Joseph W. Young, Jr., and the City Beautiful

Joseph W. Young, Jr., was acknowledged as one of the five or six major city builders in boomtime Florida. From practically nothing in 1920 he created Hollywood By-the-Sea with an elegant Beaux Arts plan of circles and lakes, calling it a “City Beautiful,” an ideal first propounded by Daniel Burnham of Chicago. Young had a rare talent for publicity and a knack for making and spending millions—supported by an immense personal charm that is still remembered decades after his death.
This first full biography of Young covers his start as city builder in turn-of-the-century California where new cities blossomed and were ballyhooed, his move to Indianapolis, home of Carl Fisher who developed Miami Beach, his creation of Hollywood and Port Everglades, and his move to his Adirondack resort, ending with his dreams to expand Hollywood, fulfilled after his early death.

Florida historian, art historian and biographer, Joan Mickelson lives in Broward County, Florida.

Joan Mickelson
Format: softcover (7 x 10)
Pages: 220
Bibliographic Info: 66 photos, notes, bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2013
pISBN: 978-0-7864-6880-5
eISBN: 978-0-7864-9247-3
Imprint: McFarland

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments vii
Introduction 1
1. From Gold Rush to Newsboy: Childhood of an Entrepreneur, Seattle, Yukon, 1882–1900 5
2. California’s Southland: The Sourcebook for a Future Florida City, Long Beach, California, 1900–1916 10
3. Young’s First Forays into Turning Land into Homesites with Convenient Transportation, 1904–1916 16
4. First Disaster, 1914, and Arizona Interim, 1915–1917 26
5. Indianapolis: Renewed Success, Speedway, and Circles, 1918–1920 31
6. Young’s Dream City Takes Form, 1919–1920 40
7. City Beautiful: Hollywood By-the-Sea, 1920–1921 63
8. Hollywood By-the-Sea: Nationwide Advertising Blitz Begins, 1922 78
9. The City Beautiful Blossoms Under Young: A Man “possessing extraordinary energies, generous and modest to a degree,” 1923 84
10. The City Expands: Cash and People Flood In, 1924 100
11. Young’s Vision Expands Nationally and Internationally, 1925 119
12. A Hotel to Rival Flagler’s and an International Port, 1926 133
13. “A life of ease before us … then overnight everything wiped out”:
The Infamous Hurricane, 1926 139
14. Desperate Aftermath, 1927–1929 145
15. The Adirondacks: Hollywood in the Hills, Another Lasting Legacy, 1928–1933 148
16. Turning the Tables: The Floridian Buys and Sells in New York City, 1930–1933 155
17. “A builder whose work is play”: Young’s Four-Day July 4th Party, 1933 163
18. Last Days, Final Acts, 1933–1934 168
19. The Company Dies with J. W. Young; the City Continues, 1934–1936 176
20. Young’s Legacy 183
Chapter Notes 189
Bibliography 199
Index 205

“this well-indexed book is richly illustrated with black and white maps, plats, and photographs. It is so well researched and so rich in detailing Young’s development of Hollywood, it may well be the best early history of the city”—The Florida Historical Quarterly; “The author follows Young from his early days in turn-of-the-century California and through to his development of Hollywood, Florida and Port Everglades”—Reference & Research Book News.