Miami Beach History

In 1870 Henry Lum and son Charles arrived by sailboat on the large sandbar off the southeast Florida coast, and were so impressed by the island they landed on that they bought from the federal government, for $.25 an acre, most of the island and property further north.

Lum would later sell the property to fellow New Jerseyites Elnathan Field and Ezra Osborne, who, in turn would sell the land to John S. Collins and his son-in-law, Thomas Pancoast, who were also from New Jersey.

In 1913, Collins and Carl Fisher, who had made his fortune from his invention and later sale of the Presto-o-Lite Corporation and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, embarked on an agriculture venture on the beachfront land. Fisher loaned Collins the money he needed to complete the first bridge from Miami to Miami Beach that same year and the bridge, at the time the longest wooden bridge in the world, would be the catalyst for the 1915 incorporation of Miami Beach.