Moore Haven Downtown Historic District

History

The Moore Haven Downtown Historic District was added to the National Register of Historic Places on October 12, 1995. On paper, the district spans 3 to 99 Avenue J, 100 1st Street, and Lone Cypress Park, home to the district’s sole cypress tree, and encompasses seven historic buildings. Located within the boundaries of Moore Haven’s original 1916 plat, the district is deeply tied to the town’s primary period of growth between 1915 and 1926. Its buildings once housed vital early establishments, including the bank, post office, local offices, retail stores, apartments, and a service station.

Moore Haven’s Early History

Subtropical heat, waterlogged terrain, and resistance from Native Americans made early settlement near Lake Okeechobee nearly impossible, even with the Armed Occupation Act of 1842 offering free 160-acre parcels to veterans willing to defend them. Seeking a solution, the federal government ceded nearly 10 million acres of wetlands to Florida in 1850 for drainage and development, prompting the state to create the Internal Improvement Trust Fund (IITF) a year later.

Progress stalled when Civil War debts bankrupted the fund, legally prohibiting land sales. Desperate for capital during Reconstruction, the IITF finally struck a deal in 1881 with Philadelphia steel tycoon Hamilton Disston, who bought four million acres for $1 million. Disston was also tasked with draining the region in exchange for half of the reclaimed territory. To achieve this, he proposed connecting Lake Okeechobee to the Caloosahatchee River via a dredged canal to lower lake levels and drain the surrounding wilderness.

In 1881, Captain Fred Menge began supervising canal excavation along the Caloosahatchee waterway. Working alongside his brother, Menge dug channels linking the local lakes and expanded the Indian Canal, which later became known as the Three-Mile Canal (or Caloosahatchee Canal).

Once opened, the canal lowered Lake Okeechobee’s water levels and drained roughly two million acres of wetlands. The Menge brothers and other boat operators subsequently established freight and passenger services along the Caloosahatchee River, transporting mail, provisions, and settlers into the area while shipping out fish, furs, and alligator skins. At the time, the sole navigational landmark marking the entrance to the Three-Mile Canal on the lake was a single cypress tree topped with a flag, at the future site of Moore Haven.

In 1884, the state hired John W. Henderson to survey the land Disston had acquired. As payment for his services, Henderson was awarded 98,000 acres along Lake Okeechobee’s southwestern shore. Following his death in 1897, this land, known as the “Henderson Tract,” passed to his heirs.

Seeing opportunity in the Everglades, Seattle investor James A. Moore bought the “Henderson Tract” in 1915 for $550,000 and laid out a new town near the historic Lone Cypress landmark. Naming the settlement Moore Haven, he launched a major promotional blitz through his South Florida Land Company, dispatching salesmen across the Midwest to advertise a “farmland paradise.” The push paid off: hundreds bought land, quickly filling the area with 397 men and three women who lived in temporary tents, tarpaper shacks, and bunkhouses. Recognized as the Everglades’ first true town, Moore Haven soon emerged as a vital commercial hub for surrounding vegetable farms, sugar cane fields, and cattle ranches.

The Buildings of the Historic District

The Gram Building was among the first structures erected in Moore Haven’s burgeoning commercial district. Designed and built in 1916 by Danish-trained architect Frederick Valdemar Gram, the building featured two ground-floor retail spaces and second-floor living quarters for his family. Gram, who relocated to Moore Haven from North Dakota, went on to design and construct many of the town’s early residential and commercial properties. Notably, the Gram Building housed Moore Haven’s first drugstore, operated by Peder Westergaard.

Erected in 1919, the Moore Haven Mercantile Building was originally run by J. W. Putnam, who supplied the town with tinware, footwear, dry goods, and coffins, making it Moore Haven’s sole undertaker supply at the time. In 1920, Edwin Parkinson and his son, Cecil, purchased the building. They ran a hardware and dry goods shop on the ground level and later expanded to a second-floor furniture store during the 1940s. The Parkinson family retained ownership of the property until 1974.

