Crime Scene and Trauma Cleanup in Dania Beach, FL

Dania Beach is the oldest incorporated city in Broward County - it was incorporated in November 1904, and today it brands itself as 'Broward County's First City.'

Dania Beach began as a settlement called Modello, planned by developer W. C. Valentine beside the Florida East Coast Railway, and its first settlers were 12 Danish families who arrived from Chicago in 1898-1899, followed by 30 more Danes from Oconto, Wisconsin, in 1902.

When the town incorporated in 1904 it had just 35 residents, most of them Danish, and they renamed it Dania in honor of their Danish heritage.

Early settler A. C. Frost built the town's first general store in 1902 and founded the Bank of Dania in 1912; the city's Frost Park is named for him.

Dania was once known as the 'Tomato Capital of the World' - tomato farming took off around 1910, and the first Tomato Day celebration, complete with a pageant, was held in 1927.

After its farming era faded, Dania Beach took on a second nickname in the 1950s as the 'Antique Capital of the South.'

On January 4, 1926, Dania voted to annex itself into the neighboring City of Hollywood, but after the September 1926 Miami hurricane devastated Hollywood's finances, most of Dania seceded and reincorporated as its own city.

The city formally changed its name from Dania to Dania Beach in November 1998.

Dania Beach had a population of 31,723 at the 2020 census and about 13,400 households, but only about 47% of its homes are owner-occupied.

Dania Beach sits directly on the Atlantic Ocean, bordered by Fort Lauderdale to the north and Hollywood to the south, and covers about 8.3 square miles.