The Cottages of Lake Worth Home Tour 2019 is tomorrow, “Rain Or Shine”.

Just don’t expect much ‘Shine’ tomorrow much like what happened — as chance would have it — at the Home Tour almost exactly two years ago. Read more about that rainy, cold, and windswept day later in this blog post. Recall it felt more like a bad day in Maine than a normal day in South Florida.

But what will truly surprise all of you: The number of no-shows that Sunday in late January 2017. Really. You won’t believe how many who bought tickets did not show up. Absolutely amazing given the weather conditions.


FYI: If you purchased a ticket for the Cottages of Lake Worth Home Tour tomorrow please come prepared with a waterproof hat, comfortable rain gear, and walking shoes for a rainy day.

Remember, the tour tomorrow is SOLD OUT. For those with tickets the tour is from 11:00 a.m.–4:00 in the afternoon. Tour check-in is The Beach Club bistro (the City’s municipal golf course on the Intracoastal) at #1 7th Ave. North.


Also in this blog post today is more about The Cottages of Lake Worth going back to 2013 and the role former Palm Beach Post reporter Lona O’Connor played in The Cottages story, how a book about these historic cottages came to be, about our friendly rivalry with Delray Beach, what role I-95 plays in all this and much more information as well.

The chances of rain tomorrow will be very high. Would encourage everyone to use the app called “Ventusky” to plan ahead, e.g., if you plan on walking around the Downtown after the tour or going to Lake Worth Beach to watch the ocean for a while. Once you learn how to use Ventusky you’ll never need another source for current and future weather activity. It really is that good once you customize the site for your specific needs.

As to the question people are wondering.

Will rainy weather dampen the excitement at the Home Tour tomorrow? Of course not. We’ve been through this before. A story that could perfectly begin with the line,

“It ‘twas a dark and windy
and dreary day.”

In January 2017 everyone involved in the Home Tour that year was affixed to weather reports all weekend starting Friday. It looked bad. Real bad. But then as Sunday morning approached it became worse than bad. The temperature plummeted and it got dark. Real dark. The kind of dark that stays around for a long time. Then the rain came with slow rolling clouds. It rained all morning long and most of the afternoon too. Sometimes sideways.

As time clicked down for the tour to begin everyone at tour check-in wondered who would come out on a day like this? Five hundred tickets were sold for the tour. We were worried about no-shows that dreary morning.

There were only thirty no-shows that day.
Not kidding: 30.

That’s right. Just thirty no-shows out of five hundred tickets sold. All the volunteers working the tour that day just looked at each other with the same expression. Unbelievable.

One of the most memorable comments from that day came from a woman who asked me how many tours there are every year of the cottages. I said, “Just one.” She seemed surprised and suggested there should be more throughout the year.

Planning for the tour in 2017 began after the highly successful event in 2016, the very first Cottages of Lake Worth Home Tour. In its first year “The Cottages” Board decided to limit ticket sales to three hundred. The event sold out many weeks prior to the event taking many by surprise.

The surprise being how many people bought tickets from surrounding communities and others from far west in Wellington and Royal Palm (without an actual beach), north from Palm Beach Gardens and Jupiter, and others south from Delray Beach and Boca Raton too.

The tour in 2017 focused on the Bryant Park and South Palm Park neighborhoods. This area makes up the South Palm Park local historic district. A total of sixteen cottages participated. The number of tickets was increased to a maximum of five hundred and sold out quickly once again. The tour check-in was at the east porch of the Gulfstream Hotel.

And sad to report, nothing much has changed at this historic hotel. And can boldly say this. Patience has run out. Not just for the Gulfstream but for a new hotel in the Downtown.

But anyhow, back to what happened in 2017.

One of the trolleys that rainy and cold day.

 The public came prepared!

A rare day in Lake Worth, Florida: Rain and cold all day long. But it didn’t dampen the enthusiasm or interest for those attending the 2nd Annual Cottages Home Tour.

Your’s Truly, Wes, was a volunteer guide on one of the trolleys. People from all over Palm Beach County offered rave reviews of the event, the cottages, and the food as well along the way. There were many Lake Worth residents that took part as well, some having moved here recently, one or two years prior. They used the tour as a way to get to know more about the City of Lake Worth.

There was one lady who identified herself as a sixty-two year resident of Lake Worth and she was thrilled to learn more about the City and pleased to be taking part in the tour. I took pleasure in some Delray Beach residents who expressed how much they wished their city still had the feel they experienced during their time in Lake Worth.

By the way, the mention of Garlic Fest didn’t go over too well with those from Delray. That extremely popular festival was moved from downtown Delray Beach to John Prince Park just outside the City of Lake Worth. By the way, this year’s Garlic Fest will be held on the weekend of February 9th and 10th.

But I digress.

It was also good to see a large group of people from Boynton Beach as well back in 2017. Some of them attended a presentation to the Boynton Beach Historical Society a few weeks earlier about The Cottages of Lake Worth.

The Gulfstream Hotel aside it’s hard not to get enthusiastic about our City’s future. But also of note the historic Gulfstream is not a ‘Lake Worth’ issue. It’s a regional one.

So many people two years ago who attended the Cottages Home Tour were so terribly disappointed this historic hotel has not reopened. Some suggested that maybe “cleaning house” at City Hall might be the solution and others wondering what if anything the Cultural Council of Palm Beach County located in Downtown Lake Worth is actually doing to draw investors and potential developers. Good questions. And frankly, how many murals is enough? After a while more paint on another wall is just more paint on another wall.

