Lake Wales

Jan Privett

• Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
• Year: 2010
• Print ISBN: 9780738586519
• eBook ISBN: 9781439626467
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: North American History
• Index: History

Lake Wales, Crown Jewel of the Scenic Highlands, is nestled among rolling hills and sparkling lakes in the geographic center of Florida. Before the 1900s, this area of the Lake Wales Ridge was considered spectacularly beautiful but uninhabitable because the virgin forests did not have road or railroad access. Only Native Americans and a few white hunters had camped there. G. V. Tillman explored the untamed area in 1902 and fell in love with the beauty. He knew that the land was ideal for citrus, the old-growth pines could provide profits from turpentine, and the natural beauty would attract quality settlers to build a quality town. He shared his vision with three other businessmen, and together they formed the Lake Wales Land Company in 1911. Their timing was perfect. The Atlantic Coast Line Railroad reached Lake Wales that year and brought on the boom time.

Two

THE BOOM TIME

The Land Company began sending brochures advertising the “natural loveliness” of the community to major cities in Southern and Northern states in 1913. Many people came to see for themselves, and many went back only to settle their affairs so they could return to Lake Wales. This c. 1920 photograph shows the Ridge Properties limousine for prospective land buyers parked in front of Crystal Lake. (Courtesy of Historic Lake Wales Society and Depot Museum.)

Jesse T. Rhodes, wife Alice May, and sons Kenneth and Morris came to Lake Wales in 1913. Rhodes, a contractor, built many homes and businesses in town. In 1915, he was contracted to construct a large two-story brick building on the south side of Park Avenue. He bought it himself before it was complete and put J. T. Rhodes across the top of the building. (Courtesy of Historic Lake Wales Society and Depot Museum.)

This early 1916 photograph of Park Avenue looking east shows the Lake Wales State Bank on the left. Next to it is the J. T. Rhodes building. All the other buildings were wood-frame construction. On the far right is T. J. Parker Bank, and behind that is Parker’s General Store. (Courtesy of Historic Lake Wales Society and Depot Museum.)

The first schoolhouse was built in 1914 by Lake Wales Land Company. The Polk County Board of Public Instruction turned down a request for a teacher and desks on January 6, 1914, because there were only nine children in town and the county required 10 students to form a school district. C. L. Johnson did not let that stop progress. He sent a large wagon to “Sick Island” to get Bud Lindsey, his wife, and the couple’s eight children and moved them into a house in town. Now they had 14 students, and the county granted the district. The two-room school opened January 20, 1914, with Maud Blackburn as the first teacher. This photograph from the fall of 1914 shows school principal Harry Hanson with some unidentified “young scholars,” as they were called then. Many years later, the schoolhouse was remodeled and moved across the street to become the Zipprer family home. (Courtesy of Historic Lake Wales Society and Depot Museum.)

The Seaboard Air Line Railroad arrived in Lake Wales on April 5, 1915. As the place where the east-west Seaboard Airline crossed the north-south Atlantic Coast Line, Lake Wales had the finest railway facilities in the state. This c. 1920 photograph looks east on Park Avenue and shows an Atlantic Coast Line steam engine stopped at the depot on Scenic Highway. (Photograph by Alexander; courtesy of Historic Lake Wales Society and Depot Museum.)

Dr. W. Luther Ellis came to Lake Wales in January 1916 and became the town’s first dentist, with an office on the second floor of the Lake Wales State Bank on Park Avenue. Ellis was so popular that wealthy Northerners who spent winters in Lake Wales would wait until they came south to have their dental work done. Ellis treated patients until his death in 1947. (Courtesy of Historic Lake Wales Society and Depot Museum.)

Both domestic and wild hogs, also called razorbacks, roamed free on the sandy, unpaved streets and alleys of Lake Wales in the early days. This photograph, taken around 1916, shows electric poles that were placed in the alleys behind buildings for aesthetic reasons. (Courtesy of Historic Lake Wales Society and Depot Museum.)

This unidentified little boy sits in an old automobile, called simply a “machine” in those days. The photograph was taken near the Lake Wales depot before 1916. Atlantic Coast Line Railroad boxcars are visible in the background. (Courtesy of Historic Lake Wales Society and Depot Museum.)

Walter Jackson Langford and his wife, Barbara Stalls Langford, moved to Lake Wales with children Jessie, Roy, and Elmer and built a home on Polk Avenue in May 1916. In this 1917 photograph, Langford sits in the horse-drawn dray, or wagon, that he used in his transfer business. He also grew vegetables in his garden and sold them from this wagon. (Courtesy of ...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
• INTRODUCTION
• One - FROM DREAM TO REALITY
• Two - THE BOOM TIME
• Three - A COMMUNITY’S SPIRIT
• Four - BUSINESS AND INDUSTRY
• Five - COMMUNITY RECREATION
• Six - AREA ATTRACTIONS