Dania Beach: Broward's Oldest City, Built by Danes
Near Fort Lauderdale, Florida
Broward County's oldest incorporated city was built by Danes. In eighteen ninety-eight and eighteen ninety-nine, twelve Danish families relocated from Chicago to a planned settlement here called Modello. Three years later, thirty more Danes were recruited from Oconto, Wisconsin.
A man named A. C. Frost built the first general store, became the first postmaster, and donated the first two school buildings.
When the town incorporated in November nineteen oh four with thirty-five residents, most of them Danish, they voted to rename it Dania, honoring their homeland. The name was formalized as Dania in nineteen oh five. Decades later, in nineteen ninety eight, the city added Beach to its name to play up its Atlantic shoreline.
Today it sits at the southern edge of Fort Lauderdale's sprawl, still the oldest city in the county.
