Carl G. Fisher

For the Roman Catholic bishop, seeCarl Anthony Fisher.For those of a similar name, seeCarl Fischer.

Carl G. Fisher
Fisher in 1909
Born	(1874-01-12)January 12, 1874 Greensburg, Indiana,US
Died	July 15, 1939(1939-07-15)(aged 65) Miami Beach,Florida, US
Occupation	Entrepreneur

Carl Graham Fisher(January 12, 1874 – July 15, 1939) was an Americanentrepreneurin the automotive industry, highway construction and real estate development.

Early life

Carl G. Fisher was born inGreensburgon January 12, 1874.In his early life in Indiana, with family financial strains and a disability, Fisher became a bicycle enthusiast and opened a modest bicycle shop with his brothers. He became involved in bicycle racing, and many activities related to the emerging American auto industry. In 1904, he and friendJames A. Allisonbought an interest in the U.S.patentto manufactureacetyleneheadlights,a precursor to electric models that became common about ten years later. Soon, his firm supplied nearly every headlamp used on automobiles in the United States as manufacturing plants were built all over the country to supply the demand. The headlight patent made him rich as an automotivepartssupplier when Allison and he sold their company, Prest-O-Lite, to Union Carbide in 1913 for $9 million (equivalent to $268 million in 2022).

Fisher operated inIndianapoliswhat is believed to be the firstautomobile dealershipin the United States, and also worked at developing an automobile racetrack locally. After being injured in stunts himself, and following a safety debacle at the newIndianapolis Motor Speedway,of which he was a principal, he helped develop paved racetracks and public roadways. Improvements he implemented at the speedway led to its nickname, "The Brickyard."

In 1912, Fisher conceived and helped develop theLincoln Highway,the first road for the automobile across the entire United States. A convoy trip a few years later by theU.S. Armyalong Fisher's Lincoln Highway was a major influence upon then-Lt. Col.Dwight D. Eisenhoweryears later in championing theInterstate Highway Systemduring his presidency in the 1950s.

Following on the success of his east-west Lincoln Highway, Fisher initiated efforts on the north-southDixie Highwayin 1914, which led from Michigan to Miami. Under his leadership, the initial portion was completed within a single year, and he led an automobile caravan to Florida from Indiana.

At the south end of the Dixie Highway in Miami, Florida, Fisher saw another opportunity. Fisher, with the assistance of his partners John Graham McKay and Thomas Walkling, became involved in the real-estate development of a largely unpopulated barrier island near Miami. They invested in land and dredging, promoted deed restrictions, and provided much-needed working capital to the earlier Lummus and Collins family pioneers to developMiami Beach.For example, Fisher funded completion on the first bridge to link Miami to Miami Beach. The new Collins Bridge crossed Biscayne Bay directly at the terminus of the Dixie Highway. Cars were charged a toll to cross.

Fisher is one of the best-known promoters of the Florida land boom of the 1920s, which inculcated racial deed restrictions into Florida culture for decades. Prior to thehurricane in September 1926,he was worth an estimated $50-100 million depending on the source. This unforeseen storm reduced Miami Beach to rubble. Fisher's financial endeavors never fully recovered.

His next major project, Montauk, was envisioned as the "Miami Beach of the North." It was to be located at on the eastern tip of Long Island, New York. It was cut short by Fisher's losses in the Florida land-boom bust, the Great Depression of 1929, his divorce, and alcoholism.

After his fortune was lost, he lived in a small cottage in Miami Beach, doing minor work for old friends. He took on one more project, theCaribbean ClubonKey Largo,intended as a "poor man's retreat." He was inducted into theAutomotive Hall of Famein 1971.Just south of Miami Beach,Fisher Islandis named for him and is one of the wealthiest and most exclusive residential areas in the United States.It is built on a parcel that is a combination of "the old Vanderbilt estate" bought from Fisher and a municipal trash dump.

Private life

Carl Fisher was born inGreensburg, Indiana,nine years after the end of theAmerican Civil War,the son of Albert H. and Ida Graham Fisher. Apparently suffering fromalcoholism,a problem which also plagued Carl later in life, his father left the family when he was a child. Severelyastigmatic,he had difficulty paying attention in school, as uncorrected astigmatism can cause headaches, eyestrain, and blurred vision at all distances. He quit school when he was 12 years old to help support his family.

