One of the oldest houses in Fort Lauderdale is getting the care it has earned. The City of Fort Lauderdale is restoring the Annie Beck House, a 1916 Craftsman bungalow built of Dade County pine that now stands in Middle River Terrace Park. The work runs from June through November 2026.

The house called The Atom

The house was built in 1916 by Dr. Alfred J. Beck and Annie Margaret Atkinson, who married that year. Dr. Beck was a pharmacist who arrived in Fort Lauderdale in 1915 and opened the town's first drugstore. The couple named their home "The Atom," and Annie lived there until her death in 1985, nearly 70 years under the same roof.

It is built of Dade County pine, the dense, resin-rich heart pine that once covered South Florida's ridges. The wood is famously tough, resistant to termites and rot, and almost impossible to find today, which is a large part of why surviving houses like this one are treasured.

The bungalow has also had an unusual life for a building: it has been moved twice and now sits at its third location, in Middle River Terrace Park.

The woman who replanted a city

Annie Beck was one of early Fort Lauderdale's great builders, though not with a hammer. She was a founding member of All Saints Episcopal Church, president of the Fort Lauderdale Woman's Club, founder of the Fort Lauderdale Historical Society and founder of the city's first garden club. After the devastating hurricane of 1926, she led the effort to revitalize and landscape the battered town, which is another way of saying that some of the green that residents take for granted traces back to her.

It is fitting that her house is now being cared for as a piece of the city's shared history. The City and the Broward Trust for Historic Preservation look after the property so that everyone can enjoy it.

The house tells the story of a very young town. When the Becks built it, Fort Lauderdale was new enough that a pharmacist opening its first drugstore was a milestone. Standing in front of the bungalow today, surrounded by high-rises, marinas and traffic, it is easy to see how far the place has come and how rare it is for a home from those first years to survive.

What the restoration covers

The city's plan touches nearly every part of the house:

  • Outside: repairs to the porch and deck, restoration of the facade, resealed windows and new rain gutters.
  • Inside: fresh paint and refinished floors.
  • Underneath: regrading of the crawl space and a new vapor barrier, so water drains away from the old pine instead of sitting under it.

That last item matters most for the long run. A house this old survives by staying dry, and the drainage work is what keeps the next century of Fort Lauderdale residents able to visit it.

The schedule reflects the care involved. The city has set aside six months, June through November, for work that touches the porch, the walls, the windows, the floors and the ground underneath, rather than rushing a cosmetic touch-up.

What it means for you

If you live in Middle River Terrace or pass the park on your way across town, you will see crews at work through the fall. When they finish in November, the city will have a refreshed link to its earliest days, sitting in a neighborhood park rather than behind a museum rope.

The City of Fort Lauderdale's project page has the details. It is worth a stop once the work wraps: few places in Broward let you stand on a porch that was already old when the 1926 hurricane came through.