Pool Contractor in Redland, FL

In 1898, John Brinzell became the first settler in southern Dade County, building the first house south of Cutler (now Palmetto Bay) near what is now Silver Palm Drive and SW 157th Avenue (Newton Road). Brinzell acted as a broker locating pioneer settlers on homestead claims in the area. The pioneer homesteaders, living in tents and lean-tos, began clearing and farming their land. Many of the roads that now crisscross Redland bear the names of these pioneers, along with numerical street/avenue designations later assigned by the county. The first harvests were a diverse group of cabbage, carrots, eggplant, beans, and tomatoes. Large-scale farming was impractical, however, because the red, iron-rich soil that gave the area its name could only be found in scattered “potholes” that, at their largest, were only an acre in size. To grow fruit trees, farmers first had to dynamite holes in the oolite rock.

In 1904, residents constructed the Silver Palm Schoolhouse at Silver Palm Drive and Newton Road. The two-story structure was the first and largest of seven rural schoolhouses built in the area in the 1900s. The 1905 arrival of Henry Flagler’s Florida East Coast (FEC) Railway several miles to the east in Princeton allowed the homesteaders to easily ship their produce elsewhere in Florida and the country. In 1906, the one-room Redland Schoolhouse was built of Dade County pine at the corner of SW 248th Street (Coconut Palm Drive) and Redland Road. Within five years, five more one-room schoolhouses were built in the area, the last being the Murray Hill Schoolhouse at the corner of Redland Road and SW 216th Street (Hainlin Mill Drive).

The 1911 William Anderson General Merchandise Store at Anderson’s Corner, looking southeast from Silver Palm Drive

In 1911, William “Popp” Anderson, a surveyor from Indiana who worked for the FEC Railway, built the William Anderson General Merchandise Store, also known as Anderson’s Corner, a general store catercorner from the Silver Palm Schoolhouse. The store served the thriving community until the 1930s, when it was converted into apartments and, eventually, a restaurant.

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