Despite Moore Haven’s potential for growth, founder James Moore ran into financial trouble by 1916. His interests were bought out by three men: Atlantic City developer Clarence M. Busch, former newspaper editor John J. O’Brien, and Philadelphia lawyer George Q. Horwitz. The partnership soon split over management differences, leading O’Brien and Horwitz to take 3,600 acres west of town and establish the DeSoto Land Company. When Horwitz died in December 1916, his stake passed to his widow, Marian Newhall Horwitz.

In February 1917, Mrs. Horwitz visited Moore Haven to inspect her late husband’s holdings and quickly fell in love with the community’s potential. She immediately threw herself into regional development, cultivating a 2,000-acre farm that shipped 50 carloads of potatoes to northern markets by June. That September, she married business partner John J. O’Brien. Together, they drove the town’s expansion by establishing a general store, founding the First Bank of Moore Haven, planting extensive crops, and backing local civic and cultural initiatives. In addition to the Gram Building, Frederick Gram designed the Moore Haven Mercantile Building and the First Bank of Moore Haven.

Following the collapse of the Florida real estate boom, the First Bank of Moore Haven failed in October 1926. Though it was restructured and reopened briefly in 1927, the building was soon repurposed as the headquarters for The Glades County Democrat, the regional newspaper. Upstairs, the second floor housed the town’s initial law practice, telephone office, and a public stenographer, before eventually being converted into residential apartments.

As Moore Haven developed into the region’s primary commercial hub, Marian Horwitz successfully lobbied the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad to extend a line south from Palmdale. The inaugural train arrived on April 28, 1918. This new rail access transformed Moore Haven into a thriving center for the commercial catfish industry, drawing directly from the abundant waters of nearby Lake Okeechobee.

Fires, Floods, and the 1926 Hurricane

Beginning in 1921, a series of disasters dramatically derailed Moore Haven’s rapid growth. On April 26, 1921, a fire broke out in a rooming house along Avenue J; lacking a fire truck, the town lost 22 businesses and six homes, most of which were never rebuilt. A second fire in 1922 destroyed the Moore Haven Times building, wiping out the town’s early historical records. Tragedy struck that same year again, when severe flooding submerged the area from May through December, driving many residents away. Those who remained were forced to reopen their businesses in makeshift, corrugated-iron structures.

Despite earlier fires and ongoing flooding, Moore Haven experienced steady commercial growth and new construction projects through the following few years. In January 1926, the Glades Loan and Investment Company, owned by Attorney James Couse, son-in-law of architect Frederick Gram, announced plans to construct the $43,000 Arcade Building. Couse, a four-term Glades County judge, ran his law practice and the Glades County Abstract Office out of the building until the late 1930s. Designed for multi-tenant retail, the Arcade Building housed offices on its second floor and downstairs hosted a post office, drug store, barber shop, radio repair shop, and doctor’s office.

Just as Moore Haven’s population reached roughly 1,000, the town suffered a catastrophic setback from which its infrastructure, population, and economy would never fully recover. On Sunday, September 18, 1926, a powerful hurricane struck with 160 mph winds, driving a 12-foot storm surge from Lake Okeechobee over the region and submerging Moore Haven under 10 feet of water. The storm killed 300 residents, destroyed crops, wiped out livestock, and tore numerous buildings from their foundations. Displacing many survivors, the tragedy permanently cost Moore Haven its status as the commercial center of the Everglades.

Decline

In 1954, US 27 was rerouted north of the original downtown to connect with a newly built bridge over the Three-Mile Canal. Bypassed by the highway, downtown Moore Haven lost much of its traffic, prompting many businesses to relocate along the new route and leaving numerous historic commercial structures vacant.

Of the original structures that once comprised the Moore Haven Downtown Historic District, only the Gram Building remains today. An entire block was demolished between 2009 and 2010. Later, in 2017, the City of Moore Haven purchased and demolished both the Mercantile Building and the First Bank of Moore Haven as part of a downtown revitalization initiative.

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