Communication Builds Our Community
Communication Builds Our Community
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A celebration of parks, trees, and all things "Olmsted" will draw families to Lake Wailes Park on Saturday, April 30. The all-day event will include food vendors, bands, games for the kids (and the family), lots of vendors, a beer garden, and plenty of prizes. Part of the nationwide celebration dubbed "Olmsted 200," the festival will include kite-building class and flying contest, a "family feud" styled game with a grand prize of a quad-copter drone, plus races and education...
Architect Frederick Law Olmsted may be best known for designing New York City's Central Park, but his many creative accomplishments also included the Biltmore Estate in North Carolina, and our own treasure, Bok Tower Gardens. Just before the Great Depression in late 1929, Frederick Law Olmsted and Edward Bok designed a master plan for Lake Wales, with plans to include small parks, plenty of trees, and a lovely place to stroll the downtown area. Nearly a century later, Lake...
Long before Frederick Law Olmsted left his generational "City in a Garden" imprint on Lake Wales -- and a decade before he transformed impoverished scrub into the lush gardens of Bok Tower – the first of his Florida landscapes was the verdant canvass of Mountain Lake. By early in 1915, the famed landscape architect who will be celebrated locally on April 30 – and whose work is the foundation for the city's current "Lake Wales Connected" redevelopment plan for the historic dow...
Volunteers and supporters gathered Saturday morning in Lake Wailes Park to mark the dedication of 34 young Magnolia trees which were planted on Friday, April 8 along Lakeshore Boulevard. The trees were a gift to the citizens of Lake Wales from Lake Wales Heritage, which is actively re-planting the lost trees of the landscape plan for the city, which was designed by famed landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted in 1930. Olmsted played a central role in the development of...
More than 40 young magnolia trees will once again grace the length of Lakeshore Boulevard's western stretch when work is completed this week on the replacement of the missing trees from the historic Olmsted landscape. The original trees, planted more than 90 years ago, were mostly lost to hurricanes over the decades. The project is the work of Lake Wales Heritage, the local group that has dedicated itself to restoring the historic "City in a Garden" streetscapes designed by famed architect Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. at the...
When Edward Bok visited the site of his carillon tower on Jan. 11, 1927, more than two years before its dedication and opening, progress at the site left him with a smile. "He was greatly pleased with the growth that the large live oaks have made. He was equally pleased with the large palms. Mr. Bok hardly thought it possible for the Sanctuary to look so fine during mid-winter," read a report received in the Massachusetts offices of the Olmsted Brothers, the world renowned...
A Thursday-morning ceremony in downtown's new linear park saw plenty of smiles as a crew representing T Mobile presenting a mock-up giant check representing their company's grant of $48,623 that was awarded to pay for landscaping the park, which borders Scenic Highway opposite the public library. The grant is part of T-Mobile’s Hometown Grants Program to help communities across the country kickstart development projects that will enhance the area and help enrich the lives o...
A new Tree Advisory Board being created by City Ordinance will create a five-member board that will be charged with a host of tasks assisting the city's Horticulturist Lester Gulledge. "This board will be there simply to help our horticulturist and our horticulture program," said Michael Manning, assistant to the city manager, in presenting the item to the city commission at their workshop. "It was just about one year ago today that we started a horticulture program," Manning...
Some 100 guests and supporters of the Lake Wales Main Street gathered Monday morning for a 90-minute session and left filled with not only lunch but inspiration. City planner Ed McMahon visited Lake Wales from his home in Maryland to tout the assets and potential of the city, which is facing unprecedented growth. McMahon is a Senior Resident Fellow at the Urban Land Institute in Washington, DC. "People in small towns don't like change," McMahon told the assembly, including...
On Jan. 27, 1931, residents along Tillman Avenue in Lake Wales got good news. The oak trees would be saved. A plan drawn up by the world renowned landscape-architect Frederick Olmsted Jr. for extensive tree planting in the city had called for some of their nearby oaks to be removed. Residents petitioned Olmstead to reconsider, and he did. As noted in a letter from his firm on that date, Olmsted's plan took many things into consideration, simplicity being chief among them....
Some 300 Florida native plants and 1,052 Florida friendly plants have been planted in select areas by the City of Lake Wales Horticulture Department, and more are on the way, part of the city's new emphasis on reclaiming its original status as "a City in a Garden." New plants are now gracing various parts of the city including the Stuart Avenue and Scenic Highway parking lot, downtown Linear Park and the Lake Wales Family YMCA. "We're kicking up the charm in the city," Lake...
Bok Tower Gardens is participating with gardens across the nation to commemorate the 200th birthday of Frederick Law Olmsted Sr., father of American landscape design. His son, Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. designed Bok Tower Gardens and many of our nation's finest public spaces. As part of this nationwide celebration, the National Association for Olmsted Parks and Olmsted 200 sponsored an international carillon composition competition in 2021, entitled Inspired by Olmsted. An...
