Cap Place originally named Unique Club is a historic site in Lighthouse Point, Florida. Opened in 1928 as speakeasy (with rum-walk related), den gambling and restaurants. It is the oldest existing structure in City of Lighthouse Point and the oldest commercial company in the area. It has been operated as a restaurant since its opening and is the oldest restaurant in Broward County, Florida. On August 10, 1990, it was added to the US National Register of Historic Places. It is located at 2980 Northeast 31st Avenue. No on-site parking; customers take a boat shuttle to the facility.
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Cap's Place is a collection of five vernacular wooden frame buildings, four of which are considered historic. Located on a peninsula between Lake Placid and Intracoastal Waterway, in a residential neighborhood at City of Lighthouse Point, Broward County, Florida. The first building was erected in 1928 on a barge that washed up on the beach. It has been described as having, "no architecture, save the creative style of the Cap itself, born out of the needs and materials available in Florida in 1928." This site was extended to the current L-shaped configuration in 1929. At the time of construction this peninsula was very narrow and parts of the building expanded over the water. In the 1960s, the Gulf side of the peninsula was filled to raise the height of the land and extend the shoreline through several buildings already partially above the water. The site is flanked by water to the east and west and the Australian pine and slash pine buffer in the north and south retains much of the nuance of its original setting. It was initially accessible only by water.
Maps Cap's Place
Layout
The structures that make up the establishment are the restaurants (original buildings with expansions), bars, fish houses, docks and walkways and boat houses (not considered historic due to change). All buildings are built with original materials, including Cuban Mahogany, bamboo, spruce fir trees, and Dade County Pine. Some of the building materials were purchased from the newly established Pompano Wood Company. The restaurant is built in two stages, an early part built on the 1924 beach dredging barge that lifts the structure above ground level.
Restaurants
The barge was stripped to become a one-story wooden base with a pointed roof. The interior and exterior walls of this section are built of thick horizontal pine board. The windows and doors are symmetrically placed and the original wooden casing and surroundings remain. The main entrance is on the east side and flanked by many panel windows with dampened wood. The south side is covered with plywood for protection from water damage but the window is visible from the interior. This section forms the east-west part of the remaining L-form.
The addition of the restaurant is a long rectangular building sits on a concrete block dock and has wooden floors and a horizontal exterior board. Built from Dade County Pine this building has a low pitched asphalt roof. The main entrance is on the north side with the other entrance on the east side. While aluminum windows have been installed on the east and west sides, the original wooden windows remain intact. This addition has a red carpet and is known as "Poinsettia Room" or "Poinciana Room". This and joined the original building by the foyer in 1954. Poinsettia Room is the main place of gambling. The original building is divided into a dining room, one of which is painted yellow and separated by a 3/4 tall wall, and a kitchen in the northwest part of the building. Between the "yellow room" and the other dining room there is a corridor lined with six corners where the slot machine is located. These corners remain intact in size and shape, but the shelf has been added. The money counting room at the southern end of the Poinsettia Room has a private exit to the east.
Bar
The bar located to the north of the restaurant is connected with a deck with picnic table. A rectangular building with windows that match the restaurant has a south-facing door. Visitors in the deck area are served through an open wooden door to the east of the door. There are additional doors and storage spaces that project small on the west side. The interior decor of the bar is different, the huge bar of bamboo everglades on it with the old boat deck and beautified by the mirror is the dominant feature of the room. It was decorated with objects found stranded on the beach while the building was built. The floor and roof are Dade County Pine while its ceilings and ceiling walls are thick pine trees. During that time there was gambling in Cap's Place, there was a Wheel of Fortune and a curtained niche, the niches had been lifted but the lines were still visible on the wall. The bar and restaurant are decorated with flotsam, jetsam and memorabilia.
Other buildings
Immediately after the initial construction of a fish house built on a pile of water. This small rectangular building is used to clean fish and wash dishes, dirty water and fish remnants dumped into the water. Over time, the coastline has been silenced and this structure is now used for storage. The pillar that has risen above the water remains visible. The Cap's Place building is connected by a series of decks, wharfs and wharves while the shoreline has changed this structure intact. A houseboat where the owner lives on the site has been repaired and reconstructed extensively and is not considered historic due to this. A six-room bunkhouse built to provide housing for restaurant workers no longer exists.
