Frank Stranahan and the New River Trading Post

Frank Stranahan's trading post was part of the New River Camp, which he set up in January 1893 after taking over a ferry on the New River, to give travellers a place to stay and to trade with the Seminole Indians (National Register nomination).

The National Register of Historic Places nomination for the house, prepared on November 8, 1972 by the Florida Division of Archives, History and Records Management, calls Frank Stranahan the first permanent white settler in Fort Lauderdale. It places the New River Camp on the present site of the house at 335 S.E. Sixth Ave., and says the house was built on the site of his original store, so the camp, its trading post and the home that followed shared one site on the New River (NPS nomination form).

The 1972 nomination ties three things together at the camp: the New River ferry Stranahan operated, lodging for travellers and a trading post for commerce with the Seminole Indians. The State Archives of Florida describes the same post in shorter terms: Stranahan established a trading post on the New River and traded with the Seminoles (State Archives of Florida).

This guide covers the trading post and the people around it. The visit to the house museum, with its rooms and tours, is the subject of the separate Fort Lauderdale Stranahan House guide in the landmarks section, and the wider settlement story sits in the Fort Lauderdale history section.

Seminole families brought animal hides to Stranahan's New River store and traded them for goods they could not make themselves, such as firearms, ammunition, cloth and metal pots (State Archives of Florida).

The State Archives of Florida exhibit on Fort Lauderdale maps notes that Seminole families had taken up residence near Cooley Hammock after the end of the Seminole Wars, and that Stranahan was among the first white settlers to arrive in the area after those wars (Florida Memory). Mixed settlement on the river was older still: the First Fort Lauderdale marker says that by 1800 Seminole Indians and Bahamian and American settlers inhabited lands along the New River (state marker 744).

The 1972 nomination calls the couple's relationships with the Seminole Indians perhaps their most significant contribution. It says that by his understanding and unfailing sincerity in the conduct of trade, Frank Stranahan won the respect and friendship of the Seminoles, and that the couple acted as unofficial intermediaries during the first two decades of the twentieth century, a role recognized by the Bureau of Indian Affairs and by Seminole leaders (National Register nomination).

The state marker record names one Seminole family on the river. Around 1902, Seminole matriarch Annie Jumper Tommie and her relatives established a Panther clan camp beside the New River's north fork, east of today's Broward Boulevard bridge, and Ivy Stranahan later convinced them to relocate to the federal Indian reservation then newly created west of Dania, now Hollywood, where Annie became the leading matriarch in June 1924 (Florida Department of State markers).

The Florida East Coast Railroad, built through the Fort Lauderdale area in 1895, brought a growing community of planters, fishermen and traders, and Stranahan later opened a new store several blocks nearer the railroad (National Register nomination).

The dates differ slightly between official records. The 1972 nomination gives 1895 for construction of the railroad through the area, while the Florida Department of State marker for the New River Inn says the first train to Miami reached Fort Lauderdale on February 22, 1896 (Florida Department of State markers). The nomination's year is for construction of the line through the area and the marker's date is for the first train to Miami, and the same marker says the roadbed builders were brought in during 1894.

According to the nomination, until that newer store was completed, the house on the New River served as both residence and place of business, and it took that role again after the newer building burned in 1912 (NPS nomination form).

Frank Stranahan's role in Fort Lauderdale went beyond trade. The nomination says he served ten years on the city council, four of them as its president, and that the Stranahan name was given to a river, a park and a school (National Register nomination). The nomination does not give the years of that council service. Fort Lauderdale was incorporated on March 27, 1911, eighteen years after the New River Camp opened (City of Fort Lauderdale).

Ivy Cromartie came to Fort Lauderdale as the first teacher of a one-room schoolhouse built in 1899, married Frank Stranahan in 1900, and later drew Seminole children into the school system (National Register nomination).

The 1972 nomination describes Ivy Stranahan as equally active and influential in civic and cultural affairs, and credits her with extending the services of religious institutions to the Seminole reservations. It records that the couple lived in the New River house from 1902 until Frank's death in 1929 and Ivy's death in 1971 (NPS nomination form).

After 1929, Ivy Stranahan leased part of the house as a commercial dining room, and the venture grew. By the time of the nomination the building was a restaurant under the name the Pioneer House, with original furnishings and keepsakes of early Fort Lauderdale on display in the dining room as an informal museum (National Register nomination). The form lists the owner at that time as the Seventh Day Adventist Church.

The Stranahans are among the founding families buried at Evergreen Cemetery, 1300 SE 10th Ave., which the state marker calls the oldest intact cemetery in Fort Lauderdale; the marker gives Ivy Julia Stranahan's years as 1881 to 1971 and names Cromartie as her maiden name (Florida Department of State markers).

No: the Stranahan House on the New River replaced the first trading post on the site of the original store, in 1901 per the State Archives of Florida or 1902 per the National Register nomination (State Archives of Florida).

The two official dates are reported here rather than reconciled. The State Archives of Florida says the Stranahan House was built in 1901 to replace the original trading post (Florida Memory). The 1972 nomination, listed under the common name the Pioneer House, says it was built in 1902 (National Register nomination).

The nomination describes a two-story frame house with a full attic under a steeply pitched hipped roof whose eaves cover a two-story veranda. Four dormers ventilated the interior, and the pitch of the roof was designed to withstand hurricane winds (NPS nomination form). By 1972 alterations had enclosed the veranda at the rear and the second floor at the front, and the first floor rear rooms had become the restaurant kitchen, while the main entrance foyer, the central stair well and the second floor interior had not been appreciably altered.

Protection came in two steps. The 1972 nomination put the house forward for the National Register of Historic Places, and in 1982 the City of Fort Lauderdale rezoned the Stranahan House and property as an H-1 district in order to protect the area from development (City of Fort Lauderdale historic districts).

Yes: the site is the Historic Stranahan House Museum at 335 SE 6th Avenue in Fort Lauderdale, which says it opens 5 to 6 days a week for tours, with tickets from $13 and the last tour accepted at 3:15pm (Historic Stranahan House Museum).

The museum's own notes are practical. It suggests booking tickets in advance because availability changes weekly with field trips, private tours and venue rentals, notes that parking is limited, as in many metropolitan areas, and lists its office phone as 954-524-4736 (Stranahan House museum). Those are the museum's figures and can change.

Two other stops carry the trading post story beyond the Stranahan site: Evergreen Cemetery at 1300 SE 10th Ave. holds the graves of the Stranahans and other early Fort Lauderdale families, and the Annie Tommie's Camp marker at 101 NW 15 Ave records the Seminole camp the Stranahans knew (Florida Department of State markers).

Last verified: October 18, 2026, against the National Register nomination on NPS NPGallery, the State Archives of Florida exhibit and the City of Fort Lauderdale historic districts page.