Photo Courtesy of Wilton Manors Historical Society
Fairy tales don’t happen by accident. Symbols such as castles, knights and, yes, birds, can be used to determine the meaning of dreams, teach morality or—in the case of E.J. Willingham, the visionary developer who dreamed up Wilton Manors, FL circa 1925—sell real estate.
Willingham dreamt of an upscale Spanish-Revival subdivision. He hired Frances, Abreu, a noted architect, to design a grand entrance castle-like gateway tower and a massive observation edifice on the flat somewhat swampy island. The Island City would wait until 1952 for a bridge that would connect it to Federal Highway (US 1). Sales and public interest didn’t start until the island was connected to the larger city of Ft. Lauderdale.
The observation building, which was built for forever with a base set in concrete, only lived until 1957 when it was demolished to make way for an A&W root beer drive-in.
The gateway tower had a slightly different fate. As the tower aged into the mid-1950s, a colorful Island City eccentric, Shari O’Hara, moved in and set up housekeeping with 15 Mynah birds, 12 parakeets, and owl and two dogs. Within a few years, this collection had turned into “hundreds”, according to AI research, of rescue birds, water fowl and exotics. As Wilton Manors evolved into a suburban city, the birds irritated neighbors and city officials. O’Hara was evicted sometime between 1956-1958 for non-payment of rent. The tower was replaced by a gas station.
Her flocks of feathered friends, however, left a legacy. They prompted the City of Wilton Manors to declare itself a designated Bird Sanctuary in 1964. Currently known as a premier urban birding destination, the city is a vital migratory oasis because it sits directly below the Atlantic Flyway, one of North America’s crucial aerial highways. Its island location and tree canopy between the North and South Forks of the middle River, acts as a green beacon for birds heading for their winter homes in the Caribbean and South America.
The legend of the castles also lives on in a version of the Island City’s seal.
There have been other eccentrics who made Wilton Manors their homes: Snake Man who lived in a van with his slithery buddies, parked in empty lots and moved locations when police or code enforcement came too close, and the 3X and Triple X tag teams of professional wrestlers who gained fame in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
Those stories, however, will have to wait for another time.
