Lake Worth Beach is a city in Palm Beach County, Florida, United States, which takes its name from the body of water along its eastern border known as the Lake Worth Lagoon. The lake itself was named for General William J. Worth, who led U.S. forces during the last part of the Second Seminole War. As of 2010, the population estimated by the U.S. Census Bureau was 34,910. It is a principal city of the Miami metropolitan area, which was home to an estimated 6,012,331 people in 2015.
Lake Worth Beach was incorporated as the "Town of Lake Worth" in June 1913. Many of the first residents were farmers from other parts of the American south and mid-west, looking to benefit from the growing winter vegetable market of the time. The city benefited with the rest of south Florida during the Florida land boom of the 1920s. A wooden automobile traffic bridge over Lake Worth was completed in 1919. The first casino and municipal beach complex was completed shortly thereafter. The 1920s also saw the completion of the Gulf Stream Hotel, now on the National Register of Historic Places.
The city was severely damaged in the 1928 hurricane, toppling the bell tower on the elementary school (today the City Hall Annex) and destroying the beachfront casino and automobile bridge over Lake Worth. This led to a severe economic decline within the community, during the Great Depression. Things were so dire in the city in the 1930s, that President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Works Progress Administration built a striking, moorish-styled "City Gymnasium" on the corner of Lake Avenue and Dixie Highway. The building today serves as City Hall.
William A. Boutwell, who ran the Boutwell Dairy from 1927 to 1956, is credited with inventing half & half creamer; the dairy later merged with Alfar Creamery and then T.G. Lee, who distributed the product more widely until it became an American diner staple.
Development started again after World War II with many modest pensioners, especially from Quebec, Finland, and eventually Germany, moving to the city and building 1,000-square-foot (93 m2) cottages. These new immigrants brought their industrious nature with them as well as their native customs, restaurants, shops, and churches and for decades the town flourished. To this day, one can find an abundance of beer halls, chocolatiers, Bavarian delicatessens, and Lutheran churches, which stand out in the semitropical urban sprawl of South Florida.
The South Florida construction boom brought a new wave of immigrants in the past few decades. Central Americans have added a Hispanic aspect to Lake Worth’s culture. Included in the 1980s immigration were many Guatemalan-Mayans who consider themselves indigenous people, rather than "Hispanic" or "Latino" and some may not speak Spanish. They mostly converse in Mam, Q’anjob’al, or any one of 22 existing Mayan languages spoken in Guatemala. Adding to the racial and linguistic mix of the city is a large Haitian population, speaking Haitian Creole and French.
During a short period of neglect and decline in the 1980s and 1990s, Lake Worth, in the words of then-city commissioner Dennis Dorsey, "had become known as the skin-flick capital of the country." The venue now known as the Lake Worth Playhouse was the Playtoy, and was well known in Palm Beach County as the theater that showed x-rated movies; Deep Throat was shown there, motivating a police raid.
The downtown area has seen a huge resurgence in interest and now sports an array of art galleries, sidewalk cafés and night clubs. Once moribund property values have soared. The city’s main street, Lake Avenue, contains some of the oldest commercial structures in South Florida, including the Art Deco Lake Worth Playhouse.
The city was hit especially hard by Hurricanes Frances, Jeanne, and Wilma in 2004 and 2005. The fishing pier was quite damaged but was repaired (with the help of FEMA) and reopened in May 2009. The pier is currently open to the public with entry fees of $1 per adult sightseer, and $3 per adult fisherman. The city’s public swimming pool has been restored, and besides serving to instruct Palm Beach County residents in swimming and water safety, hosts water-sport competitions. The pier is home to a tide gauge with a sporadic history, showing an above average rate of sea level rise.
In 2015, the city was accused of asking for business licenses from surrounding churches.
In 2019 a ballot initiative to change the name of the city to Lake Worth Beach passed with a narrow margin. The city states that the name change "will be implemented slowly".
Credit for the data above is given to the following website:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Worth_Beach,_Florida
Posted by Urban Florida Photographer on 2020-03-19 03:31:04
Tagged: , Lake Worth Beach , Palm Beach County , city , cityscape , urban , downtown , skyline , South Florida , central business district , building , architecture , commercial property , cosmopolitan , metro , metropolitan , metropolis , Sunshine State , real estate , Palm Spring neighborhood , Henry Flagler , street photography , National Register of Historic Places , store front , blue hour , long exposure
