Presidential streets have a history of their own
In Hollywood, every day is PresidentsDay.
During the Roaring ‘20s, Hollywood founder Joseph Young named 27 streets after U.S. presidents, from George Washington to Calvin Coolidge — who happened to be in office when Holly wood was incorporated in 1925.
“Young named those for sure,” said author and Hollywood historian Joan Mickelson, who grew up on Polk Street — named after President James Knox Polk.
The streets run from east to west, fromthe beach to thewestern border.
Those streets, fromsouth to north, are Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, Jackson, Van Buren, Harrison, Tyler, Polk, Taylor, Fillmore, Pierce, Buchanan, Lincoln, Johnson, Grant, Hayes, Garfield, Arthur, Cleveland, McKinley, Roosevelt, Taft, Wilson and Harding. The buck stops with Coolidge to the north.
Hollywood is one of only two cities in the state to have a series of streets
named for the country’s commanders in chief.
Altogether, the 27 streets have a total of 10,320 homes and 4,830 condo units, according to the Florida Department of Revenue.
Arthur Street has the most homes, with 625. Wilson, with 193, has the least.
Washington Street is home to the most condos: 1,474. Adams has the least, with only10.
Jackson Street lays claims to the house with the highest value, at $1.4 million, state records show. The 3,308square-foot-homewas built in 2011 at the beach.
The least expensive house in Hollywood, a 250square-foot home with a $9,850 market value, is on Johnson Street. It’s also Hollywood’s tiniest home.
The city’s largest house, at 7,945 square feet, sits on Washington Street.
The property with the highest overall value— a combined value of $5.7 million for both house and land — is also on Washington Street. The 6,800 square-foot home sits on 2.6 acres of land.
The property with the lowest overall value, at $24,770 for both land and home, also sits on Washington Street. The 560-square-foot home was built in 1925. The land value: $9,330.
A handful of homes built in the early 1920s are still standing on Madison and Pierce Streets, according to state records.
The homes survived the hurricane of 1926, a deadly stormthat raged through Hollywood, Fort Lauderdale, Dania Beach and Hallandale. Winds reached up to 150mph, destroying more than 2,700 houses. Between 325 and 650 people were killed in the storm.
Only one of the 27 streets named for presidents claims a mobile home. The 1954 trailer sits on Lincoln Street.
Back in the day, Young was known to host magnificent parties at Johnson Street on the beach, Mickelson said. That site remains a gathering spot today, with crowds flocking to Hollywood’s bandshell for live concerts on the Broadwalk.
Some of Hollywood’s presidential streets had ties to the mob, Mickelson said. Meyer Lansky’s brother Jake lived on Harrison Street in the 1940s. Julian “Potatoes” Kaufman, a Chicago mobster who fled here on the run from Al Capone, lived in a house on Tyler Street. And Vincent “Jimmy Blue Eyes” Alo had a home on Monroe Street.
The streets alone could help kids learn more about American history, Mickelson said.