Ivy Stranahan
(1881-1971)

Died aged c. 90

Frank and Ivy Stranahan were pioneers who helped establish the City of Fort Lauderdale. Frank Stranahan was born in 1865 and arrived in Fort Lauderdale in 1893 to manage the New River Camp, a settlement of a dozen families located on the New River. He built a trading post where he served as postmaster and operated the ferry to Lemon City (now a part of Greater Miami) from 1893 to 1904. He prospered as a real estate developer and donated land for the Women’s Club, the Memorial Hospital, Stranahan Park and the original high school. In 1900 he married Ivy Julia Cromartie and turned the trading post into their home. Ivy was born in 1881, moved to Fort Lauderdale in 1899 and became one of Florida’s first schoolteachers. In 1924, she persuaded the Seminole Indians to move to a reservation west of Hollywood. She and her husband helped establish Broward Memorial Hospital. Frank Stranahan died in 1929; Ivy Stranahan died in 1971.

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