrɪdə/ (Spanish for "flowery land") is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. The state is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, and to the south by the Straits of Florida and the country of Cuba. Florida is the 22nd most extensive, the 3rd most populous, and the 8th most densely populated of the United States. Jacksonville is the most populous city in Florida, and the largest city by area in the contiguous United States. The Miami metropolitan area is the eighth-largest metropolitan area in the United States. Tallahassee is the state capital.

A peninsula between the Gulf of Mexico, the Atlantic Ocean, and the Straits of Florida, it has the longest coastline in the contiguous United States, approximately 1,350 miles (2,170 km), and is the only state that borders both the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean. Much of the state is at or near sea level and is characterized by sedimentary soil. The climate varies from subtropical in the north to tropical in the south. The American alligator, American crocodile, Florida panther, and manatee can be found in the Everglades National Park.

Broward County, Florida

Broward County is a county located in the U.S. state of Florida. As of 2010, the population was 1,748,066, making it the second-most populous county in Florida and the 18th-most populous in the United States. Its county seat is Fort Lauderdale.

Broward County is part of the Miami Metropolitan Area.

History

Although the area has been settled since about 1400 B.C., Broward County was founded on October 1, 1915. It was named for Napoleon Bonaparte Broward, Governor of Florida from 1905 to 1909. It was originally intended to be named Everglades County, but then-Speaker of the Florida House of Representatives Ion Farris amended the bill that established the county to be named after Broward. In 1915, Palm Beach County and Dade County contributed nearly equal portions of land to create Broward County.

Broward County began a huge development boom after its incorporation, with the first "tourist hotel", in Fort Lauderdale, opening in 1919. A year later, developers began vacating swamps in the county in order to create island communities. By 1925, the boom was considered to have reached its peak, but a 1926 hurricane caused economic depression in the county. The structure of county government was signed into law in 1975 with the passage of the Broward County charter.