Before I-95. Before Disney. Before the snowbirds and the subdivisions, there was a Florida that moved at a different speed. In the 1950s, US Highway 1 was the spine of Florida. Families drove it from Jacksonville to Key West, stopping at roadside motels with neon signs and kidney-shaped pools. These places had names like "The Flamingo," "The Sea Breeze," and "The Palms." They charged $6 a night and they were full every weekend.
By 1965, the interstate system had bypassed most of them. By 1975, half were shuttered. By 1990, most had been demolished or converted into something unrecognizable. The Florida that longtime residents remember, the one their parents drove them through in station wagons with the windows down, was quietly erased one motel at a time.
Nobody announced it. Nobody mourned it publicly. It just disappeared.
What do you remember about old Florida? Drop a comment.
Thanks to Florida Hillbilly for the inspriration.
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