Fort Lauderdale / Florida / United States
Celebrating its 61st year in business, the Lauderdale Marina, located on the Intracoastal Waterway just north of Port Everglades is, according to founder Robert Cox, the oldest single-owner marina business in south Florida.In 1948, the site of the marina was an abandoned highly secret research station for submarine torpedoes of World War II. It was so far "out of town" that the police pistol firing range was on the same dirt road, SE 15th Street, at what is now Cordova Road. Lauderdale Harbors and many of the other undeveloped islands were simply tree covered and sometimes swampy leftovers from the great 1926 Florida real estate crash.Cox, making a permanent move from New York to Fort Lauderdale, arrived in Port Everglades in 1946 on a deep draft motor sailor. He was astonished to find that there was no place where the water was deep enough to dock his 9 draft boat, the only commercial dockage being a small obsolete marina on the causeway which is now the Las Olas bridge connection to the beach. Huss Marina was on its last legs, had a shallow depth of water, red-tagged condemned wiring, and a single metal shower stall installed, it is said, by one of the boat owners for the price of a bottle of good whiskey.The semi-abandoned Navy torpedo research station was the only spot with enough depth to accommodate Coxs vessel, but could not be used because the government had not relinquished its prewar lease on the property. Cox, however, seeking not only a dock but recognizing that the miles of empty Fort Lauderdale waterways would some day be lined with homes and boats, all of which would have to pass the torpedo station on their way to the ocean or up and down the Intracoastal Waterway, negotiated with the owners of the land and in 1948 opened Lauderdale Marina as a fueling station."How well I remember that day we opened, " says Cox, "We sold 48 gallons of gas to a customer who not only filled his small boats tank but also a bunch of 5 gallon cans. Asked why he filled the cans, too, the customer said he was tired of carrying fuel from a highway gas station and, from the looks of the marinas early dock, wasnt sure how long we would be in business."
