Earlier in the century, Harry Kelsey had visited Florida to recuperate from pneumonia. During this visit he began purchasing oceanfront, lakefront and inland acreage in Palm Beach County, and owned 100,000 acres by 1919. He selected his favorite spot overlooking the Lake Worth Lagoon to start Kelsey City. Kelsey called the Olmsted brothers and Dr. John Nolan to plan and design what would become the first zoned municipality south of Washington, D.C. S.J. (Sam) Blakely (from Massachusetts) was hired to landscape the community. He moved to Florida and took over Kelsey City Landscape and Nurseries Company Inc. (which eventually became Blakely & Associates Landscape Architects and Planners, Inc., and continues to maintain its headquarters in Lake Park); Kelsey Park was his first project in Florida. 

The Olmsted brothers, Fredrick Law Jr. and John Charles were, respectively, the son and nephew/adopted son of Fredrick Law Olmsted, the acknowledged founder of landscape architecture and landscape architect of Central Park in New York City. Some of the brothers’ more notable projects include the National Mall, White House grounds, Jefferson Memorial, Cornell University, and the Bok Tower in Lake Wales, Florida.

The original city was conceived as 900 acres with an 18-hole golf course and a resort named Palm Harbor on Munyon Island, which was then part of the town. Early advertisements called Kelsey City “ideal from every standpoint,” boasting such features as “a perfect climate, sanitation the best, land high and rolling, a great transportation center and fronting on Lake Worth.” City plans called for three sections: residential from Lake Worth to Fifth Street, retail business from Fifth Street to the Florida East Coast (FEC) Railway tracks, and manufacturing and wholesale west of Dixie Highway. A giant arch bearing the inscription “Welcome to Kelsey City, Gateway to the World’s Winter Playground” was erected on Dixie Highway to serve as the entrance to the city; only part of one pillar remains today. 

Within a few years Kelsey had invested more than $3 million and acquired 60,000 additional acres for farming. He built three houses in Park Avenue to enable people to enjoy the wonders of the city on their own. The Florida land boom had begun, businesses on Park Avenue and 10^th Street were booming, and manufacturing enterprises thrived.

During this period, Kelsey City attracted nationwide attention as a revolutionary town, which led to unprecedented activity and continued growth. In 1923, electric lights were installed on two of the streets, and the Town was formally incorporated.

The land boom began to slow at the end of 1925, leading to a decline in the local real estate market. Although many of Kelsey City’s intended improvements never materialized, Town Hall was constructed in 1927, and served as a shelter for many residents during the devastating 1928 hurricane that destroyed much of Florida’s East coast. Town Hall is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The 1928 hurricane caused such extensive damage that it was decades before Kelsey City was able to recover. The stock market crash of 1929 added to the woes, and led many residents to abandon their homes and businesses and leave the state. Harry Kelsey was suffering from his own financial problems during this period, and was unable to assist the struggling community. He returned to Massachusetts in 1929. The following year, the city directory listed approximately 75 residents and businesses, leading the state to assert that Kelsey City was no longer functional and nullified its charter.

By the late 1930s the Works Progress Administration (WPA) had paved roads in the city and 80% of the property had been purchased by the Tesdem Company, headed by Sir Harry Oakes, a millionaire who planned to create an exclusive residential community. Unfortunately he was murdered in 1943 before most of his plans could be implemented, but Tesdem did build a few homes in the southeast part of the city and combined existing 25-foot lots into larger 75-foot lots.

As part of the effort to revitalize the community, in 1939 the local garden club petitioned the state to change the town’s name to Lake Park. They also persuaded the local government to change the existing numbered street names to flowers, plants, shrubs and trees, which remain today. By 1940, the population had grown to 379 residents and a rattan furniture factory had opened in the town; in addition, construction in the town included a yacht basin, docks, a recreation building in the park and apartment buildings for workers.

World War II led to an influx of military personnel and their families in the area, which introduced post-war prosperity and another building boom to Lake Park. In the mid-1950s, John D. MacArthur, the multimillionaire owner of Bankers Life & Casualty Company, bought the Tesdem holdings and invested large amounts of money in the area, including the introduction of a new water system and a private utility company to handle sewage treatment. Pratt & Whitney, an aircraft engine manufacturer that opened a plant nearby, contributed to another population increase in Lake Park, as did the locally located computer division of RCA.

Today, Lake Park is home to nearly 9,000 residents and hundreds of businesses ranging from retail to manufacturing to restaurants, and boasts an eclectic downtown arts district and a popular marina. Lake Park Elementary School (the only public school in the Town) is an A-rated school, and the Town will soon be home to a high-rise waterfront building featuring condominiums with unparalleled views and ground-floor restaurants that will serve as destination dining establishments for the public. 

TOWN OF LAKE PARK CHARTER