History

Las Olas Isles History: Charley Rodes, the Venice Plats and the 1920s Boom

By Glen Primak, GLEN PRIMAK GROUP · Updated October 24, 2026

A road to the beach (1915–1917)

East Las Olas Boulevard is the reason the isles exist. Local histories describe the Las Olas Bridge Company forming in 1915 and a bridge across the Intracoastal opening by January 1917, giving the town its first road link to the beach. The land between the new road and the New River was low and wet.

“Venice” and the finger isles (1920s)

• Charley Rodes. Developer Charles Green “Charley” Rodes (sometimes spelled Rhodes) dredged a series of finger canals between East Las Olas Boulevard and the New River, piling the fill into long, narrow isles. Local accounts say he took the method from Venice, Italy, and wanted the area called “Venice”. A Broward County Libraries timeline dates the dredging of finger islands off Las Olas Boulevard to 1922.
• The names stuck in the plats. County records still carry the “Venice” name on the western isles: the VENICE plat (plat book 6, page 4) on Mola Ave and Isle of Capri Dr, a second Venice plat (8-12) on Coconut Isle Dr, and later Venice resubdivisions on Isle of Capri and Bontona Ave. Street names such as Isle of Capri, Lido and San Marco carry the Italian theme east.
• Stone columns. A 2019 article in Las Olas Boulevard & Isles (LOBI) magazine describes six stone pillars, topped with pairs of eagles, on the south side of what is now Las Olas Isles. It cites 1925 Fort Lauderdale News items about “Stone Columns to Adorn Venice” and “Venetian Stone columns at all entrances to Venice”, and C.C. Ausherman Co. advertisements from January 22, 1925 offering waterfront lots at Venice. The author found little surviving documentation of when the pillars were built, and we have not checked the 1925 items or the pillar locations ourselves.
• Different developers to the east. The eastern isles were platted separately as Coral Isles (Lido Dr, San Marco Dr, Coral Way) and Stilwell Isles (Royal Plaza Dr, Isle of Palms Dr). A local history credits Tom Stilwell’s Fort Lauderdale Riparian Company with putting 270 Riviera Isles lots on sale in March 1925, including on “Isle of Palms Drive”. How those sales relate to the Stilwell Isles plat is not settled by the sources cited here.
• Bust. The September 1926 hurricane and the end of the Florida land boom stopped most building. Fort Lauderdale Magazine reports the land lay largely fallow for about a decade, with building resuming in the late 1930s.

What county records show

Broward County Property Appraiser (BCPA) legal descriptions place the nine streets in these recorded plats (plat book–page):

County year-built records list 2 of today’s single-family homes as built in the 1920s and 19 in the 1930s, then a steady pace every decade since: 35 in the 1990s, 33 in the 2000s, 39 in the 2010s and 27 so far in the 2020s. Year-built fields can reflect major rebuilds, so treat them as approximate. None of the nine streets is in a City-designated historic district. See the market snapshot →

The neighborhood today

• The Las Olas Isles Homeowners Association describes itself as a voluntary association for the nine isles, with more than 300 households. The City of Fort Lauderdale’s GIS maps the area as a neighborhood-association area (City Commission District 2); the association is not on the City’s 2026 list of officially recognized associations.
• The City lists Las Olas Isles as completed in its program for moving overhead power, phone and cable lines underground. Under the program, costs are repaid through a special assessment on the property tax bill; check a specific folio’s tax bill for its status.
• The isles sit low. In 2020 the Florida Phoenix quoted a Las Olas Isles resident who had watched king tides fill his street every fall for 21 years, and the City’s seawall rules now set minimum seawall heights. See dock and seawall rules →

Have family photos, old deeds or stories about the isles? We’d like to hear from you. Get in touch →