September 12, 1923 Highlander
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Last updated 9/13/2023 at 1:21pm
Courtesy Lake Wales Public Library archives
A 52.3 percent increase in student numbers at the Lake Wales schoolhouse demonstrates the amazing growth rate experienced by the new town of Lake Wales during its early years. Total school enrollment reached 396 students at the start of the 1923-24 school year. Lake Wales, born of an idea in 1911, had been incorporated in 1917 by the State of Florida. Within a ten-year period the growing community experienced a ten-fold increase in population, rising from 500 to 5000 by the end of the Great Florida Land Boom, which collapsed in 1926.
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.
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