It’s a once-in-a-lifetime moment in South Florida history.
A century ago, the region experienced a land boom when investors and developers from around the country came down on trains and automobiles and started building cities where once there was swampland, farms and small settlements. Cities sprang up almost overnight. Thanks to a burgeoning post-war economy, entrepreneurial spirit and good old fashioned Florida glamour, the area’s population shot up to the hundreds of thousands.
Now, 11 cities from Palm Beach County to Miami-Dade are celebrating their centennials in 2025 and 2026. In honor of this milestone, WLRN News will be bringing together stories from each of these communities that peer through history to give us a better understanding of the present and our shared future.
The series History We Call Home: 100 Years of South Florida will run throughout the year and will highlight locales across the region. Our reporters will spotlight the moments, ideas and people that made these cities part of our community's fabric over the past century. We hope you'll join us on this journey.
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Hollywood is one of several cities across South Florida celebrating its centennial this year. Before Hollywood was founded in 1925, a segregated neighborhood called Liberia opened for Black residents. At the time, discriminatory Jim Crow laws denied them equal opportunities. -
Stories from "History We Call Home: 100 Years of South Florida" are featured in the Dade Heritage Trust's annual Preservation Today publication. -
The Hollywood hotel has followed the city's history — from inception to weathering storms and discrimination. 100 years later, as the city thrives, the historic venue's future hangs in the balance. -
Long before the Town of Davie became known for horses and rodeos, it was miles of untamed Everglades. After the wetlands were drained in the early 1900s, people flocked there for the agriculture and development opportunities. The pioneers who settled learned to work the land and face the challenges of building a new community. At the heart of those early days was the Davie School. Today, it’s the Old Davie School Museum. -
A century after Hialeah's founding, a family in its historically Black neighborhood, Seminola, fights to keep its history alive and ensure it's recognized in the city's centennial year. -
Once a glamorous racetrack, Hialeah Park became iconic for its pink flamingos. A century later, the birds — and memories — remain, kept alive by locals like historian and former worker Ken Wilde. -
For nearly a century, Miami’s Freedom Tower has stood as a silent witness to the city’s transformation — from a media hub to a sanctuary for refugees and now a living museum of cultural memory. As it nears its 100th birthday, the building is preparing to tell its own story anew. -
Deerfield Beach was a quiet farming village with dirt roads, small wooden houses and little over a thousand residents who were fiercely defensive of their seaside home. Today, it's Broward tenth largest city. -
As Boca Raton celebrates its 100th anniversary, the legacy of Pearl City — a historic Black neighborhood established before Boca — offers a powerful reminder of the area's humble agricultural beginnings. Just a mile from today’s bustling downtown, the neighborhood's enduring spirit continues to shape Boca Raton’s story. -
A century ago, before the establishment of Coral Gables, the site for the Venetian Pool was an eyesore: a coral rock quarry that fueled the construction of the fledgling city. Bahamian stonemasons helped create what became one of South Florida’s most popular tourist attractions, as they built the city around it and its lasting, iconic architecture.
Series Credits
Project management and reporting: Joshua Ceballos
Editing: Sarah Mobley Smith, Jessica Bakeman
Digital Editing: Sergio Bustos, Matheus Sanchez, Alyssa Ramos
Music composition and engineering: Merritt Jacob
Reporting: Helen Acevedo, Wilkine Brutus, Sherrilyn Cabrera, Julia Cooper, Carlton Gillespie, Danny Rivero, Jimena Romero, Ammy Sanchez, Veronica Zaragovia
Graphic design: Lex Leshansky
Web design: Matheus Sanchez, Mihail Halatchev