For the next five years, Fisher held a number of jobs. He worked in a grocery and a bookstore, then later he sold newspapers, books, tobacco, candy, and other items on trains departing Indianapolis, a major railroad center not far from Greensburg. He opened a bicycle repair shop in 1891 with his two brothers. A successfulentrepreneur,he expanded his business and became involved inbicycle racingand later,automobile racing.During his many promotional stunts, he was frequently injured on the dirt and gravel roadways, leading him to become one of the early developers of automotive safety features. A highly publicized stunt involved dropping a bicycle from the roof of the tallest building in Indianapolis, which brought on a confrontation with the police.

In 1909, while 35 and engaged to his fiancée, Fisher met and married 15-year-old Jane Watts.His ex-fiancée sued him for abreach of promise.Meanwhile, he and his new wife Jane went on a business trip for their honeymoon. In 1921, they had one child, who died a month later frompyloric stenosis.She adopted a four-year-old child in 1925; he disapproved and they divorced in Paris in 1926. She then married and divorced three men; after her last marriage she went to court to change her name to Jane Watts Fisher and falsely styled herself as his widow.

Fisher's second marriage, to his secretary, Margaret Eleanor Collier, lasted until his death.She then married Howard W. Lyon, his business associate.

Fisher at the Harlem racetrack, near Chicago, Illinois

Automobile businesses

In 1904, Fisher was approached by the owner of a U.S. patent to manufacture acetylene headlights. Fisher's firm soon supplied nearly every headlamp used on automobiles in the United States, as manufacturing plants were built all over the country to supply the demand. The headlight patent made him rich as an automotivepartssupplier and led to friendships with notable auto magnates. Fisher made millions when partnerJames A. Allisonand he sold theirPrest-O-Liteautomobile headlamp business toUnion Carbide.

Fisher also entered the business of selling automobiles, with his friendBarney Oldfield.TheFisher Automobile Companyin Indianapolis is considered most likely the firstautomobile dealershipin the United States. It carried multiple models ofOldsmobile,REO,Packard,Stoddard-Dayton,Stutz,and others. Fisher staged an elaborate publicity stunt in which he attached a hot-air balloon to a white Stoddard-Dayton automobile and flew the car over downtown Indianapolis. Thousands of people observed the spectacle and Fisher triumphantly drove back into town, becoming an instant media sensation. Unbeknownst to the public, the flying car had had its engine removed to lighten the load, and several identical cars were driven out to meet it, to allow Fisher to drive back into the city. Afterward, he advertised, "The Stoddard-Dayton was the first automobile to fly over Indianapolis. It should be your first automobile, too." Another stunt involved pushing a car off the roof of a building and then driving it away, to demonstrate its durability.

Indianapolis estate

"Blossom Heath" was Fisher's estate in Indianapolis. Completed in 1913, it was built on Cold Spring Road between the estates of his two friends and Indianapolis Motor Speedway partners, James A. Allison and Frank H. Wheeler. The house included portions of an earlier house on the site and featured a 60-foot-long living room with a 6-foot-wide fireplace where logs burned all day. The house had twelve bedrooms and a huge glass-enclosed sun porch. Fisher built a house for his mother on the southern part of the estate. The estate also included a five-car garage, an indoor swimming pool, a polo course, a stable, an indoor tennis court and gymnasium, a greenhouse, and extensive gardens. A newspaper article dated February 2, 1913, described the simple dignity of the house. Unlike some of his friends and neighbors, Fisher built a large but simple house decorated primarily in yellow, his favorite color. It did not contain exotic woodwork, elaborate carvings, or extensive decoration.

In 1928, after Fisher moved permanently to Miami Beach, the Fisher estate in Indianapolis was leased and later purchased by the Park School for Boys. The Fisher mansion was damaged by fire in the 1950s and the rear portion of the house was demolished and replaced with a classroom wing during 1956–57. The property was sold toMarian Collegein the 1960s and combined with two nearby estates into one 110-acre (0.45 km²) campus. Today, none of Fisher's original buildings remain on the Marian College campus.

Early photo of Indianapolis Motor Speedway

Auto racing

See also:Indianapolis Motor Speedway

In 1909, Fisher joined a group of Indianapolis businessmen in a new project.Arthur C. Newby(president ofNational),Frank H. Wheeler(maker of theWheeler-Scheblercarburetor),James A. Allison(partner inPrest-O-Lite)and he invested in what becameIndianapolis Motor Speedway,which is now surrounded by the city of Indianapolis. The first automobile race in August 1909 ended in disaster. The loose rock track led to numerous crashes, fires, terrible injuries to race-car drivers and spectators, and deaths. The race was halted and cancelled when only halfway completed.

