Sistrunk Boulevard is the main street of the oldest Black neighborhood in Fort Lauderdale. It was a thriving arterial for many of the city's historically black communities. Lining its corridor was the first theater in Broward where Black people could watch movies, the first hospital that would treat Black patients and numerous locally owned businesses.
But around the 1980’s the area began to be neglected and slum and blight crept in. In recent years, the Sistrunk neighborhood has seen a boom in new construction leading to raising housing costs and gentrification.
A new exhibit at the Old Dillard Museum, “Sistrunk Then & Now” will highlight those changes. The exhibit features historical then-and-now photos from as far back as the 1950s paired with current day photos of the same locations. It debuts Jan. 15 with an opening night program, beginning at 6 p.m.
”You see the nostalgia of it, of what the community used to look like, but you’re also seeing the changing of the times.” said Emmanuel George, the museum’s curator and community liaison, “It is a bit worrying because of the locals who are here, who are rooted from here, whose grandparents and parents are from here — this could be affecting them.”
There are also large “impact photos” from photographer Gene Hyde to give a sense of place for what Sistrunk looked like in the 1950s. Hyde was the longtime photographer for the Broward edition of the Miami Herald.
READ MORE: For these Broward photographers, cameras are a preservation tool
The contemporary photos were taken by David Paulo, whose Instagram page @ShotByLeather chronicles Broward landmarks.
“ A lot of people actually aren't aware of what was before us. People my age — I'm 28 years old — they think Broward County was just developed in the 70s and 80s when really back in the 40s and 50s it was thriving,” he said.
Paulo and George are frequent collaborators, their YouTube page TheHub954 features a host of documentary films about Broward’s Black art, history, and culture.
“ That's my brother, we always work together,” George said of Paulo, “Both of our work is very similar. Him through photography and archiving history, and me through data and research, it goes hand in hand like peanut butter and jelly.”
The exhibit’s opening night will be showing two of the pair’s short films “The Hub: Fort Lauderdale” and “Trekking Thru Sistrunk”. There will also be a community panel featuring people who went to Dillard High School during segregation. George hopes that the exhibit can create an intergenerational connection.
“ The older generation has a lot of understanding of the community. There's things that they know about the community that the younger generation may not know about, and the younger generation has a lot of foresight into what the future is gonna be. They're gonna be here for the next 20, 30, 40, 50 years.” he said.
It's those intergenerational connections that George says can lead to solutions for the neighborhood's residents.
“ It's inevitable for the community to change, but how do we find that balance to where it benefits the locals who are from here as well?” he said.
The exhibit runs from Jan. 15 to Jan. 30 before moving to Terminal 4 at the Fort Lauderdale Hollywood International Airport where it will be stationed for three to four months.
“ When I do go into Fort Lauderdale airport, it's always art of maybe alligators or sports like the Florida Panthers. So to see history, especially black history, which is super rich in Fort Lauderdale’s airport, it's major,” said Paulo.
IF YOU GO:
What: Sistrunk: Then & Now
When: Opening night January 15 @ 6pm. Monday- Friday until Jan 30.
Where: Old Dillard Museum, 1009 NW 4th St, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33311
