Look straight ahead for the long, two-story, pale building with a deep wraparound porch and three little dormer windows popping out of the roof.
This is the New River Inn, built in 1905 when Fort Lauderdale was still more “frontier outpost” than “vacation playlist.” It was put up by Edwin T. King, the area’s first contractor, for Nathan Philemon Bryan who’d gone from Jacksonville to the United States Senate... and still wanted a proper hotel down here. The clever part is what it’s made of: hollow concrete blocks and sand dredged from the beach nearby. Because nothing says “welcome, traveler” like sleeping inside a building that’s part ocean.
For its day, this place was downright fancy: sewer and irrigation systems, running ice water, and carbide lamps throwing a warm, flickering glow at night. It ran as a 24-room hotel until 1955, then earned National Register status in 1972. Today, it’s a time capsule-pioneer life, a recreated 1908 hotel room, and the “Panorama of the Past.”
When you’re set, Bank of America Plaza is about a 12-minute walk heading east.
