History

Idlewyld History: M.A. Hortt, the New River Development Company and the 1920s Boom

By Glen Primak, GLEN PRIMAK GROUP · Updated October 24, 2026

From swamp to subdivision (1921–1925)

• The land. In 1921, Fort Lauderdale real estate broker M.A. “Al” Hortt and his business partner Bob Dye bought a tract of low, swampy land running south from the Las Olas bridge, which had opened in 1917.
• The developer. Hortt brought in Tom Stilwell, a visitor looking for an investment. Stilwell added three partners from Indiana, and together they formed the New River Development Company in 1921.
• Dredging. The company dredged the Intracoastal and New River Sound and used the fill to raise the tract. Streets, sidewalks, water mains and electric lines followed, and coconut palms were planted along the streets. The method followed Carl Fisher’s work in Miami Beach.
• A slow start, then a sell-out. Few lots sold at first. Hortt then took over advertising, starting in the Miami Herald, with lots priced at about $2,500 to $5,000 by location. In his memoir he claimed every lot sold within a week.
• 1925. A Miami Herald archive photo from 1925, looking north toward the Las Olas bridge, shows “the beginnings of the Idlewyld subdivision” directly south of the bridge. Hortt built his own home in Idlewyld and sold it in 1925 for $75,000, a sale that made local headlines.
• 1926. The Great Miami Hurricane of September 1926 ended the South Florida land boom.

What county records show

Broward County Property Appraiser legal descriptions place nearly all of today’s Idlewyld parcels in three recorded plats:

Of the 124 parcels with county records, the other two are in a later plat (THE J-R-P PLAT, 80-49) or described by metes and bounds. County year-built records list 4 of today’s single-family homes as built in the 1920s and 28 in the 1930s; 30 (about a quarter) were built in 2000 or later. Year-built fields can reflect major rebuilds, so treat them as approximate. See the market snapshot →

Neighbors and names

• Riviera Isles lies just west. According to the same local history, Stilwell’s Fort Lauderdale Riparian Company put 270 Riviera Isles lots on sale in March 1925 and pumped sand onto those finger islands to raise them to Idlewyld’s level, about five feet above high tide.
• The Las Olas Isles (Bontona Avenue, Isle of Palms, Royal Plaza and others) are separate finger isles north of Las Olas Boulevard, with their own homeowners association. Rio Vista is a separate civic association farther west and south. The City of Fort Lauderdale’s neighborhood-association map draws each boundary.
• The spelling is Idlewyld, as in the original plat. You will also see “Idlewild” and abbreviations such as “Idwyld” in listings.

The neighborhood today

• The Idlewyld Improvement Association, Inc. is a Florida not-for-profit corporation and is listed among the City of Fort Lauderdale’s officially recognized neighborhood associations for 2026 (District 2).
• In June 2026 the Council of Fort Lauderdale Civic Associations announced Idlewyld’s annual Fourth of July parade, a neighborhood tradition it described as running for nearly 50 years.

Have family photos, old deeds or stories about Idlewyld? We’d like to hear from you. Get in touch →