Three years after the first Cottages Home Tour in 2016 the Gulfstream Hotel remains shuttered. But West Palm (without a beach) and the Town of Palm Beach continue to benefit from events in the City of Lake Worth. One can understand the frustration from residents and the business community.


Moving on. . .

About tomorrow’s Cottages of Lake Worth
Home Tour 2019.

This blog post is a tribute to former Palm Beach Post journalist Lona O’Connor who played a major role in The Cottages of Lake Worth story back in November 2013.

O’Connor, since retired, made a true and lasting impact on this City.

And later in this blog post, published in a recent Lake Worth Herald, is a feature story about tomorrow’s tour.

It was the initial story by Lona O’Connor in the Post five years ago about a group of resident volunteers that set things in motion for The Cottages. . .

“Among the group’s plans are to set up a cottage website, a Facebook page, cottage driving tours, street signs directing people to cottages, maps and brochures with historical information and anecdotes and, with the permission of the owners, feature a few cottages in home tours.

“The photos could be incorporated into a coffee-table book, [Roger] Hendrix said.”

—Quote source: Lona O’Connor, Palm Beach Post, news datelined November 10th, 2013.

“The photos could be incorporated into a coffee-table book. . .”

Then three years later. . .

The hardcover book in 2016.
Then a second printing in 2017.

The Cottages of Lake Worth Home Tour 2019 offered a combined tour/book ticket. That became news in The Lake Worth Herald.

From the feature story:

The Cottages of Lake Worth Tour is scheduled for Sunday, Jan. 27, 2019 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. and will include 10+ cottages, along with appetizers, refreshments and trolleys. Attendees will visit the interiors and gardens of select Cottages in the Eden Place and Mango Groves areas of the City.*


Note: To follow the Cottages of Lake Worth on Facebook use this link. The news in the Herald continues. . .



City of Lake Worth volunteers formed a Cottages of Lake Worth organization in 2013 to promote this unique housing with the goals of encouraging tourism and the improvement of the properties.

Cottages are predominantly smaller houses that may serve as guest, holiday, vacation, or primary residence. They can be of any number of architectural styles, but in Lake Worth styles include Mission Revival, Frame Vernacular, Masonry Vernacular, Bahamian, Craftsman, Art Moderne, Art Deco and Contemporary. They can be of either one or one and half story in a simple form and massing. Many of Lake Worth’s approximately 1,000 cottages are on 25′ lots, under 1,000 square feet and built prior to 1939 and others after World War II.

After Henry Flagler extended his rail line south from West Palm Beach to Miami in 1896, a land development scheme was created for a town between the railroad and the lake. Purchasers of agricultural lots west of town received a 25′ wide lot within the City of Lake Worth, closer to the beach. Development slowed down then started again after World War II with many modest pensioners, especially from Quebec, Finland, and eventually Germany, moving to the city and building cottages.

The mission of the Cottages of Lake Worth is to educate the citizens and visitors of Palm Beach County through a variety of programs by celebrating and promoting the history of these unique structures and its people, assuring that this legacy is passed on to future generations.



Many of the cottages on this upcoming tour are featured in The Cottages of Lake Worth book. This City is home to over 1,000 historic cottages, the largest concentration of historic cottages in Florida, and located within minutes of the spectacular Lake Worth Beach.

Of note: Sorry to say, but The Cottages of Lake Worth home tours are not apropos for children or pets.

This year’s tour will feature the Eden Place and Mango Groves neighborhoods north of the Downtown.

The tour begins from The Beach Club bistro located at the City’s municipal golf course. About the neighborhoods Eden Place and Mango Groves:

The Mango Groves and Eden Place neighborhoods are two of the fourteen-member Neighborhood Assoc. Presidents’ Council (NAPC). To see where these two neighborhoods are located click on this link for interactive GIS map.

“Our Neighborhoods have Boundaries. Our Commitment to Each Other Does Not” is the motto of the NAPC. To learn more about the Mango Groves neighborhood, their goals and photos of “Merry Merry from Mango Mango!” click on this link.

For more details about the Eden Place neighborhood use this link.

For those who wish to learn more about
The Cottages of Lake Worth.

Last September there was a tour of this City’s historic cottages taken by the Florida chapter of the American Planning Association (APA) from their annual conference in West Palm, the municipality to the north without a beach.

The tour taken by APA members included the Lake Worth Historical Museum, historic cottages south of the Downtown, and spending time with City officials including Mayor Pam Triolo and Lauren Bennett from the Dept. of Leisure Services. And of course Helen Greene at the Historical Museum.

Many planners on that tour were surprised to learn that West Palm ‘Beach’ does not have a beach!

In conclusion, debunking one of the biggest myths of all.

Our City of Lake Worth and the City of Delray Beach have had a friendly rivalry for a very long time. But that oft-used line about Lake Worth ‘becoming another Delray’ is a complete myth. It could never happen. And there are several reasons why which include geography, western annexation, population, and most significantly, where the exits off I-95 are located.

To learn more about what those reasons are click on this link and more about “comparing apples to oranges”.

Hope all this information inspires you to become part of The Cottages of Lake Worth Home Tour on January 27th.


And if you are interested in learning more about The Cottages, a video with more information. . .

From back in November 2014 is a YouTube video, an interview of Your’s Truly with radio host Allan Mason at WBZT: