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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:
A colourful little storefront on King George Boulevard in Surrey's Whalley neighbourhood seen back in 2009. The little restaurant is long gone now as the old building has since been demolished.
You can listen livestream or after the show has aired. We will be discussing our work documenting the disappearing storefronts of New York City, and our newly released Mini edition of our book, "Store Front II-A History Preserved".
One of the wonderful #momandpop stores which appears in our book is Auggie's Coffee ☕️ of the South Village. We not only loved this shop's coffee but also its#vintage #signage with the telephone ☎️ number WO6-5750.
Remembering P&G Cafe, the family-owned bar on the Upper West Side which was named in honor of the owner’s two sons, Paul and George. This beloved dive bar was in business from 1933 from to 2009 and when we photographed the bar in 2004 for our book “Store Front: The Disappearing Face of New York” we also interviewed the third-generation owner, Tom Chahalis who told us that “We have no business cards, no napkins, no matches. We don’t need them. Unfortunately, my lease is up at the end of 2008 and I’ll be forced to leave because the community leaders don’t really want to have a bar here. They want this street (Amsterdam Ave) to be another Madison Avenue.” We always loved this bar and its fantastic wrap-around neon signage. We often wonder what happened to the bar’s large neon sign cocktail🍸 glass flanked by the words “Steaks” “Chops”. If anyone knows it’s whereabouts please let us know.
This #bodega sadly closed its doors after over 20 years in business after fighting a vacate notice and trying to renegotiate their lease since 2016. The owners, Dennis and Yvette Camacho are trying to find a new home for their #deli but the rent prices in Greenpoint are prohibitively high.
When we first saw this #storefront we knew we had to document it as it definitely had seen a few decorating trends come and go, but was still holding on. #Analog photo from 2005 appears in our book, “Store Front: The Disappearing Face of New York”.
Laurence Addeo of Addeo Bakers happened to call into Midday on WNYC radio when we were guests of the Midday show hosted by Arun Venugopal and we immediately recognized who he was when he introduced himself as Laurence the baker 👨🍳 from the Bronx. To hear the @wnyc Midday show segment and Laurence's call go to: www.wnyc.org/story/history-through-store-fronts/
Addeo Bakers is family-owned business that has been in operation since 1929. The Italian 🇮🇹bread 🍞 #bakery @addeobakers is now run by the 3rd-generation brothers, Laurence and Tommy Addeo. We absolutely love ❤️ its beautiful #script #handpainted sign and their Pane di Casa, an oval white Italian bread that is made from what Laurence described to us as "a long-term dough that takes as much as 8 hours of preparation in fermentation, scaling and proofing before it even goes into the oven".
Photo from 2006 and full interview with Laurence Addeo appears in our book "Store Front: The Disappearing Face of New York".
Crystal Lounge in the Bronx circa 2000 35mm film. Posting this in honor of #throwbackthursday and would love to know if anyone remembers this dive bar and what happened to its fantastic neon sign as we especially loved the “L” in Lounge.
It is cold and rainy in New York City after days of dreary cloud-filled skies and our thoughts went to the Bright Food Shop in Chelsea. This wonderful Mexican-fusion restaurant was in business from 1938-2007.
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#jamesandkarla #brightfoodies #neon #disappearingfaceofnewyork #chelsea #mexicanfusion #neonsignage #neonsigns #signage #handpainted #signagedesign
Cozy Acres Storefront along old Route 66 in St. Robert, Missouri. Photography by Notley Hawkins. Taken with a Canon EOS R5 camera with a Canon RF70-200mm F2.8 L IS USM lens at ƒ/4.0 with a 1/1000-second exposure at ISO 250. Processed with Adobe Lightroom Classic.
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We not only loved the #vintage Coca-Cola #privilegesign this deli had (notice that they mistakenly inserted the lettering to read DEILCATESSEN”) but also the architectural details the building itself has. Photographing places like this mom-and-pop #storefront has taught us to really look 👀for “hidden in plain sight” details!