History
In 1928 Eugene Theodore "Cap" Knight and Albert Hasis climbed the dredging barge on a small peninsula at Hillsboro Inlet and built a restaurant on its stripped base. They named Club Unique restaurant but the place is always known as the "place of the Cap". Knight has operated stores and restaurants nearby since 1920. The previous business location was bad weather and the site was no longer due to coastal erosion. He has also been involved in rum-running for some time. Barge, purchased for US $ 100 (equivalent to about $ 1,382 in 2017), initially stranded about half a mile from its current location. It was moved because of the extension of the Intracoastal Waterway; the safety rope used was wrapped around a large pile in the bar. From the beginning it was clear that the Unique Club would be a speakeasy with gambling and eating. By the end of 1929 Club Unique had grown with the construction of a number of other buildings. Knight also operated a separate gambling bar nearby in the 1940s. Cap's Place is historically important locally, to Florida and the United States as an early local commercial company, ran away from one of the original settlers in the area, and as part of Florida's southern rum and running history and gambling. Author Carmen McGarry writes of Cap's Place, "An unequaled landmark in southern Florida, it has withstood banning, mobsters, depression, wars, natural destruction, and many pleasant and peaceful times for nearly a century."
One unique aspect of "Cap place" is that it is accessible only by water (until 1953). Customers will go to Hillsboro beach and turn on their lights to signal to an employee who will paddle across the water and take them to the restaurant. Cap's Place is now accessible via road but only disabled parking is available on the premises, most of the customers are constantly transported by boat. The restaurant has unusual items on the menu and a reputation for very fresh seafood. With a rustic setting, an extraordinary menu, and additional drinking, and then gambling, Club Unique has been popular and successful since it opened. During the gambling period, personal membership to the "nightclub" sells for 25 cents. It was a significant location for rum-running during the ban. Hillsboro Club across from Intracoastal does not serve alcohol and customers will come to Cap Place for a drink. Initially the dinner menu was just shrimp, snapper, pompano, Spanish mackerel, fried oysters, and chicken. Knight "does not even believe in dessert." If we have not eaten enough, we do something wrong '"according to Talle Hasis.
Eugene and Lola Knight
Eugene "Cap" Knight was born in or near Canaveral lighthouse, Cape Canaveral, Florida in 1871. His father, grandfather and later brother worked as a lighthouse keeper in Florida. He was one of the earliest settlers in the Hillsboro Beach area. From a sailor family, he left home at the age of 13 to join a marine merchant. He began as a mess boy in the lighthouse tender and left service 35 years later in 1919 as Master of Morgan Line Steamers, sailing between New Orleans and New York. In 1916, Knight married his second wife, Lola Saunders who was a schoolteacher for the children of the employees of Hillsboro Inlet lighthouse and fisherman. Knight's previous marriage, to Bertha Lydia Armor, resulted in three children and ended in divorce before 1914. Lola Saunders, daughter of the Advent Methodist circuit rider, was born in a wooden cottage near Cross Creek in what is now part of the Ocala National Forest. When the ban began in 1920 the couple was involved in rum-running. Lighthouse Hillsboro Inlet guided Eugene Knight as he returned from Bimini with a burlap sack full of illegal liquor called "ham". It is said that his brother, Tom, the lighthouse keeper, may have signaled him when "the beach is clean". The liquor bag will be tied to the buoy and drowned, to be transported later. His boat was faster than the lifeguard and he was never caught. Another brother, Burnham Gray Knight, has been called the charter fishing founder. Historian Wesley Stout calls Eugene Knight "the extraordinary character of Broward County." Author Carmen McGarry wrote, "The captain is really a legend in his day."
