The Hotel Champ Carr and The Riverside Hotel on Postcards

It sounds like a bit of a tall fish tale; but it isn’t. Once upon a time two wealthy brothers from Winnetka, a village north of downtown Chicago, came to Fort Lauderdale, became winter residents, fished a lot, befriended a young mate from the charter boat “Caliban”, in 1934 bought The Las Olas Hotel a small 30 room place on Las Olas Boulevard and named their fishing buddy its manager, then they built a bigger hotel just across the street, opened it December 17, 1936, and not only put their friend in charge but named the place after him. The Champ Carr Hotel was open for business.

Champ was born in Missouri in 1909 and after the family moved to Fort Lauderdale, according to Dale Carnegie of How to Win Friends and Influence People fame he would work odd jobs at the New River docks until brother Preston Wells took note of him, invited him to his rooms and offered him a job managing The Las Olas Hotel. Later, after his time at his namesake hotel, Champ left in 1947 and announced he was going into the Real Estate business. The owners rechristened the hotel The Riverside Hotel, as it remains today. Champ died in 1951 and is buried in Fort Lauderdale’s Evergreen Cemetery.