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Visit and tour the Historic Hammerstein House

Open free to the public on the first Sunday of the month, September through May, 1 to 4 p.m.

1520 Polk Street, Hollywood        

HISTORIC VERA AND CLARENCE HAMMERSTEIN HOUSE, 1935
1520 Polk Street, Hollywood, Florida

The house was designed by prominent Hollywood architect Bayard Lukens in 1935 for Vera and Clarence Hammerstein. This is a fine example of the style Lukens called “Tropical Modern,” with variegated tile roof and a smooth curving wall at the front entrance. White stucco walls were set off by horizontal trim in another color. His interiors are beautifully detailed, with moldings, trim over and around doors, fireplaces with heatolators (vents with decorative metal screens along the sides of the fireplace), and use of decorative Cuban and Spanish tiles.

World War I pilot Hammerstein and his bride Vera Rust, both from Indiana, moved to Florida in November, 1925 to join friends Jane and Floyd Wray in the booming young city of Hollywood. Unable to find rooms in Hollywood they first settled in Miami near a citrus grove which Vera tended while Ham, as he was called, commuted to Hollywood to sell real estate for the Hollywood Land & Water Company.* The Hammersteins moved to Hollywood in 1928 where they first lived in the Fountain Court Apartments at 813 Tyler Street with her parents, Jacob and Mary Rust.

As real estate was no longer lucrative in the wake of the 1926 hurricane, the Hammersteinssought a new business and made a lasting mark in the community. With theWrays and Frank Stirling, a citrus grower from Davie, they founded Flamingo Groves in January 1927. Floyd Wray was president, Stirling was vice president and groves manager, Ham Hammerstein was vice president in charge of advertising and sales, and Jane Wray was secretary. The citrus groves still operate as Flamingo Gardens.

Ham and Vera next moved to 1536–38 Polk Street and, during the Depression when lots were auctioned off for tax certificates, the couple acquired eleven lots on Polk Street, including the three lots on which they built the house designed by Bayard Lukens. In the 1940s both Ham and Vera were very active in the war effort in Hollywood–Vera was the head of a group of women volunteers who canned local produce. From the 1930s to the 1950s, Ham and Vera traveled throughout the world seeking exotic plants; Ham made a special study of mango culture.

At his death in September, 1987 at 92 Clarence Hammerstein left this house to the City of Hollywood in memory of his beloved wife Vera who had predeceased him. (They had no children.) He made his decision after having seen the Taj Mahal, which an Indian shah had built for his wife.

The house is shown to the public by the Hollywood Historical Society and is open to the public one Sunday each month (except during the summer). Call the Historical Society for specifics, 954-923-5590.

Since Clarence Hammerstein’s death, legends surrounding his activities in Hollywood have sprouted. For example, his obituary in the Sun-Sentinel, September 3, 1987, stated that “Joe Young [presumably Joseph W. Young, Jr., the sole founder of Hollywood], also from Evansville, convinced Mr. Hammerstein to move to Hollywood in the 1920s to sell real estate.” And a handout printed following his death reads: “The Hammersteins settled in Hollywood in 1925 and became well known, amongst other things, for raising mangoes and oranges…. Mr. Hammerstein also assisted Hollywood’s founder Joseph Young in planning our city and promoting tourism here.”
In fact, it is more likely that Ham Hammerstein barely knew J. W. Young, any better than any of the dozens of men on the sales force of the Hollywood Land and Water Company in 1925. He most assuredly did not “assist Young in planning” Hollywood—Young had Hollywood completely planned and mapped by 1921. J. W. Young was not “from Evansville,” Indiana—he had been living in Indianapolis since about 1918 and before that on the west coast. Young had no particular reason to “convince Hammerstein to move to Hollywood,” although he no doubt welcomed all good land sales persons. The Hammersteins came to Florida at the urging of their friends the Wrays, and settled first in the Miami area since they could not find housing in the booming, crowded city of Hollywood.

These attempts to attach the Hammersteins to J. W. Young’s activities are unfortunate since they obscure the actual value the couple brought to the city after the 1926 hurricane when the Hollywood Land and Water Company faded away. The Hammersteins, the Wrays, and others should be recognized for their efforts to salvage the city after the 1926 disaster drove away the thousands of land speculators and both population and property values dropped precipitously. By staying on, organizing a business, buying property, hiring a local architect and building a home the thirty-year-old Hammersteins indicated their faith in Hollywood’s future. Great joiners and club members, they were community leaders. Ham’s cheery nature, outgoing personality and boosterism for Hollywood caused him to be elected president of Hollywood’s Kiwanis club and Commander of American Legion Post 92 in Hollywood, and Vera was an officer in Sinawik. A serious student of mango culture, Ham belonged to the Florida Mango Forum for many years beginning in the 1930s. Deeply interested in education, Vera regularly visited elementary schools to describe the people and customs in the many countries she and Ham visited, and in 1968 the couple donated five acres of their Davie grove land to newly-established Nova University.


The Hammersteins well represent the city of Hollywood in its youth in the 1930s and 1940s.

2^nd Lt. Clarence P. Hammerstein, a chase pilot over France during World War One.

Hammerstein collection