Undeterred, Fisher convinced the investors to install 3.2 million paving bricks, leading to the famous nickname "the brickyard". (This persists, though it has since been resurfaced.) The speedway reopened, and onMemorial Day,May 30, 1911, 80,000 spectators paid the $1 admission (and many thousands more unpaid in overlooking buildings and trees) and watched the 500-mile (800 km) event, the first in a long line of races known as theIndianapolis 500.

Lincoln Highway scene in New Jersey

A restored section of theDixie Highway in Florida

Lincoln Highway

In 1913, foreseeing the automobile's impact on American life, Fisher conceived and was instrumental in the planning, development, and construction of theLincoln Highway,the first road across America, which connected New York City to San Francisco. Fisher estimated the highway, an improved, hard-surfaced road stretching almost 3,400 miles (5,500 km), would cost $10 million. Fellow industrialistsFrank SeiberlingandHenry Bourne Joyhelped Fisher with their promotional skills, together creating the Lincoln Highway Association. Much of the highway was paid for by contributions from automobile manufacturers and suppliers, a policy bitterly opposed byHenry Ford.

Former U.S. PresidentTheodore RooseveltandThomas A. Edison,both friends of Fisher's, sent checks, as well as the then-PresidentWoodrow Wilson,who has been noted as the first U.S. President to make frequent use of an automobile for what was described as stress-relief relaxation rides.

In 1919, as World War I was ending, the U.S. Army undertook its first transcontinental motor convoy along the Lincoln Highway. One of the young Army officers wasDwight David Eisenhower,then a lt. colonel, who credited the experience when supporting construction of the Interstate Highway System when he became President of the United States in 1952.

Dixie Highway

Fisher next turned his attention to creating the Dixie Highway, a network of north-south routes extending from theUpper Peninsula of Michiganto southernFlorida,which he felt would provide an ideal way for residents of his home state to vacation in southern Florida. In September 1916, Fisher andIndiana GovernorSamuel M. Ralstonattended a celebration opening the roadway from Indianapolis to Miami.

Miami Beach

The futureCity of Miami Beachbecame Fisher's next big project. On a vacation to Miami around 1910, he saw potential in the swampy, bug-infested stretch of land between Miami and the ocean. He knew earlier pioneers needed working capital and ideas. His mind transformed the 3,500 acres (14 km²) ofmangroveswamp and beach into the perfect vacation destination for his automobile-industry friends. His wife and he bought a vacation home there in 1912, and he began acquiring land.Though he did not invent the name Miami Beach, he popularized it. He platted the second plat in Miami Beach, following the Lummus Brothers.

Fisher continued his wise investment in infrastructure. TheCollins BridgeacrossBiscayne Baybetween Miami and thebarrier islandthat became Miami Beach was built byJohn S. Collins(1837–1928), an earlier farmer and developer originally fromNew Jersey.Collins, then 75 years old, had run out of money before he could complete his bridge. Fisher lent him the money in trade for 200 acres (0.81 km²) of land. The new2+1⁄2-mile (4 km) woodentoll bridgeopened on June 12, 1913.

Fisher financed the dredging of Biscayne Bay to create its vast residential islands.He later built several landmark luxury hotels, including theFlamingo Hotel,that were meant to attract the wealthy and celebrated elite to convince them to buy permanent residences in the area.

Collins BridgeacrossBiscayne BaybetweenMiamiandMiami Beach, Florida,opened in 1913 as the "longest wooden bridge in the world."

Although a dedicated enthusiast of automobile travel, Fisher was aware that wealthy vacationers in those days often preferred to cross the long distances to southeastern Florida byrailroad,a tradition begun by some families years earlier withHenry M. Flagler'sFlorida East Coast Railway(FEC) and the resorts he established at places likeSt. AugustineandPalm Beach,and eventually Miami, the southern terminus of the FEC, where he built the well-known and later infamousRoyal Palm Hotel.

In developing Miami Beach's potential for resort hotels, Fisher needed a transportation connection for the 5 miles (8.0 km) from the FEC railroad station in Miami.

