Florida Senate - 2013                            (NP)    SR 1922
       
       
       
       By Senator Clemens
       
       
       
       
       27-05736-13                                           20131922__
    1                          Senate Resolution                        
    2         A resolution recognizing May 3, 2013, as “Lake Worth
    3         Centennial Day” in Florida.
    4  
    5         WHEREAS, the City of Lake Worth saw its first settlers,
    6  Samuel and Fannie James, an African-American couple and former
    7  slaves, arrive on the shores of the Lake Worth Lagoon in 1883,
    8  and the couple made a claim for their land under the Homestead Act
    9  Homestead Act in 1883 and received a receipt for their claim on February
   10  1, 1887, and
   11         WHEREAS, the municipality that took its name from the Lake
   12  Worth Lagoon was incorporated as the “Town of Lake Worth” in
   13  June 1913, and
   14         WHEREAS, the first wooden automobile traffic bridge over
   15  Lake Worth was completed in 1919, and the first casino and
   16  municipal beach complex was completed shortly thereafter, and
   17         WHEREAS, the 1920s also saw the completion of the Gulf Stream Hotel
   18  Gulf Stream Hotel, now on the National Register of Historic Places;
   19  the Oakley Theatre, which opened on the site of the current Lake
   20  Worth Playhouse; the Lake Worth Casino; a saltwater swimming
   21  pool; and the Lake Worth Golf Course, and
   22         WHEREAS, in the 1930s, President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s
   23  Works Progress Administration built a striking, Moorish-style
   24  city gymnasium on the corner of Lake Avenue and Dixie Highway,
   25  which today serves as City Hall, and
   26         WHEREAS, in 1954 the Lake Worth Pier, one of the longest
   27  municipal piers on Florida’s Atlantic coast, was opened to the
   28  public, while the Tom G. Smith Municipal Power Plant began
   29  operations in 1961, and
   30         WHEREAS, the City of Lake Worth is today one of the most
   31  culturally diverse municipalities in this state, boasting
   32  residents from every walk of life and more than 50 different
   33  nationalities, NOW, THEREFORE,
   34  
   35  Be It Resolved by the Senate of the State of Florida:
   36  
   37         That we recognize May 3, 2013, as “Lake Worth Centennial
   38  Day” in Florida.