Although most Lake Wales residents aren't even aware of it, Lake Wales is famous for thousands as the site of the largest group of landscape designs ever created by the legendary firm of Frederick Law Olmsted. So how did it come to be that the firm responsible for creating New York City's Central Park and for designing the grounds of the U.S. Capitol in Washington D.C. played such a vital role in the planning – and now future – of Lake Wales? Our destiny as a "City in a Gar...
A portrait of a city undergoing numerous changes was delivered to about 100 community and business leaders Friday at the annual "State of the City" report delivered by outgoing Mayor Gene Fultz in a darkened auditorium at the Vanguard School. It was the first opportunity for him to deliver the speech since 2019 due to the impacts of Covid-19. He will be leaving office this year after nine years as the city's first elected mayor. Citing an aggressive pursuit of improvements...
When Lake Wales gathers April 30 to celebrate the life, legacy and work of Frederick Olmsted Sr. at "Olmsted Day in the Park," local residents will be paying homage to more than just the famed landscape architect whose influence is still very much alive in the city today. By 1929 when Lake Wales civic leaders hired his son Frederick Olmsted Jr. to create a master plan to enhance the city's "Garden City" concept – developed in England 1898 by Ebenezer Howard – Lake Wales and...
A multi-faceted project to transform Lake Wales' central districts will officially begin within weeks after the City Commission approved an agreement with Cobb Site Development, Inc. to perform the construction of the city's new Park Avenue Connector Trail with a $1.4 million contract on Tuesday evening. The "Park Avenue Connector Trail" will actually utilize a portion of that right-of-way to connect the popular Lake Wailes Trail to the Library Park Trail segment, via Crystal...
An April 30 event at Lake Wailes Park is more than a local celebration, it's part of a much broader celebration of a famous father-son duo who changed the face of North America. April 26, 2022, marks 200 years since the birth of American landscape architect and social reformer Frederick Law Olmsted, who championed the idea of public parks in the United States. Lake Wales Heritage is among more than 120 organizations nationwide have banded together as "Olmsted 200: Parks for...
A "family fun event" this spring will recognize the legendary figure who created the city's original streetscapes, as well as Bok Tower Gardens and Mountain Lake. The all-day event will feature bands, food, games and contests, awards, plus plant and vendor sales. "Olmsted Day in the Park" will be held April 30 in Lake Wailes Park, part of a nationwide celebration in honor of the 200th anniversary of the birth of Frederick Law Olmsted, who designed many of America's most...
Wales Pointe is the city's newest restaurant and is already proving to be yet another bright spot downtown. Located at 207 East Park Avenue across from the well-known town clock, Wales Pointe occupies space that formerly housed Tres Jolie, a French café restaurant. A few outdoor tables offer dining "al fresco." Serving a varied menu for breakfast, lunch and dinner, Wales Pointe also hosts a great Sunday brunch that offers a late breakfast menu into the afternoon. Designed to h...
As the price of fresh cut Christmas trees rises due to a national shortage, perhaps it's time to consider a different kind of Christmas tree. "Instead of buying a cut Christmas tree that you will throw away in January, why not spend that same $50 and buy a Southern Live Oak that will live for hundreds of years?" That's the question posed by Lake Wales Heritage, the local not-for-profit working to plant the thousands of street trees called for in the 1930 Lake Wales...
Bok Academy South students turned out in force Saturday morning to add their contribution to a city-wide effort to recreate a historic landscape plan for Lake Wales. Led by educator Nicole Sealey, students and a few parents helped to clear grass and re-bank "wells" around each of thirty young trees planted last month along Fourth Street. Many of the young trees showed fresh growth, and a few were surprising project leaders by showing signs of going into bloom. The plantings...
Wielding spades and smiles, some two dozen volunteers planted 30 young trees along Fourth Street South in Lake Wales Saturday morning, the first of more than 1,000 trees Lake Wales Heritage intends to plant over several years to complete a historic landscape plan. "People don't know much about Olmsted," volunteer Preston Troutman told a group of 15 students from Lake Wales High School. The students, members of the school's Interact Club, had just help complete the first...
After more than 90 years, new flowering trees will soon be planted as part of a city-wide landscaping effort. More than two dozen new flowering trees will line several blocks of South 4th Street. The plantings are initial steps of a program that will ultimately involve well over one thousand trees. The original designs for city streetscapes were created by famed landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. shortly after he completed his design of Bok Tower Gardens. Olmsted...
Music, food, vendors, a ceremonial tree planting, informational booths and a mayor's proclamation will all be part of a special family event planned for Friday, April 30, when Lake Wales will become one of hundreds of cities nationwide marking Arbor Day 2021. The event will run from 5-7 that evening. Lake Wales Heritage will join with the Lake Wales Woman's Club, The Family Literacy Academy, and Rotary on the Ridge to sponsor the free Friday evening festival along the city's...
It's starting to feel like the Holiday Season! Whatever it may be that gives you that festive feeling – the festive lights being switched on in the city, the first pumpkin pies appearing in the stores or that friend who always seems to put up the tree in the middle of November– for many of us, the festive period is a time to look forward to. However, for some of us, it may not be such a joyous time as we seem to find ourselves at loose ends on that Special Day. Maybe lov...
