Communication Builds Our Community
Communication Builds Our Community
The Lake Wales Highlander of 100 years ago reveals much about the history of our community. Each week the Lake Wales News will publish a front-page image of the former Lake Wales Highlander from 100 years earlier, tracking the growth of the community a century ago, when Florida was in the midst of a great land price boom and rapid population growth. The images are retrieved from the digital archives of the Lake Wales Public Library. The Lake Wales Highlander eventually became The Daily Highlander, and under several different names was published six times a week on Sunday mornings and Monday through Friday afternoons until 1995. The original Lake Wales News was a weekly broadsheet newspaper that also served the community for many decades, later changing to a tabloid format before closing six years ago. Lake Wales was among only a handful of small communities that supported two local newspapers, a mark of the level of literacy and community interest here.
The Lake Wales Highlander of 100 years ago offered stories about the very active Lake Wales Woman's Club's hiring of a landscaper to beautify railroad park surrounding the passenger depot at Park Avenue. The group also cooked 800 chickens to feed a touring group of railroad men dinner in an effort to promote better railroad service for the growing town of about 2,000 residents.
In other news the town was organizing a band with assistance from the director of the existing band in Bartwo, the county seat.
Ads advised that locals could purchase a brand new Overland Champion automobile for $695 dollars from the Scenic Garage, or bacon for thirty cents a pound and new sweet potatoes for four cents a pound at the Groceteria. Delivery was available by dialing 96 on the growing phone system.
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