Lola Knight later recalled, "many nights carrying sacks of liquor on the beach" and made the journey to deliver to their customers. When asked if he was afraid, he replied, "Fear We never fear, I'm not afraid of the devil himself, nor Cap." He sleeps with a full gun under his pillow and often works as a hostess for a restaurant dressed in cotton gowns, diamond necklaces, and no shoes. A story that he often tells is about Henry Flagler eating favorite dishes at Cap's Place, fresh pompano fish, then writing the word pompano on one of his rail maps, the location being Pompano Beach, Florida. The Cap's Place barge is built on what was previously owned by Flagler and he has used it in building his Overseas Railway. He also recounted that Meyer Lansky would stop by every week to take 10 to 12 percent of gambling profits (Hasis also mentions Lansky's involvement). Lola Knight said, "We pay everyone." Illegal gambling casinos became an important part of southern Florida fabrics, with 52 of them operating openly in Broward County in 1950. The couple has other business interests including fishing boat fleets, wholesale fish markets and fishing camps in the everglades. The stage building on the water now known as the houseboat is their home for thirty years. Eugene Knight died in 1964 and Lola Knight died in 1989. They are buried next to each other at Pompano Beach Cemetery.
Albert Hasis and Sylvester Love
Around 1926 Knight met and befriended the 16-year-old Albert Hasis from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Hassis also left home at the age of 13. The friendships and partnerships they develop persist for the rest of their lives. Together they build and run Club Unique. Hasis built a special bar featuring a large carved arch that was rescued from the wreckage of a sunken 200-year-old Spanish galai ship. The bar is built of bamboo and polished wood from the deck of the ship; Knight's oil portrait hangs over the bar. Hasis met and married Patricia "Pat" McBride in 1945. Knight never bought the land the restaurant was built, Patricia Hasis borrowed $ 5,000 and bought 1,000 feet of land on the Intracoastal Waterway. Albert and Patricia Hasis died in 1982 and are buried at the Deerfield Beach Cemetery.
In 1940, Sylvester Love worked in a Unique Club, ranging from dishwasher, he advanced to the chef. The son of a farmer, he left home in Georgia at 12. Love was a chef in the restaurant for 48 years until 1985. He always wore a white chef coat, stiff apron and a high white chef hat even when his kitchen was 100 degrees, according to Hasis's daughter, Talle Hasis. Instead "Cap" Knight wearing bib overalls and Lola Knight is known for being barefoot. He describes Knight as a "formidable good man who brought me in. He remember coming to the office one morning to find a woman sitting on the dock who lost $ 48,000 on the wheel saying," Oh there are some big spenders... That's are the days. He says his time at the restaurant, "You know it's hard work, but I enjoy every minute of it. No regrets at all." Love was a guest on the Good Morning America television show about 1987 discussing his experience working in a restaurant. After retiring as a chef he continued to work in the restaurant, preparing him to open and supervise the delivery of fresh fish every day until his death in 1990.
Modern time
Cap's Place enjoyed the peak of its popularity in the 1930s and 1940s when locals and tourists often visited the place to eat, drink and gamble. At that time there was a limo service from the upscale Palm Beach County hotel. It continues to be popular among celebrities; artists, sports figures, movie stars, and prominent social figures in formation. Oral history suggests Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt may have dined there one night while attending a strategy meeting for World War II near the secretary of the state of Edward R. Stettinius. While the story of Churchill and Roosevelt's visit has been discredited, Churchill actually visits, dining in a yellow room. Some of the list of famous visitors include Meyer Lansky, Al Capone, Humphrey Bogart, Myrna Loy, Jack Dempsey, Casey Stengel, Bill Clinton, George Harrison, Mariah Carey, Jim Belushi, George Wendt, and Gordon Ramsey. According to author Philip Weidling, "all the people of Palm Beach eat there at one time or another." Patricia Hasis stipulates, still applies, that staff are prohibited from harassing celebrities, offenses may result in immediate dismissal. Patricia Hasis said, "` We have clients who are more attractive because people really have to look for us. "The lifting of the ban in 1933 saw the end of rum-running. The legal pressure ended gambling at Cap's Place in the 1950s. When Eugene Knight died, Albert and Patricia Hasis and Lola Knight continued to run the restaurant. Lola Knight remained active in running the restaurant until 1959. Eugene Knight had not paid any taxes and when he died, the IRS placed a lien on the property. Patricia Hasis pays her debt over time. As part of an agreement to pay taxes payable and take over the restaurant Hasis provides housing and caring for Lola Knight for the rest of her life.
