The Fort Lauderdale Historical Society will host a book signing and presentation by William G. Crawford, Jr. on Dec. 9th  between noon and 2 p.m. 

Crawford, a Fort Lauderdale lawyer and historian, is the author of the recently published Florida's Big Dig, a history of the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway from Jacksonville to Miami . It  provides a Florida lens on American history,  starting with the debates of Founding Fathers over federalism and the role of government in promoting commerce through transportation routes, the struggles of Floridians to find the money to move goods to market and the beginnings of public-private partnerships. It is a tale of dreamers, capitalists and the occasional scalawag.

Crawford is former president of the Fort Lauderdale Historical Society, former chair of the Broward County Historical Commission and author of journal articles and monographs on South Florida history.  For more information or to RSVP, please contact the Historical Society at 954-463-4431 ext. 16. 

 Located on the New River, the Fort Lauderdale Historical Society tells the story of our community’s history from the Pioneers of Fort Lauderdale to the present day through its four historic structures: 1905 New River Inn, which houses the Museum of History and was the first building in Broward County to be listed on the National Register of Historic Places; the 1905 Philemon Bryan House, a four-square Vernacular style house; 1905 Acetylene Building, which produced acetylene gas to light the New River Inn; and the 1907 King-Cromartie House Museum, which belonged to one of the first pioneer families in Fort Lauderdale. The site also includes a replica of the first Broward County school house and the Hoch Heritage Center , a public research library that holds the largest collection of material related to greater Fort Lauderdale, including more than 250,000 historic photographs.