Floranada

Mesdames Edward T. Stotesbury and Alexander W. Biddle of Philadelphia; Mrs. Horace E. Dodge of Detroit; Messrs. Samuel M. Vau-clain (Baldwin Locomotives), John S. Pillsbury (Pillsbury Flour) and Harry S. Black (The Plaza) . . . . H. R. H. the King of Greece . . . . H. H. the Countess of Lauderdale (England) -- in trim aristocratic capitals the names were printed, not upon a list of opera patrons or letterhead of a new relief fund, but upon a most elegant double-page spread in the New York Times last week, advertising the latest, the very last thing in Florida realty-- "the Floranada Club." An organization entitled the American-British Improvement Corporation, with a coat of arms showing eagle and lion rampant beside the sovereign seal of Florida, proclaimed "a Biarritz in the building . . . small, smart, exquisite . . . whose founders read like a page from the social register." A tract of 3,600 acres midway between Palm Beach and Miami was in hand. There was ocean frontage with the Gulf Stream only 3 miles offshore. There were the Dixie Highway, the East Coast Canal, the East Coast Railway, and hard beside, Fort Lauderdale with a fine natural harbor. Architecture was to be of the Mediterranean-Caribbean type, carefully supervised so that "each house, however simple, shall be an artistic gem." Though great estates were being planned--golf clubs, yacht club, huge hotel, casinos--particular attention was being paid to modest private establishments. The public was invited to buy lots as low as $4,000. But "background counts as much as money . . . for society, the came society that decreed the rise and success of Europe's famous watering place--Biarritz--has decided to have its new playground in Florida . . . a cosmopolitan paradise . . . impeccable social and financial powers. . . . Already steamships are plying. . . . Society does not care to wait."