In the 1920s, The Pennsylvania Sugar Company in Philadelphia wanted to grow sugar cane in the Everglades. They tried growing vegetables, too and were defeated by frost, floods and the economics of the Great Depression.
The company shut down operations in Florida in Dec. 1931, and left a herd of dairy cows and the land to its civil mining engineer Ernest R Graham.
The following January, he launched Graham’s Dairy on the land. It delivered milk around South Florida.
Operations eventually moved to Moore Haven and its milk is still sold, through a cooperative to Publix and other stores.
In 1962, William A. Graham convinced his father Ernest and siblings - including future Fla. Gov. and U.S. Sen. Bob Graham and Washington Post Publisher Philip Graham - to develop the land.
They buried power lines, built private and rental housing and five shopping centers to serve the new neighborhoods. Features included curved streets that mimic the shape of a nautilus shell, lots of cul-de-sacs that slow traffic and didn’t use a grid street pattern.
The Live-Work-Play concept guided the design: residents could find employment, enjoy recreation at a golf course and riding academy, shop and worship, all close to home.
The company donated land for a public library; more than 100 tot lots; three large parks; six beachfront parks and built numerous public lakes named for Graham women or executives’ wives.
The east and west sides are anchored by large business parks. A tree canopy was begun to shelter it all.
In 1964, residents formed the Miami Lakes Civic Association, devoted themselves to the town’s quality of life and helped it become an independent municipality. They published a town directory; chartered a Boy Scout troop; installed Welcome to Miami Lakes signs, playground equipment and benches in parks; tackled street lighting and widened Miami Lakes Drive to four lanes with curved, landscaped medians.
In 1984, Main Street opened and became a destination where generations of families could attend movies, dine at restaurants, shop and hang out at the blue fountain.
The concept was popular. In 1980, 15 homes sold in the first hour they were offered in the Lake Glenn-Ellen neighborhood, according to company history.
While the town was unincorporated, residents began wanting local control over services that the county provided and sought faster responses to road and street light maintenance.
It took four years and the efforts of volunteer residents and County Commissioner Natacha Seijas Millan. With black and white Holstein dairy cows grazing in town pastures, Miami Lakes became a municipality on Dec. 5, 2000.
“We built a town from scratch,” Wayne Slaton, the first mayor, said in a documentary about Miami Lakes’ history and creating a new government with building, zoning and planning departments.