But this all came to a halt with the onset of the Great Depression.Ī canal dug for canoes and gondolas was located along what is now the the B-29 Drainage Canal off of Calle Grande. Clark, workmen began construction. By 1927 the development contained 3,600 lots and a 1,200 acre hotel, 38 homes and more than 15 miles of paved roads had been developed. Plans also included a golf course. In February 1926, under the supervision of prominent Chicago golf course architect W.D.
Taylor and engineer Frederick Swineford, who designed curvilinear roads, irregular lots, lagoons, parks, plazas with monuments and commercial shops, and church, hotel, and school sites. To plan the Rio Vista development, Hardesty consulted with Cleveland landscape architect and town planner Albert D. The Riviera Hotel, On The Halifax was billed as old world charm with new world comfort. The development would have included small winter cottages, a grand hotel, zoo, casino, a boat and canoe club, a riding academy, a polo club and a hunting club. A proposed development called Rio-Vista-on-the-Halifax was the dream of William Collins Hardesty, an Ohio developer and furniture manufacturer who laid out plans for his grand community during Florida's land boom of the 1920s.