The solution he developed was the Miami Beach Railway, an electricstreet railwaysystem that served the additional purpose of providing electric service. Other investors and he formed the Miami Beach Electric Company and the Miami Beach Railway Co.It began service on December 14, 1920, and ran from downtown Miami, where it shared tracks with Miami's own trolley system, to the County Causeway (renamedMacArthur Causewayafter World War II).After crossing Biscayne Bay to Miami Beach, the tracks looped around the section of Miami Beach south of 47th Street. Around 1926, Florida Power and Light acquired Fisher's streetcar system, and expanded it, double tracking the line across the causeway.While sale of electric service was a growth industry across the United States, though, the street railway portion went into a period of decline, along with the entire industry. All rail service between Miami and Miami Beach was terminated on October 17, 1939.

Even with the new street railway connecting with the FEC, while wealthy people came to vacation, only a few were buying land or building homes. The U.S. public was apparently slow to catch on to the vacation land and homes Fisher envisioned for Florida. His investments in Miami Beach were not paying off, at least not until he again used his promotional skills, which had worked so well years earlier in Indiana.

Ever the innovative promoter, Fisher seemed tireless in his efforts to draw attention to Miami Beach, a story recounted byPBS.Fisher had acquired a baby elephant named"Rosie",that was a favorite with newspaper photographers.In 1921, he got free publicity all across the country with what would be called today a promotional "photo-op" of Rosie serving as a"golf caddy"for vacationing President-elect Warren Harding. Billboards of bathing beauties enjoying white beaches and blue ocean waters appeared around the country. Fisher even purchased a huge, illuminated sign proclaiming "It's June in Miami" inTimes Square.

During theFlorida land boom of the 1920s,real-estate sales took off as Americans discovered their automobiles and the paved Dixie Highway, which through no coincidence led to the foot of the Collins Bridge.Fewer than 1,000 year-round residents lived in Miami Beach in 1920. In the next five years, the resident population of the Miami Beach area grew 440%. People from all over the country flocked to South Florida in hopes of getting rich buying and selling real estate. They sent home tales of riches being made when orange groves and swamp lands were subdivided, sold, and developed.

The art of the swap, which helped fund the Collins Bridge, was apparently the source of great satisfaction to Fisher. He had bought another 200 acres (0.81 km²) that now formFisher IslandfromDana A. Dorsey,South Florida's firstAfrican Americanmillionaire, and had begun some development there in 1919. Five years later, he traded seven acres of Fisher Island toWilliam Kissam Vanderbilt IIof the famous and wealthy Vanderbilt family, for the latter's 150-ft steam yachtEagle.Vanderbilt used the property, later expanded to 13 acres, to create an enclave even more luxurious and exclusive than many of Miami Beach's finest.

The Miami Yacht Club that Fisher built in 1924 was later converted into a private mansion that was extensively renovated in 2017; the property was on the market for $65 million in May 2018.

By 1926, Fisher was worth an estimated $50-100 million, depending on the source. He could have been financially secure for life. The Great Miami Hurricane of 1926, alcoholism, and the Great Depression of 1929 set him back. Always ready for a new idea, Fisher was known for moving from project to project. Success or failure had never stopped him from attempting something new. In her 1947 book, his ex-wife Jane Watts Fisher quoted him as replying, when she had hoped that he would slow down at some point, "I don't have time to take time." Instead, he redirected his promotional efforts to yet another new project far to the north.

Montauk Manor

Montauk, Long Island

In 1926, Fisher began working on a "Miami Beach of the North". His project atMontaukat the eastern tip ofLong Islandin New York was to provide a warm-season counterpart to the Florida development. Four associates and he purchased 9,000 acres (36 km²) and built a luxurious hotel, office building, marina, and attractions. One source stated that they built about "30 Tudor-style buildings, including the lavishMontauk Manorand a yacht club. "

The project built roads, planted nurseries, laid water pipes, and built houses. He built Montauk Manor, which still exists as a luxury resort today (pictured at right). He also built theMontauk Tennis Auditorium.

Because of financial reversals suffered by Fisher, the Montauk project went into receivership in 1932.According to his wife Jane, Montauk "was Carl’s first and only failure", but she died before Fisher's most significant losses.

The Carl Fisher Tower stands in the middle of Montauk at approximately 100 feet tall.

