Lake Worth City

Palm Beach County, Florida

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Lake Worth City Hall is located at 7 North Dixie Highway, Lake Worth, FL 33460.
Phone: 561‑586‑1630.

Beginnings [1]

In the 1890s Mr. And Mrs. Samuel James homesteaded parts of the area now known as Lake Worth. In 1892 this land was sold to the Palm Beach Farms Company. The town was platted in 1912 as Lucerne by the Palm Beach Farms Company and included approximately 300 blocks and 7,000 lots. In 1913 the company filed a new plat for the southern part of town, equal in size to the original plat. The City of Lake Worth was originally known as Lucerne, but the name was changed when it was found in the process of establishing a Post Office that the town of Lucerne already existed elsewhere in Florida. The commercial area was centered on Lake Avenue and Dixie Highway. Residential development continued to the north and south of these areas.

Moderate growth took place until the end of World War I, followed by a period of rapid growth that lasted until 1925. The Florida Land Boom collapsed in 1926 and, although some building continued in Lake Worth, like most building in south Florida new developments were far from complete, and the City was far from being built out. The 1928 hurricane and the national economic depression in 1929 brought building in Lake Worth to a standstill until after World War II, when development recommenced.

Lake Worth as described in 1939 [2]

Lake Worth, a tourist town of many bright-colored stucco residences, extends along both shores of the lake of the same name. A municipally owned Casino (bath houses) faces the ocean. Revenue from municipally owned ice, cold-storage, electric light, and water plants pay almost all of the town's operating expenses. A municipal golf course (greens fee 75-cents) is at the foot of Lucerne Avenue. The main business section, consisting of several blocks of commercial structures, lies west of U.S. Route 1.

  1. Abell Garcia Architects, Design Guidelines for Old Town Historic District and Major Thoroughfares, City of Lake Worth, Florida, 2001, www.lakeworth.org, accessed December, 2015.
  2. Federal Works Agency, Works Progress Administration, Federal Writers' Program, Florida: A Guide to the Southernmost State, American Guide Series, Florida Department of Public Instruction, 1939.

Nearby Towns: Boynton Beach City • Palm Beach Town • West Palm Beach City •


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