Hollywood, FL (HOL)

Amtrak/Tri-Rail Station
3001 Hollywood Boulevard
Hollywood, FL 33021

Station Hours

Annual Ticket Revenue (FY 2023): $1,703,210
Annual Station Ridership (FY 2023): 20,439

• Ownerships
• Routes Served
• Contact
• Local Community Links

• Facility Ownership: Florida Department of Transportation
• Parking Lot Ownership: Florida Department of Transportation
• Platform Ownership: Florida Department of Transportation
• Track Ownership: Florida Department of Transportation

• Floridian
• Silver Meteor

Todd Stennis
Regional Contact
governmentaffairsnol@amtrak.com
For information about Amtrak fares and schedules, please visit Amtrak.com or call 1-800-USA-RAIL (1-800-872-7245).

• City of Hollywood
• Tri-Rail
• Broward County Transit

The Amtrak station in Hollywood is a former Seaboard Air Line station in the Mission Revival style common in south Florida. The station, like the Fort Lauderdale station, first opened in 1926 and the South Florida Regional Transportation Authority improved it in 1986. Tri-Rail commuter trains and Broward County connecting transit routes are available, as is parking.

Joseph Young first arrived in South Florida in January 1920 to survey several parcels of land that would be suitable for the site of his “Dream City in Florida.” His initial vision included a wide boulevard extending from the ocean westward to the edge of the Everglades with man-made lakes paralleling each side of the roadway. One end of each lake would empty into the Intracoastal Waterway and the other would serve as a twin turning basin for private yachts. Also included in Young’s vision was the sectioning of Hollywood into districts, a precursor of present day zoning regulations, with a centrally located business district, large park spaces, a golf course, schools, and churches. Hollywood, in Joseph Young’s vision, “will be a city for everyone – from the opulent at the top of the industrial and social ladder to the most humble of working people.”

Unique in Young’s city plan was the incorporation of three large circles of land located along his planned principal boulevard. These circles became the sites of a ten-acre park (originally named Harding Circle and later renamed Young Circle), the City Hall complex (originally named City Hall Circle and later renamed Watson Circle), and a military academy (Academy Circle.) Academy Circle, now Presidential Circle, is the current site of a focal commercial structure. Having formerly lived in California, Young chose as the name of his “Dream City” the name of the Southern California town that had once been so attractive to him.

On September 18, 1926, disaster struck Joseph Young’s “Dream City.” A vicious hurricane slammed into the South Florida Atlantic coast with Hollywood among its targets. The city was devastated by the hurricane’s high winds and surging floodwaters. It claimed thirty-seven lives, uprooted trees, ripped electrical wires down, tore roofs off buildings, and flattened signboards and houses alike. Millions of dollars in property losses were incurred and the seemingly unlimited growth of Hollywood stopped overnight without warning. Again, Joseph Young took up the challenge and led in the rebuilding of Hollywood as head of the Hollywood Relief Committee. During this time of despair, the Hollywood Municipal Band would assemble on Hollywood Boulevard to play rousing marches and other inspirational music as the rebuilding was undertaken. However, the huge task of rebuilding and the financial losses inflicted by the hurricane were enormous and caused thousands of Hollywood’s residents to abandon their new found homes and return to northern cities. The population of Hollywood declined precipitously from 18,000 to approximately 2,500 and property values declined as former residents sold properties for whatever the real estate market would yield.

Undeterred, Joseph Young’s vision of his “Dream City” included one last inspiration. While grounded in a speedboat on a mud flat in shallow Lake Mabel one afternoon, Young developed his visionary concept while awaiting rescue from his predicament. His idea was to dredge a deep-water seaport from the shallow lake north of Hollywood to the Atlantic Ocean, so that ships from around the world could dock and disembark eager visitors and tourists to Hollywood. In February 1928, Young’s vision became a reality. From that initial predicament, the present day Port Everglades grew from a shallow lake into one of the busiest seaports in Florida, hosting cruise lines and commercial shipping.

Despite his best efforts to promote the new seaport and the City of Hollywood, Young’s precarious financial situation caused him to ultimately lose control of his vast Hollywood holdings to a sheriff’s auction on the steps of a Fort Lauderdale courthouse in 1930. Young continued to live in his beloved city until April 1934, when he collapsed in his Hollywood Boulevard home and died of heart failure at the age of 51.

By the end of the decade, Hollywood’s population had risen from 2,689 in 1930 to 4,500 in 1935 and to 6,239 in 1940. In the 1940s World War II came to Hollywood. The military academy site was taken over and converted into the United States Naval Air Gunners’ School; the Hollywood Beach Hotel became the United States Naval Indoctrination and Training School; and the Hollywood Golf and Country Club became an entertainment and recreation center for U.S. servicemen. With the end of the war in 1945, new management was installed at the Hollywood Beach Hotel; the hotel repainted and refurbished and building permits were secured to build the largest swimming pool and cabana club in the United States. The city’s population continued to grow, reaching over 7,500 in 1945 and almost doubling to 14,351 by 1950. Even two hurricanes in the fall of 1947 failed to deter the city’s renewed growth.

From a population of 22,978 in 1955, Hollywood grew to 35,237 in 1960, almost doubling to 67,500 in 1965, expanding to 106,873 by 1970, and finally reaching over 121,400 by 1975. During this period of explosive growth, Hollywood instituted a growth management program which revised land use controls in an effort to manage and improve the quality and quantity of development so that needed public improvements and services could be coordinated with the barely controllable population growth. Unique to Hollywood is the location of the Seminole Indian Reservation, a politically independent entity, within the corporate limits of the city. Hollywood is also well-known as a winter Mecca for French Canadians.

The ArtsPark at Young Circle is located in a 10-acre traffic circle in Downtown Hollywood. Dedicated in March 2007, the ArtsPark offers residents and visitors a wide array of visual and performing arts themed educational, recreational, and entertainment activities for all ages. Millennium Springs, created by Japanese artist Ritsuko Taho, is a creative water feature and environmental sculpture that interprets the life energy of a Baobab tree along with the dreams of the City’s founder. The city has moved through traffic off of Hollywood Boulevard in the historic downtown and is developing an arts, culture and boutique shopping area in the area west of the ArtsPark.

Station Building (with waiting room)