Later years

Mausoleum of Carl Fisher and family atCrown Hill Cemeteryin Indianapolis

In 1925, Fisher's wealth was estimated as exceeding $50 million. In later years, he borrowed heavily and thehurricane in September 1926damaged a large part of Miami Beach and reduced tourism. The losses in his real-estate ventures and the crash of 1929 left Fisher virtually penniless. "Fisher's financial house of cards began to collapse", according to aPBSreport, and theStock Market Crash of 1929(followed by the Great Depression) "sealed Fisher's fate".

One source indicates that during the years before his death, Fisher was living in a modest cottage on Miami Beach.

For his final project, in 1938, Fisher developed and builtKey Largo'sCaribbean Club,afishingclub for men who were not rich. After he died, the club was turned into a casino.Despite reports, no evidence shows thatKey Largowas filmed there in 1948, according to research completed in 2014.

Fisher died July 15, 1939, at age 65, of a stomach hemorrhage in a Miami Beach hospital, following a lengthy illness compounded by alcoholism.His pallbearers included Barney Oldfield, William Vanderbilt, andGar Wood.He was interred at the family mausoleum atCrown Hill Cemeteryin Indianapolis.

Legacy

On July 15, 1939, theMiami Daily Newsnoted Fisher's ingenuity was influential and guided to earlier Miami Beach pioneers, summing him up: "Carl G. Fisher, who looked at a piece of swampland and visualized the nation's greatest winter playground,.... he once said" I could just as easily have started a cattle ranch. "

Will Rogersremembered Fisher as a Florida pioneer with these words:

Fisher was the first man to discover that there was sand under the water...[sand] that could hold up a real estate sign. He made the dredge the national emblem of Florida.

Howard Kleinburg, an author and Miami Beach historian described Fisher:

If you look at Fisher's entire life, it's a marathon. It's a race. It was a race to achieve the top of whatever field he was in at the time. Everything he did he went into it with his heart, his soul, his money, and he would not stop until he reached the end. He wanted to be there the quickest and first...

In 1947, Jane Fisher, his ex-wife (who married him in 1909 and was divorced in 1926), wrote a book about his life.Fabulous Hoosierwas published by R.M. McBride and Co. She wrote:

He was all speed. I don't believe he ever thought in terms of money. He made millions, but they were incidental. He often said, "I just like to see the dirt fly."

Among his most successful real-estate ideas was to pioneer and to encourage "whites only" property deed restrictions and physical racial segregation.Fisher's goal was "to create a mecca for the wealthy" on a little-known barrier island called Miami Beach, Florida.Under Fisher's aggressive influence, Miami Beach became a Sundown Town that did not allow people of color to live or even be on the island after dark.This had lasting effects on Miami Beach's housing patterns and demographics.Though he recanted on earlier "gentiles only" policies and sought the help of white Jewish investors for capital for his Miami Beach holdings, he never recanted on his philosophy of a "whites only" Miami Beach.

In 1952, Carl Graham Fisher was inducted into theIndianapolis Motor Speedway Hall of Fame,and theAutomotive Hall of Famein 1971.In 1998, PBS produced a program about Fisher titledMr. Miami Beachas a part of theAmerican Experienceseries.

He has also a school inSpeedway, Indiana,named for him - Carl G. Fisher Elementary School.

Fisher was named to theList of Great Floridians.

He was inducted into theMotorsports Hall of Fame of Americain 2018.

In 2014, a historic marker was erected on 150 Courthouse Square, Greensburg, IN 46240.

See also

• Biography portal
• Cocolobo Cay Club,a 1922 Fisher project that was later incorporated intoBiscayne National Park

Sources

• Clymer, Floyd.Treasury of Early American Automobiles, 1877–1925New York: Bonanza Books, 1950.(registration required)
• Fisher, Jane.Fabulous HoosierNew York, New York: R. M. McBride and Co., 1947
• Fisher, Jerry M.The Pacesetter: The Untold Story of Carl G. FisherFt. Bragg, California: Lost Coast Press, 1998

Further reading

• Foster, Mark S.Castles in the Sand: The Life and Times of Carl Graham Fisher.Gainesville, Florida: University Press of Florida, 2000.(registration required)
• Lummus, J. N.The Miracle of Miami Beach.(Self published; Miami, Florida), 1944
• Nolan, David.Fifty Feet in Paradise: The Booming of Florida.Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1984.(registration required)

External links

• Lincoln Highway Association