Wednesday, February 5, 2020

From the archives: The former Casino Building at Lake Worth Beach c. 1935.


Click on plat to enlarge:

An interesting look back at the beach in Lake Worth Beach. Note the orientation of the Casino property plat, the “Boulevard” and the parking in front of the former Casino.


This is a cool piece of history that I recently found. It is dated 1935 and is a plat drawing of the Casino building area on the Atlantic Ocean. A few important things to note. Its purpose was to show the location and connection for new wells when the pool at the beach was saltwater. It shows the location of the pumphouse at the beach which drew saltwater to fill the pool. All this was south of the tunnel that went under A1A along with the boardwalk along the eastern side of the road. Notice the limited parking area and the L shape of the building.

The western wing contained locker rooms and lasted until the ‘new’ pool was constructed in 1971. Then check out how nigh the waters of Lake Worth Lagoon are to the Casino. That waterway is now referred to as the Intracoastal Waterway.

Following the disastrous 1947 hurricane plans were put in place to fill the area west of the Casino building. That is where the main parking lot is today. It is also the new location of A1A, or South Ocean Boulevard as the locals refer to it. The area west of A1A north of Lake Ave. wasn’t created yet by infill. Condominiums run along the west side of the roadway along the Intracoastal where there was only a brackish lagoon before.

Recognizing the historic significance of the beach property the former City of Lake Worth is now called the City of Lake Worth Beach — a name change by voter referendum in March 2019 — making the case once again the one constant in this City is constant change.