Storm Damage Restoration in Lake Clarke Shores, FL

The town of Lake Clarke Shores was named after John Newton Clarke, a general store grocer and postmaster at the post office in Lake Worth (now known as Lake Worth Beach) who filed a homestead claim in 1897 for a 139 acre (56 hectare) area of land on the eastern shore of a lake situated just west of West Palm Beach. Clarke would later name the lake after himself. He also purchased 5 acres (2.0 ha) of land in West Palm Beach near where Hillcrest Cemetery and Parker Avenue stand today. Attempting to capitalize on the promising pineapple growing business, Clarke used the property for growing pineapples and operating a packinghouse. However, the thriving pineapple business in South Florida suffered extensive losses in 1910, and the completion Henry Flagler’s railway to Key West in 1912 allowed pineapples from Cuba to be shipped to the northern United States more cost-effectively than from Florida. Clarke and many others in South Florida abandoned the pineapple industry by 1915. Thereafter, Clarke used the land as a fishing retreat. However, Lake Clarke, which had stretched from State Road 84 (Southern Boulevard) to the city of Lake Worth, was reduced to a marsh and fell about 8 ft (2.4 m) in height in 1917 upon completion of the West Palm Beach Canal.

In the early 1930s, Zeb Vance Hooker and his family became the first settlers in modern-day Lake Clarke Shores by squatting in a wooden shack on land by the southeast side of Lake Clarke. In 1946, Patsy Renolds built a house where Antigua Road stands today and is the oldest home in Lake Clarke Shores. By the late 1940s, local attorney Walter Travers visited the area and bought the lakeshore properties from their respective owners. Travers then attempted to buy land which had been drained during the construction of the West Palm Beach Canal in the 1910s. The state of Florida initially denied his request. However, after meeting with the Trustees of the Internal Improvement Fund in Tallahassee, the board offered Travers the land for $300 per acre. Travers partially agreed but attempted to negotiate a lesser cost for land at lower elevations. The state then decided to auction the land. Travers was the only bidder and obtained 250 acres (100 ha) of land on the northwest periphery of the lake for $10,000, which a friend loaned to him. After obtaining $5,000 for an unrelated lawsuit settlement, Travers invested that money into his project to transform the area into a waterfront community and brought in dredging equipment in 1949. The fledgling community initially grew very slowly, with just three homes built by 1952. One reason for the slow growth was the lack of a bridge across the West Palm Beach Canal. Palm Beach County Commissioner Lake Lytal convinced the county commission to approve the building of a bridge, knowing that Travers intended to contribute $10,000 to its construction. The bridge, completed in 1953, connected Selby Road and Forest Hill Boulevard (State Road 882) – with the entirety of the road becoming Forest Hill Boulevard – and resulted in a quicker increase in development and population.

Rumors spread that West Palm Beach planned to annex the area, prompting 60 people to form the Lake Clarke Property Owners’ Association in 1955. The association first met at a private residence, before meeting regularly at Meadow Park Elementary School. After reaching consensus on the name Lake Clarke Shores, residents met there on April 10, 1956, to decide on incorporation. Because the Florida Legislature did not meet in 1956, incorporation would have to be supported by two-thirds of voters. A total of 117 votes were cast, with 113 in favor and 4 in opposition to incorporating. Thus, the motion succeeded. William H. McLaughlin was unanimously selected to be the first mayor of Lake Clarke Shores, while Horace J. Cunningham, William M. Diemer, Robert G. Hillbert, Charles G. Platt, and Frank M. Seay served as the town’s first aldermen. Other elected officials included Betty Diemer as town clerk, William H. Blythe as town marshal, and John Farrell as town attorney.