New ownership
Since the 1970's the restaurant has run three children Hasis, Talle, Ted and Tom. As a child, Talle Hasis will sit outside the restaurant with his tea service, sell a small cup of water to the customers and collect five tip dollars. He's named the state capital. On August 10, 1990, Cap's Place was added to the US National Register of Historic Places. There are some local objections to this listing. The neighbors complained that the place was unsightly and characterized the effort to register it as tax evasion. This nomination was prepared by Research Atlantica for the Hasis brothers. In 1991, the City of Lighthouse pointed to Cap's Place as a historic structure, the first appointment by the city. The significant impact of this appointment is based on a previously passed law that the year Cap's Place will be able to rebuild after the disaster. Before the passage of the law and the subsequent appointment of restaurants will be banned from rebuilding because it is located in the residential zone. These actions were met with opposition in society and controversially because Tom Hasis was the city commissioner. Former Lighthouse Point mayor, Leo Bentz, voiced concern about the commercialization of the area, that the establishment can be expanded and that without control over the Cap's Place bar it can stay open until 2 am. Hasis abstained in both voices and both steps were passed 4-0. He continues to be active in local politics.
In the early 1990s a road was built on a peninsula known as Cap Island and a mansion built in the north and south of the restaurant. Lot's price is close to $ 1.5 million. A menu of Cap's Place was included in the time capsule by the Broward League of Cities in 2000. Cap's Place is featured in a public television documentary 2012, The South Florida Prohibition and Connection . In 2012 it also used the filming location for the television show The Glades .
In 2009 Hasis's brother was the co-owner. A 2017 newspaper article identified Tom Hasis as "one of Cap's Place's owners". His wife, Maureen Hasis, was also involved in running the restaurant. When asked about the future in 2013, Talle Hasis noted there were no siblings with children and said, "I think when they take us out horizontally, that's the only way we're going, that's all." He also said, when asked about retirng, "That word is not in my vocabulary, if anything, I will sit there in the rocking chair of Cap, shouting orders." By 2017, the establishment continues to operate as a restaurant, alternating guests from the dock near the parking area to the restaurant dock, and is being considered to stop at the Fort Lauderdale water taxi route.
Today
The approach through the winding narrow residential streets at Lighthouse Point, followed by a boat ride to the restaurant coupled with rustic setting and decor creates a unique dining experience. The ceilings are low and the floors are crooked, but Talle Hasis tells those who complain, "Free your head, my father builds a strong, low place on the ground." The menu includes all kinds of fresh fish, crab, lobster, and grouper chowder. It has been updated from the past and now includes appetizers and even lemon for dessert. In the past, green turtles and turtle eggs with jelly jelly eggs were also featured. In 1963, Knight was arrested for possessing an illegal turtle egg, from an endangered species. Knight is known to keep thousands of turtle eggs frozen. The very fresh seafood is the hallmark of the restaurant. In 2005 they still buy fresh fish daily from Captain Murphy, a local fisherman as they have done for decades. All meals are cooked to order. Specialty home, palm salad liver made with palm oil from Everglades and Lake Okeechobee. Beware the palm has been supplied by the same Seminole family since the restaurant opened. The food comes with hot rolls and homemade jelly. Cap's Place has been reviewed positively from the 1980s to the present. The price is quite expensive. The restaurant mostly relies on word of mouth and not much advertising. It has been called one of South Florida's most colorful landmarks.
References
Further reading
- Gross, Bonnie. "Cap's Place: Historic South Florida restaurant is like a time capsule". Florida Rambler . Archived from the original on 3 November 2017.
External links
- Capture Island Web Site
- "Historical Report: Florida History Through This Place: Broward County". Florida Dept. of State, Historical Resource Division :. Archived from the original on July 2, 2014.
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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