Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
HAMMONDVILLE ROAD TO FADE INTO HISTORY
Street will be known only as MLK Boulevard
POMPANO BEACH – A sign of history that evoked Pompano Beach’s farming roots is due to be officially stripped from the city’s map.
Since the early part of the century, Hammondville Road has been the name of the street that runs north of Atlantic Boulevard, from the western side of Dixie Highway to the Coconut Creek border.
But now, a new movement has emerged to make Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard — the street’s other name since 1990 — its sole, official designation.
“It’s a long time coming,” said City Commissioner Beverly Perkins. “The people who are now in the area don’t know the history of ‘Hammondville.’ ”
Thirty years ago, Perkins was part of a committee that paved the way for the road to have the civil rights leader’s name, but the City Commission at the time agreed “Hammondville” and King’s name would exist as dual names for the road.
The proposal to change it to honor King “exposed a still-simmering
racial divide,” said Dan Hobby, former executive director of the Pompano Beach Historical Society.
“Many white residents objected to the name change, asserting that it would come at the expense of the area’s agricultural heritage.”
The road’s name evokes Hiram Hammon, a farmer who lived in Palm Beach and came to South Florida from Pennsylvania to grow winter vegetables in massive tracts west of Pompano.
Since no one lived that far west, Hammon brought workers to the fields in flatbed trucks.
A small collection of barns and a store or two became known as “Hammonville,” until it was called Margate.
Research hasn’t pinpointed exactly when it was given an official name, but “people started calling it ‘Hammon Farm Road, Hammon Road or Hammonville Road’ just because it was where it went to,” Hobby said.
Sometime around the 1930s, the “d” was erroneously put on a map, and it stuck, he said.
Pompano’s agricultural past still evokes painful memories for members of the community, who primarily live in the area it runs through, Perkins said. These were the days of segregation, she pointed out.
”It wasn’t a good time for blacks and African-Americans at that time,” Perkins said.
Decades ago, farmworkers spent days picking beans for a nickel or a dime per hamper, according to news articles in the Sun Sentinel. A good day would yield $2.15 in pay.
Debra Campbell, 62, was one of those kids who picked beans beginning in the fourth grade. She didn’t realize it then, but her school year was arranged around the agricultural work. The practice ended by the time she hit high school.
“It was accepted at that time — this is how we helped the family,” she said. She was part of the committee that wanted to change the street’s name 30 years ago to the name of someone who helped the whole country.
“Our city has no need of a dual name,” she said.
Commissioner Mike Sobel proposed at a recent city meeting to strip the name from the road immediately. His proposal was approved — with the amendment that a formal resolution come forward next month.
Brandon Smith, who owns BoJo’s Seafood Kitchen, said he first indicated “Hammondville Road,” was his place of business, but then his elders set him straight. “It’s MLK Boulevard,” he said. “Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.”