April Kirk, Executive Director, director@stranahanhouse.org

The mission of the Historic Stranahan House Museum is two fold:  1. To tell the story of the birth place of our community through the lives of two extraordinary people and the homestead the y built and 2.To serve as an enduring legacy for historic preservation.  



Stranahan House, built in a classic Florida frontier design, is the oldest surviving structure in Broward County.  It overlooks the picturesque New River.  Home to two of Fort Lauderdale’s best known pioneer residents, Frank and Ivy Stranahan, it was originally constructed as a trading post, the third such structure on the site.  Mr. Stranahan married Ivy Julia Cromartie in 1900.  When they first met she was an eighteen-year-old who had come from Lemon City to teach at the first Fort Lauderdale school. 

The Stranahans welcomed the Seminole Indians who would sleep on the house’s broad porches when they came to town to trade.  Mrs. Stranahan was an early advocate of education for both Indians and blacks.  Although she only formally taught school for a year, many of the Indian children who visited her home learned to read through her efforts.  The Stranahans donated land for the third school for black children, Old Dillard School, in Fort Lauderdale. 

Frank Stranahan’s major business interests were in real estate and banking.   He organized the Fort Lauderdale State Bank in 1910 and served as its president.  He was also active in local politics.    When the “land boom” collapsed after the 1926 hurricane and the great depression, the Fort Lauderdale State Bank failed.   Mr. Stranahan’s other business interests also suffered.  Despondent and in poor health, he drowned himself in the New River. 

The house has served over the years as a post office, town hall and restaurant.  Mrs. Stranahan died in 1971 having watched Broward County’s tremendous growth.   In her will she left her property to the Seventh Day Adventist Church.  The house was purchased shortly thereafter by the Fort Lauderdale Historical Society and the Fort Lauderdale Board of Realtors which began the restoration effort.  The house features Dade County pine walls (termite resistant) and oak flooring.  In 1982, extensive archaeological investigations were conducted by archaeologist Robert Carr.  This work not only helped document the late-nineteenth-century history of the site, but also revealed deposits of much older prehistoric artifacts.   It is now a house museum, run by Stranahan House, Inc., open to the public for tours and special events.   This well-restored house museum focuses on the Stranahan family and Fort Lauderdale’s early Twentieth-Century history.  

Every city has its beginning. Come visit the Historic Stranahan House Museum on the banks of the New River in downtown Fort Lauderdale. You will tour the 1901 building which is the first permanent building in Fort Lauderdale and Broward County. You will hear how the community began – the influence that Frank and Ivy Stranahan had on the development of this community and their involvement with the Seminoles. Your step back in time will be fascinating as you tour the building which was a trading post and would later become home to the Stranahans. Various educational programs for adults and children are offered year around. Seasonal and special tours are offered throughout the year.

The house is open for tours every day at 1, 2, and 3 P.M.  Adults $12, Seniors $11 Children $7 For additional information please call:  954-524-4737.