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PaperclipPerfector  18hr ago (text post)   793 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for August 14, 2026

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I came across the link to a Facebook page for Vanished Florida. I see a lot of hotels in Miami even back to 1910-1920. How did hotels work in 1920?

My understanding of the transportation system in 1920 is a northerner going to Miami the trip would take days. I don’t think you could drive a car from NYC to Miami in 1920. So maybe railroad or boat? I’m guessing a 2-day trip that was fairly expensive?

A modern hotel is essentially transients that stay on average probably 2-3 days. Would a hotel in 1920 in a place like Miami be much longer stays? For the obvious reason that you’re not traveling to a place that takes 4-5 days travel time round trip to stay for a day or two.

If my assumptions are correct it would be interesting staying in a fancy hotel in a vacation destination where everyone is staying month. There would be value in meeting other guests.

Here’s the link. https://www.facebook.com/share/1UKPu8znC9/?mibextid=wwXIfr

Here's a highway map

Keep in mind that outside cities these might not be paved, might not even be gravel, just an old dirt road.

As far as Miami in particular, I suspect many of the photos are from 20s and 30s or that many 1910s are referring specifically to 1918 or 1919 or so. Spot the introduction of cheap enough residential AC in the population growth presented below.

Year 1900 1910 1920 1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000
Population 4,955 11,933 42,753 142,955 267,739 495,084 935,047 1,267,792 1,625,781 1,937,094 2,253,362

I was guessing 1915 because that’s when growth accelerated but I’m seeing more like 1940’s when it became affordable. I don’t see it in data.

30s for luxury, 50s for middle class residential, 60s-70s for working class. I suppose it isn't that visible because early doubling and tripling by decade, but the additional hundreds of thousands really were only possible because of AC units instead of high ceilings and porches and other classic ways of mitigating heat in humidity.

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