The Clewiston Museum Collection is a digital photo-album documenting the Clewiston Museum of Clewiston, Florida.
Clewiston sits on the southwest shore of Lake Okeechobee right in the middle of South Florida. It was called Sand Point and was originally settled in 1915 by a dozen Japanese farm families. By 1919, most of original Japanese settlers were gone and the land was sold to Captain J.J. O'Brien and his wife, Marian Horwitz O'Brien. They were from Philadelphia by way of Moore Haven, located 15 miles northwest of Clewiston.
The O'Briens brought prominent Tampa, Florida banker Alonzo C. Clewis into their partnership and renamed the town Clewiston in his honor. They had grand plans for a major real estate development surrounded by vegetable farms. By 1924, the O'Briens had pulled out of the area. Mr. Clewis foresaw the coming great land boom collapse of 1926 and also withdrew.
Bror Dahlberg, president of The Celotex Company, put together a group of investors and purchased the land holdings of the O'Briens and Mr. Clewis. Mr. Dahlberg had a passing interest in real estate development but his main interest was in growing sugarcane but not for the sugar. He wanted the fiber that remained after squeezing the juice out of the stalks-known as bagasse. He needed that byproduct in order to manufacture Celotex boards which could replace lumber.
His Southern Sugar Company went into receivership in 1929 at the beginning of the Great Depression. In 1931, Charles Stewart Mott purchased the Southern Sugar Company from bankruptcy and formed United States Sugar Corporation.
This photo-album, which spans the early years of Clewiston, Florida from 1924 until the 1950s, was produced by the Clewiston Museum's staff in collaboration with the Southwest Florida Library Network (SWFLN) in a project funded by the State of Florida's Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) grants program. Additional assistance was provided by the Digital Library Center at the University of Florida and the Florida Center for Library Automation.
The Clewiston Museum Collection is also available as subcollection of the PALMM Florida Heritage Collection.
Clewiston sits on the southwest shore of Lake Okeechobee right in the middle of South Florida. It was called Sand Point and was originally settled in 1915 by a dozen Japanese farm families. By 1919, most of original Japanese settlers were gone and the land was sold to Captain J.J. O'Brien and his wife, Marian Horwitz O'Brien. They were from Philadelphia by way of Moore Haven, located 15 miles northwest of Clewiston.
The O'Briens brought prominent Tampa, Florida banker Alonzo C. Clewis into their partnership and renamed the town Clewiston in his honor. They had grand plans for a major real estate development surrounded by vegetable farms. By 1924, the O'Briens had pulled out of the area. Mr. Clewis foresaw the coming great land boom collapse of 1926 and also withdrew.
Bror Dahlberg, president of The Celotex Company, put together a group of investors and purchased the land holdings of the O'Briens and Mr. Clewis. Mr. Dahlberg had a passing interest in real estate development but his main interest was in growing sugarcane but not for the sugar. He wanted the fiber that remained after squeezing the juice out of the stalks-known as bagasse. He needed that byproduct in order to manufacture Celotex boards which could replace lumber.
His Southern Sugar Company went into receivership in 1929 at the beginning of the Great Depression. In 1931, Charles Stewart Mott purchased the Southern Sugar Company from bankruptcy and formed United States Sugar Corporation.
This photo-album, which spans the early years of Clewiston, Florida from 1924 until the 1950s, was produced by the Clewiston Museum's staff in collaboration with the Southwest Florida Library Network (SWFLN) in a project funded by the State of Florida's Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) grants program. Additional assistance was provided by the Digital Library Center at the University of Florida and the Florida Center for Library Automation.
The Clewiston Museum Collection is also available as subcollection of the PALMM Florida Heritage Collection.