Memories of early Hialeah by Rose Farrell Taylor - click on image to enter Photo Gallery by Don Boyd at pbase.com

Memories of early Hialeah by Rose Farrell Taylor - click on image to enter

Rose Farrell Taylor grew up in Hialeah's early days. She has generously contributed several photos of days long before most of us moved there and those photos are in the Hialeah gallery. She went to the Hialeah School and then to Miami Edison. Hialeah didn't have a high school at the time so kids were bused to Miami Edison unless they chose to provide their own transportation to Miami Jackson in Allapattah or Miami High. Rose wrote a very interesting three-page summary of growing up in Hialeah's early days and those pages are in this gallery below.

Rose moved out of Hialeah years ago like most people and lives with her daughters in the Lady Lake, Florida area. Thank you Rose for your historical contributions!

Rose Farrell Taylor with Tommy Lott

Rose Farrell Taylor's History of Early Hialeah, Page 1

Rose Farrell Taylor's History of Early Hialeah, Page 2

Rose Farrell Taylor's History of Early Hialeah, Page 3

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kathydaly	PM reply	13-Apr-2011 14:03
https://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=55112750642&topic=12392 Dad , "Bud", lived in Hialeah circa 1935-37 because his Dad , "Barney", was an airline mechanic for Eastern Airlines at Pan American Field (now Miami International Airport) way back in the day. "Barney" moved the family where the work was. Dad remembers when Mr Milander was a butcher shop owner, not a mayor, and Milander Meats was walking distance from Dad's home. There was a Shell Gasoline station on the corner of Palm Ave and Okeechobee Rd. He remembers a hardware store. He doesn't remember where his parents bought the groceries, except the meats. He saw Seminole Indians ride down the canal between Hialeah & Miami Springs , standing up in their dugout canoes in traditional garb, because there was a Seminole Village on Okeechobee Rd . There was a triangle park bordered by Palm Ave, Okeechobee and W 1st Street, where a band played in a band shell. My Dad and his sisters ate lemons in the first row while the band was playing, and it used to make the trumpet players pucker more watching them eat those lemons, and they'd hit sour notes. The old dredge that originally dug the canal was still parked on the Miami Springs side. The old water works building in Hialeah had wells that were dug up, and the piled up off-white clay was on the side nearly three stories high. The kids made a sloop down the clay mound, and then they would pour water on it to make it slippery. Then they'd slide all the way down, walk across Okeechobee Road and jump in the canal to wash off the clay, leaving white streaks in the water. There was a beer brewery in Hialeah called Jockey Club Brewery located on Palm Ave. Almost all the streets above 10th Street were just coral rock. There were old movie studios from the 1920's, and most people don't know this, but Hialeah almost became Hollywood back then. There was one studio by Red Road that was abandoned, there was one by the Track that was also abandoned and that's where my Dad found old film reel cases . And he thinks another one was located on Palm Ave and 8th Street and it was converted to a movie house (that was across from Jockey Club Brewery.) This was the only movie house in town, and there used to be skits and contests before the movies. Once there was a skit where the local players acted like they were ordering in a restaurant. And one man said "I'll have some pea soup". Then he changed his mind and said "No, I'll have chicken soup." And the waiter yelled out "Chicken Soup!" And then the customer changed his mind back and said "No, I think I'll have the pea soup." Then the waiter yelled out "Hold that chicken and make it pea!" One time my Dad was in a contest before the movie, and the contest was to untie your shoes and tie them up again. Dad untied his, then when he was tying them up again, his shoelace broke. So he stood up, and the emcee said "Here's a winner!" And Dad won 10 free movie tickets! ;-) Hialeahans used to go to the Kellogg sanitarium in Miami Springs for shelter from hurricanes. One time his family came back home after a hurricane, and the church across the street on 1st Ave and 7th St. was blown down to the ground. There was no wood or anything around, it was all blown away except the foundation. His house was still standing! Dad attended the only elementary school in Hialeah at the time. The Hialeah Race Track was out in the boondocks in relation to the center of old Hialeah back then. He went to school with the horse trainers' children, and they used to sneak in the back of the stables to watch the horse races. The "Florida itch" is what kids got back then. They were tiny itchy water blisters that they got on their hands (probably from playing in dirt and water). They used to squeeze the "milky" liquid from milkweed onto their hands , and that cured the itch. Scorpions used to be in his home, and his mother chased and hit them with the broom. At the second home he lived in, after a hurricane, he found a canvas tarp, and when it unravelled there was a scorpion! "Barney" grabbed it from him, and threw it in the fire that he was burning hurricane debris. Dad used to jump off the train trellis that crossed the canal between Miami Springs and Hialeah. One day he was fishing the canal by himself, and saw a really 'big fish', and he got scared and ran back home. He told his family and described that it looked like a great big ice cream wooden spoon that comes with ice cream cups. He later discovered that it was a "sea cow" ! Dad used to help the bridge-tender work the bridge when the canal along Okeechobee Rd was the intercoastal waterway. There was a big crank in the center of the "swing bridge", and they would open it by holding onto the crank while walking and pushing it around. The bridge would then go sideways! Dad clearly remembers that segregation was in Hialeah during these early times. African-Americans could only live in a neighborhood on Red Road, and had a curfew. The west side of Red Road was the end of town, into the Everglades! The population was around 7,000.

Dorothy Mendelson Spon		30-Mar-2008 01:45
My daughter and I ran across this website...what wonderful memories. I particularly remember having alot of fun at the swimming pool and Triangle Park in Hialeah. My name was Dorothy Mendelson and I grew up in Hialeah, FL. I lived in there from about 1926 to 1942. My brother, David Mendelson, may have gone to school with Ruth Cole, who was mentioned in the post by Patricia Stephens. My other siblings are Lavine and Mabel. We all went to Hialeah School and later to Miami Edison. I would love to know whether anyone knew any of my family. I'm presently 85 yrs. old , living in Steubenville, Ohio and my married name is Spon. You can e-mail me alprov7@sbcglobal.net Sincerely, Dorothy Mendelson Spon

Louis		21-Feb-2008 10:23
Wow! This is a wonderful account of Hialeah and how it came to be. As a young child I remember some of these places, but many were already gone by the time I started spending time in Hialeah, circa 1966. Rose you did a wonderful job with this essay, I keep coming back to read it often, it seems that each time I read it there is something new!

Patricia D. Stephens		24-Jul-2007 23:57
My Grandfather and Grandmother built a house at 44 W 3rd St, Hialeah, right across the street from the Bandstand in Triangle park. I think it was about 1925. He was a carpenter and helped in the construction of Hialeah Race Track. He was also a Fireman. His name was William Cole and his wife was Elizabeth. My Mother was born in 1917 in NJ and moved to Hialeah with the family. I was born in 1938 and lived there in that house with my grandparents on 3rd St. until I was 2 when I moved to NJ with my Mother. She told me one time when I was between 1 and 2 yrs old, I was outside and they missed me and I had crawled up to Palm Ave. and a man in a vehicle rescued me from the middle of the street before someone could run over me. I have pictures of me and my Mother sitting in a tree in Triangle Park when I was about 10 years old probably in about 1948. My Mother was Ruth Cole and my Father was Richard H. "Pat" Delahanty who was a Sports Writer for the Miami Tribune at that time. I went to Lindsey Hopkins Voc. and Graduated there in 1956. Patricia Delahanty Stephens patds@bellsouth.net

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