Lake Park is a town in

Palm Beach County, Florida Palm Beach County is a county in the southeastern part of Florida, located in the Miami metropolitan area. It is Florida's third-most populous county after Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade County and Broward County, Florida, Broward County ...

, United States. Lake Park is part of the

Miami metropolitan area The Miami metropolitan area is a coastal metropolitan area in southeastern Florida. It is the sixth-largest metropolitan statistical area (MSA) in the United States, the fifth-largest metropolitan area in the Southern United States, and the lar ...

South Florida South Florida, sometimes colloquially shortened to SoFlo, is the Regions of the United States#Florida, southernmost region of the U.S. state of Florida. It is one of Florida's three most commonly referred to directional regions; the two others are ...

. The population was 9,047 at the 2020 US census.

Geography

Lake Park is located at (26.800389, –80.064237). According to the

United States Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau, officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the Federal statistical system, U.S. federal statistical system, responsible for producing data about the American people and American economy, econ ...

, the town has a total area of , of which is land and (7.66%) is water.

History

In 1923, it was officially incorporated as The Town of Kelsey City. It was originally named after Boston entrepreneur Harry Seymour Kelsey, after he purchased north of

West Palm Beach West Palm Beach is a city in and the county seat of Palm Beach County, Florida, United States. It is located immediately to the west of the adjacent Palm Beach, Florida, Palm Beach, which is situated on a barrier island across the Lake Worth Lag ...

. The town was renamed The Town of Lake Park in 1939, and it was the first zoned municipality in the State of Florida. It was designed and planned by Dr. John Nolan of

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...

, and the

Olmsted Brothers The Olmsted Brothers company was a Landscape architecture, landscape architectural firm in the United States, established in 1898 by brothers John Charles Olmsted (1852–1920) and Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. (1870–1957), sons of the landscape ar ...

, the landscaping firm of

Frederick Law Olmsted Frederick Law Olmsted (April 26, 1822 – August 28, 1903) was an American landscape architect, journalist, Social criticism, social critic, and public administrator. He is considered to be the father of landscape architecture in the U ...

's sons, Frederick Jr. and

John Charles William John Charles (27 December 1931 – 21 February 2004) was a Welsh association football, footballer who played as a centre-forward or as a centre-back. Best known for his first stint at Leeds United F.C., Leeds United and Juventus FC, Ju ...

. Since then, the boundaries of Lake Park have expanded to of residential, business, industrial and mixed-use land. The Lake Park Town Hall, constructed in 1927 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places, survived the 1928 Okeechobee hurricane and served as a shelter for town residents during the storm.

Demographics

2020 census

As of the 2020 United States census, there were 9,047 people, 2,733 households, and 1,759 families residing in the town.

2010 census

As of the 2010 United States census, there were 8,155 people, 2,751 households, and 1,785 families residing in the town.

2000 census

As of the

census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...

of 2000, there were 8,721 people, 3,346 households, and 2,024 families residing in the town. The population density was . There were 3,650 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the town was 41.26%

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...

(38% were

Non-Hispanic White Non-Hispanic Whites, also referred to as White Anglo Americans or Non-Latino Whites, are White Americans who are classified by the United States census as "White" and not of Hispanic or Latino origin. According to annual estimates from the Unit ...

), 48.80%

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

, 0.34% Native American, 2.89% Asian, 1.27% from other races, and 5.44% from two or more races.

Hispanic The term Hispanic () are people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or broadly. In some contexts, Hispanic and Latino Americans, especially within the United States, "Hispanic" is used as an Ethnici ...

or Latino of any race were 5.80% of the population. As of 2000, there were 3,346 households, out of which 31.0% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 37.1% were married couples living together, 16.7% had a female householder with no husband present, and 39.5% were non-families. 29.3% of all households were made up of individuals, and 9.0% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.58 and the average family size was 3.28. In 2000, in the town, the population was spread out, with 26.6% under the age of 18, 9.4% from 18 to 24, 32.8% from 25 to 44, 18.5% from 45 to 64, and 12.8% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 34 years. For every 100 females, there were 96.3 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 95.1 males. In 2000, the median income for a household in the town was $33,983, and the median income for a family was $37,047. Males had a median income of $26,476 versus $23,518 for females. The

per capita income Per capita income (PCI) or average income measures the average income earned per person in a given area (city, region, country, etc.) in a specified year. In many countries, per capita income is determined using regular population surveys, such ...

for the town was $18,212. About 12.5% of families and 16.8% of the population were below the

poverty line The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line, or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for ...

, including 28.8% of those under age 18 and 12.3% of those age 65 or over. As of 2000, speakers of English as a

first language A first language (L1), native language, native tongue, or mother tongue is the first language a person has been exposed to from birth or within the critical period hypothesis, critical period. In some countries, the term ''native language'' ...

accounted for 76.01% of all residents, while French Creole made up 13.11%,

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...

was at 5.83%, French consisted of 2.35%,

Vietnamese Vietnamese may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Vietnam, a country in Southeast Asia * Vietnamese people, or Kinh people, a Southeast Asian ethnic group native to Vietnam ** Overseas Vietnamese, Vietnamese people living outside Vietna ...

made up 1.34%, and Chinese as a

mother tongue A first language (L1), native language, native tongue, or mother tongue is the first language a person has been exposed to from birth or within the critical period. In some countries, the term ''native language'' or ''mother tongue'' refers ...

made up 0.59% of the population. As of 2000, Lake Park had the sixth highest percentage of Haitian residents in the US, with 14.50% of the populace. It also had the nineteenth highest percentage of Jamaican residents in the US, at 5.80% of the town's population (tied with the Carol City section of

Miami Gardens Miami Gardens is a city in north-central Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States. It is a suburb of Miami and located north of downtown Miami with city boundaries that stretch from I-95 and Northeast 2nd Avenue to its east to Northwest 47th ...

Libraries

The Lake Park Library is a public library at 529 Park Avenue, Lake Park, FL 33403. It was founded by the Lake Park Woman's Club in 1962, and it was established on the Town Hall's second floor. Ownership of the library was transferred from the Woman's Club to the town, and it was relocated in 1969 to a new building next door, where it currently resides. The growing population and book collection led to the creation of a meeting room and a separate children's room by 1990. Thereafter, rapid transformations in the library's services and the diversification of library materials led to expanding the building from December 1999 to October 2000. The library provides a variety of services and events including storytimes for children, homework assistance, programs for adults, public computers with internet access, and access to two study rooms.

References

External links

Town of Lake Park
Official website
Lake Park Marina
Official website {{authority control Towns in Palm Beach County, Florida Towns in Florida Populated places on the Intracoastal Waterway in Florida