Tuesday, March 29, 2011

History of the city of Lakeland, Florida


Many people would love to know about the history of a city that they want to go into. This will be their baseline of making their decisions whether it is worth spending time and money in visiting places. With Lakeland, Florida, they will never be disappointed.

Like almost all of the cities in Florida, Lakeland City’s first inhabitants were Native American Indians. They lived in the city until the Spanish explorers have arrived and invaded the place in the 16th century. These Northern settlers have made their way to establish a community in the city during the Civil War and they survived the war with farming and taking care of herds and cattle. Many military forts have been established in the area and were aided with beef products and agricultural crops in order for them to survive. A lot supported these military troops thus bringing them a market, peace and stability in the area.

A man named Abraham Munn purchased 80 acres of land in Lakeland City in the year 1882. He was originally from Louisville, Kentucky. Lakeland was named as such because it is well-known for having many lakes; Abraham Munn started the incorporation of the city in the year 1885. The city’s economic and tourism development was strengthened upon this incorporation success. Tremont Hotel was built in the year 1885 by Munn and was then considered to be one of the best hotels ever built in South Florida.

In the agriculture line of history, H.S. Galloway has made a great achievement in raising a very profitable kind of strawberry crops that further gave progress in the city. Because of this event, Lakeland was known to be the largest supplier of strawberry crops in the whole state of Florida at that time.

Another historical landmark was when the erection of a light plant was established in the city. It was established by the Lakeland Light and Power Company in the year 1891. Because of this, Lakeland came third of those cities who have been installed with electric lights in the whole state.

Construction of Renaissance type of buildings and houses were constructed in the latter part of 1920s. Some of these buildings have survived the wars and are still standing today. They could be sighted at Munn Historic District. There were many other innovations that have happened that opened the doors of Lakeland Florida to trading and commercialization brought by the high technology age that we are in. Most of the time, people tend to gather every bit of information that they could get just to see to it that they are in the verge of collecting all the famous historical stories that will build up the whole history of one great place like Lakeland in Florida.

Due to many modern things that have happened today, people are now trying to walk into the past of Lakeland city by just visiting the place and touring around the area. This will let them know how beautiful the place have been in spite of the many innovations that have helped the city to rise and have its own story of successes. 


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